Yesterday I followed the advice of this excellent thread, which I don’t think was around when I was last using snuff. I used a damaged cuban cigar and a pestle and mortar to grind roughly a third of a cup of flour, seived with a tea strainer. Didn’t have any washing soda so I used bicarb…maybe a bit less than the amount given, and salt…about half as much…in the two teaspoons of water. Today I added about 2/3 of a teaspoon of Pusser’s Rum, my favourite tipple (when I can afford it). I have to say that the results are pretty darned fine, and would be even better if I could find a way to turn the flavour dial up an extra notch. I do have some questions though, which may have been answered elsewhere so apologies if I am asking things that have already been covered. 1) Will tobaccos that have already been fermented like cigar and pipe tobaccos undergo another fermentation when you grind them and add moisture? My guess is that they would eventually, if stored in an airtight container, but that you won’t see any short term changes in the character of the snuff. 2) I get that the sodium carbonate is there to help with nicotine uptake. Being a salt, the salt should also help to create an alkaline environment. However, wouldn’t these additives (especially the salt) serve to kill off the micro-organisms responsible for fermentation? 3) Is it really okay to add essential oils directly to snuff? I have quite a few essential oils that I could experiment with, but I would have thought the volatile components of the oils could be quite irritating to the mucous membranes? That’s all for now, and apologies again if I am covering old ground…I have quite a bit of pipe tobacco cellared away, so I am now getting ideas about coverting some of it to snuff!
Bearing in mind that I’m woefully underqualified here… For 1) I know pipe tobacco continues to undergo slow fermentation provided it retains a certain amount of moisture, lots of people like to age their favorite pipe tobaccos and I think the same process goes behind ageing cigars in a humidor. But I have no idea to what extent the alkaline environment would inhibit or alter further fermentation. Some microorganisms favor an alkaline environment, and IIRC tobacco fermentation itself produces ammonia, raising the pH. For 3) abraxas has said that often you just add essential oils directly to the snuff and blend them in.
I don’t use any ‘essential oils’ in my snuffs - anything I’ve said about direct addition of flavourings relates to flavourings or sauces in general. My understanding of essential oils is that they are used in aromatherapy and can be potentially harmful if ingested. I can’t give any advice on using them and strongly recommend you do some in depth research before you experiment with them. There is a very good and detailed article about home snuff making by Juxtaposer, which should be in the FAQ section which goes into all of these issues.
Ah my bad, I misunderstood your post. OP there’s a thread on snuff flavoring here: http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/3390/the-definitive-snuff-flavoring-technique-thread
My understanding of essential oils is that they are used in aromatherapy and can be potentially harmful if ingested.
This is what I thought too. A friend of mine has some basic training in aromatherapy and based on what he has said about the safe use of different essential oils I was rather skeptical, although Juxtaposer does mention direct addition of essential oils. Still, I am nervous about it and was hoping someone could state definitively that it is okay, provided it is one with a degree of common sense!
OP there’s a thread on snuff flavoring here: http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/3390/the-definitive-snuff-flavoring-technique-thread
Ah-ha! Thank you, Horus92! I hadn’t seen this one. Clearly it deserves a study.
