Don’t like them at all either.
They are ok with my Bernards snuffs until I can get a proper German ceramic snuff bottle. For everything else, they are worthless (though some are more worthless than others)
Every one of the coarse snuffs I just got in the plastic dispensers needs rehydrating before I even try them. I guess the plastic dispensers are okay for dry snuffs, or snuffs which are not moistened with water, but otherwise I think I have had enough of them. Even rusty tins were more airtight! In future I will only be getting SG snuffs in bulk. That way they will be fresh and as moist as they should be. Okay, so it will limit what I have on hand, but I’d rather have a few fresh snuffs than a myriad of stale, dried out snuffs.
I wish I had thought of this sooner: the edge of a sharp knife worked along the seam of the container will soon have it opened, And then it’s the work of a moment to clear the slider and it’s off to the races! Given that the average age of a snuffer might tend towards the stiff and arthritic I really wonder why this container reared it’s ugly head. I’m permanently solving the problem by ordering a couple of half-pounders from S.Gawith!
Dam right they are evil!! One time at band camp…I opened a tap box snuff and the dam thing jumped at my thumb and tore a hole in the end of it. Then it hung on and started sucking all the blood out of my hand and arm. It took the fire dept almost an hour to get that thing to release. Then they had to have animal control capture it, cage it and haul it off. I heard later that the dam thing almost escaped to harm another innocent soul. They finally got it into a blender and destroyed it humanly. I amost died for a lousy hit of snuff. true story
Yes they are, agreed. If you can’t pinch from them they are no use. And the thing is, if they hinged them they would make fantatsic cheap snuff boxes.
Opened a tap box today and couldn’t get anything out of there, so decided to empty the box to spare tin. And this was Bernard’s Amostrinha, somewhat sturdier than most of tap boxes. Managed to spill a lot. And this snuff is one the best to pinch!
If all the sky was paper and all the sea was ink there would not be space enough to express condemnation of these hideous plastic samplers. Even tins sealed with tape are better. Manufactures like Samuel Gawith go to extremes to control moisture in snuff so that it is perfect. Why - in heaven’s name - then package samples in containers that are not airtight? All non-paraffin-based snuffs will quickly dry out in these woeful plastic efforts. It’s tempting to think of this as classic British stupidity, but it seems that our German cousins at Bernard are equally dim. My son made me a welcome gift of SG snuff several months ago and for good measure also threw in a dozen or so of these hideous new samplers. Each in turn was opened, tested and immediately dropped into the bin, as the contents were stale. In my experience dry and dusty snuff can’t be satisfactorily re-hydrated any more than dry and used tea leaves will make a decent cuppa. But in any case, why should customers even have to contemplate re-hydration? Now, if samples are egregious then customers are not likely to make a purchase - which is unfortunate, as Samuel Gawith snuffs are wonderful when fresh by the drum.
@ Philip S: I hope Samuel Gawith read that. I wonder if they realize the blunder they have made. They must have joined with Bernard to get a combined deal on those dispensers. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea to them at the time. There seems to be a friendship between the two companies judging from their websites. Bernards at least (except for my poor dried out Kownoer) have a significantly longer shelf life. Kownoer at the least should go back to its glass bottle.
I hope so too, Alexander, although I’ve yet to receive a reply regarding my complaint last December. You may well be right concerning a combined dispenser deal. One of my gift samples duplicated a drum (London Brown). Shook out about half the contents onto paper for examination. The flour which hadn’t dried out had congealed and hardened into shotgun-pellets, which are better suited for loading a 12-bore than a nose. The contents of the Scotch Black should, in theory, be impossible to dispense from the plastic thingy. As it was the bone-dry contents poured into the bin as easily as sand falls from an hour-glass. Cob Dark, Princes Special and all the others followed suit. Other than a few 25 gram tins of Irish I buy all my snuff by the drum. Opened drums are decanted into empty F&T tins from which my snuffbox is replenished daily. There is never any issue about freshness, drying, storage, etc. I checked the cost of the new samplers and they are about £1.30 for 10 miserable grams of tobacco dust swept from the factory floor. The dozen that were gifted therefore totalled 120 grams for £15.60. One can buy 250 grams of good fresh snuff for less than that. The object lesson, in my opinion, is never waste your money on ’snuff’ from a tap box unless you happen to like fluffy paraffin based Pöschl or ground up portions of Tutankhamun. All else is sweetness wasted on the desert air
I’ve had the same experience with the dispensers, but much more rarely with the old tins. However, rather than throw them away I decided to use them for rehydration experiments. One method in particular has worked very well, though it should be noted that the snuffs weren’t totally dry but just about getting to that stage. Some were close to that “shotgun pellet” condition. I transferred the snuff to an empty 25g Toque tin and then lightly sprayed a mist of water on top of the snuff using an old glass hay fever nasal spray bottle. By removing the thin plastic tube that goes down to the bottom of the bottle, which normally enables it to be used upright, you can use it upside down. The tube just pulls out. It’s like this but in glass. 
With the lid of the tin back on I let it sit for a hour or so and then gave it a good shake. The snuff was pretty well back to what it should have been. Soft and fluffy and very tasty. I did this with London Brown, Black Rappee, Scotch Black, Scotch, Cob Dark and Princes Dark, all with excellent results. Much faster than any other method I have tried and it gives even results as the water goes onto the snuff as a mist.
My neglected Scotch Black will have to be rehydrated, and it came that way I might add. Love the scent, but there’s something about it that is no good…compared to baking a pack of smokes in a vehicle than trying to smoke them when they are “crispy” i suppose…its just not the same.
Once you rehydrate it, it should spruce right up.
I rehydrated both my Scotch Black and Black Rappee, using the evaporation method (takes longer than ermtony’s method- like a day or two). They were both like PhilipS’s buckshot in their boxes prior to that. Now they are nice and moist. I transferred them to empty Wilson’s tins. I think they will keep a bit longer there. They both still have a strong scent.