I am still learning about snuff but tobacco in itself has the unique ability to absorb moisture. So it would be reasonable with the proper moisture and temperature for it to still age almost like the cigar but probably a lot slower since it is now particle versus cut leaf Just a thought
@Abraxas & @Roderick have both stated in several threads that they only use natural products and as I have seen the products have never seemed to be any less than what they say Thank You Gentleman for great works
Welcome to my world, my hobby anyway. I see you have put a decent effort in and I congratulate you. You will learn a lot from your experience and may come to appreciate the snuffs of the world (now available) in a new light. I suspect your rum will be more noticeable after about a week or so. Here are some of my thoughts regarding your questions. 1; Fermentation and aging is more important for smoking tobaccos than for snuff though there are scent profiles that can be achieved through these that do come through in snuffs. Keep in mind that the flavonoids produced by fermentation are waste products of bacteria and there is a fine line to over-fermentation where scent profiles may turn in an unwanted direction. A decrease in nicotine content will also be found in these processes though not by much. I have found snuff that I have made with youthful tobacco to have more and better tobacco flavor profiles. Generally tobacco will exponentially slow its “fermentation” depending on its environment. I would not expect much change in a well developed cigar tobacco which should by now be very mild in scent. 2; Yes, salts will not necessarily kill but certainly slow microbial activity. This is good in that you will be able to lock in a certain flavor profile. If you want fermentation or anaerobic activity you should not add the salts but you can add casings some which may stimulate certain changes especially sugars. Heat WILL kill most bacteria but there may still be some anaerobic aging potential left. 3; You MUST research the oils you intend to come in contact with those sensitive membranes in the nose. Some are fine, even beneficial, others can cause minor irritation. Allergic reactions, toxicity with prolonged exposure, side effects, and poisoning among other things should also be considered. Scenting indirectly may help mitigate dangers but does not guarantee the elimination of unwanted results. That being said, trial by error works well and most of the really dangerous stuff is banned and difficult to obtain. Cheers
Welcome to my world, my hobby anyway.
I’ve got a couple of questions for ya if you don’t mind: 1.) Where do you get your tobacco? 2.) What are the qualities of the different tobaccos out there? The “Virginia snuff” I made is so very very sweet, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a sweet snuff before. I like it but I’d love to make something earthier some day. I really like barnyard scents like the kind you find in Dholakia White/Black and SG Kendall Brown. What kinds of tobaccos are used in most British snuffs?
Surprisingly I got my favorite pound from Amazon.com. I don’t see it available at this time though. I know E-Bay had hands of leaf sold as “decorative”. Wholeleaf.com and Leafonly.com have whole leaf tobacco. As of yet there is no tax on unprocessed whole leaf tobacco. For smokers this means that some kilning or aging must be done but for snuff, whole leaf that has been color cured as is sold as this whole leaf tobacco is awesome. There are different strains of tobacco and there are different curing methods. On top of that there are several methods of “fermentation” or aging. Particular tobacco types have their most popular curing methods and particular product types (ciggs, cigars, dip, chew, snus, snuff) prefer particular curing processes. So particular product types normally end up using particular tobacco types. This sounds more complicated than it is. There are a few popular basic combinations that would be good to use as reference in judging characteristics like; flue cured Virginia (smoking), fire cured or dark fired (Burley), sun cured Oriental, air cured cigar tobacco (Burley) Did you read the thread that @TheBoggart referred to? Any way here is a page that will give you an idea as to what type of tobacco goes into some snuffs. http://www.sheffieldexchange.com/nasal.htm
3; You MUST research the oils you intend to come in contact with those sensitive membranes in the nose. Some are fine, even beneficial, others can cause minor irritation. Allergic reactions, toxicity with prolonged exposure, side effects, and poisoning among other things should also be considered. Scenting indirectly may help mitigate dangers but does not guarantee the elimination of unwanted results. That being said, trial by error works well and most of the really dangerous stuff is banned and difficult to obtain.
Just to add to this bit, essential oils which are sold for aromatherapy are often applied to skin either directly or indirectly (with a carrier oil as a barrier). So some may be dangerous or irritating when used directly on skin and or membranes and often carry warnings with them. However, if one is mixing a large quantity of snuff a few small drops of almost any essential oil are unlikely to cause any unpleasantness. The scents are highly concentrated and a little goes a long way. In other words the amount becomes very diluted in a large batch of snuff. Having said that, any home scenting done on small batches of snuff with EO’s should be done indirectly. A saturated cotton swab end placed in a container with snuff is usually sufficient to scent 25 to 50g of snuff depending on the particular oil. I err on the side of caution and don’t let the swap touch the snuff directly, a make a divot in it and allow the scent to be absorbed through evaporation.
fermentatiın can occure without bacterias(there is a research about it). I don’t fermentate snuffs but by the time it may take place without my knowladge. I use concentrated man made oils. The amount is too little to harm i think (1/10 of a drop for 5 grams) but i heard that jasmine and musk are dengerous.
Thank you, Juxtaposer and Xander. I feel like I have a better understanding of how to proceed. I probably won’t be scenting this particular snuff any further, but I am already planning my next batch…I have absolutely oodles of blending latakia, perique and dark fired VA sitting in jars. Some of that has got to be good for a snuff or two 
You might also want to decant your experiments and revisit them in a couple of weeks. You might be surprised to find that they had changed. I did some snuff infused with mint and the mint was light but after a couple of weeks, the mint started coming forward in a heavier note
@TheBoggart pure perique makes an awesome and unique snuff, there is no snuff like it on the market today. I’ve been thinking about making a large batch of it, print out some personalized labels and sending them out to fellow members, no time for that now though maybe in a year or two.
@MathheFox - thanks mate. Btw, my rule for snuff flavourings is always that if you can not drink or eat it I don’t use it.
here is reciepe of the snuff made by turkish tobacco products factory owned by the goverment. Snuff production was stopped due to the little consumption ( only 200kg per year) Translated by google translation sorry for that but i don’t have time for translation. If you have any questions please ask me. As mentioned above, the rough-textured and hard physiological effect is selected tobaccos. These are passed through high temperature drying and cooling rollers. Mixer through targeted sized pulverized. Then it passed through the sieve powders is very fine dust and spray gun cleaning materials. Here are sapalarına mixing and 50% by weight of the dough is formed into powders with water. Subsequently, the mixing tablalarına to pull the water is transferred. The mixture is subjected to grinding and thus the water reservation unit occurs. After resting for a while before the big and then sieved through a sieve with small. Thus, the colors of tobacco dust enfiyelik Thank observed koyulaştığını and turned into particles. This snuff is a state of semi-finished products. Fermentation in order to make sure the appropriate spend should be matured. To accomplish this, semi-finished tobacco 25-30 days cool one’s heels to receive the special barrels filled with 150 -200 kg and the time is completed the fermentation occurs. Then, as that is smaller than the 50-60 kg drums opened and tobacco snuff 'hood is transferred to barrels. This is the barrels to rest for 8-10 days. The second barrel at the end of the process a certain tobaccos are massing together again on the amount of tobacco powder and 10-14% are mixed blend. 1% of the blend according to the process of market carbonate added. A mixture of powder and baking soda in small barrels and then transferred to tobacco again 5-8 days more waiting. For high quality enfiyeler this time 1-1.5 months. As can be seen snuff formation takes a long time such as 2-3 months. This time, in the case of semi-finished products is often necessary to control the snuff. All The purpose of the controls is to pass from the normal fermentation. Any rub the face, ie, escalation or barrels disagreeable odor occurs re-transferred and re-sifted to snuff. Snuff, as well as a normal fermentation by passing its own positive qualities and gaining the appreciation of the consumer with the smell. But here is the consumer tastes I must say that as a trend towards scented snuff. So now, enfiyeler kokulandırılmaktadır almost completely. Snuff Kokulandırılması: kokulandırmada snuff which is often the main heavy essences flower essences is used. For example, cumin, clove, bergamot, and rose water ingredients, such as’ve been to tonga. Today, the composition of Hasankeyf and other tobacco snuff powders produced by monopoly, as well as salt, carbonate, ammonia, cinnamon, bergamot, violet, cumin and cloves are available. For scenting snuff, barrels are for boats. Sort spread in a thin, Over spaced holes 10 are opened and the smell leveled. This process is applied layer by layer, then covered up and left to rest. Once you have a pile of snuff scent thoroughly mas then re-filled barrels. 20-30 Then, boom, held in a normal environment. Thus, processes, and snuff can get a full, packaging is taken. The most important element will be kept on the packaging, the packaging and moisture snuff very good protection. For this purpose, 50 g of snuff 'health is placed in plastic bag, then carton is placed in a package. original link tutuneksper.org.tr/kaynaklar/ders-notlari/harmancilik/138-enfiye-harmani-ve-uretimi
http://mountainroseherbs.com/newsletter/essential\_oils\_handle\_with\_care.php Someone here had posted this link a while ago. Has some good info about essential oils and warnings etc.
@Abraxas Are we related? (Laughing) Our Family passes down the same thought father to son before they go their own way in the world… “If you can’t eat it, drink it, spend it or make love to it… You don’t need it”
I think we must be:)