There is scattered info throughout many threads at Snuffhouse on snuff flavoring techniques and procedures; since this information is not easily found, I think it’s a good idea to have a single focused thread devoted to this topic, discussing the pros and cons of various methods. There are several different ways to flavor snuff. Apparently, some (most?) commercial snuff is flavored by first soaking and then aging the tobacco leaves in a flavor stew prior to milling. How widespread is this approach, and how exactly is it accomplished? I do have 100 grams of Roderick’s rustica leaves that I’m trying to figure out what to do with. What are the commercial snuff mills doing? Are they flavoring raw tobacco leaves for each variety, or are they adding flavor to different types of ground tobacco base? I would guess the latter. As for ground snuff, there is no real consensus on how best to flavor it. Some say that they add essential oils or potable liquor directly to the snuff, while others prefer the indirect method of keeping the snuff in close proximity to the flavoring agent – allowing the tobacco to absorb the scents only. I have tried both methods and am undecided about what is the best approach to take. Really, I think I have no clear idea on how best to do either method. I am not looking to have any trade secrets revealed. I just want to get a more clear idea of the basic techniques.

A complicated subject worthy of contemplation indeed. I will leave my notes here for you all. I may have to edit a few times to complete data and add experience notes. Please whisper me with additions or corrections and suggestions. Here we go…POST IN PROGRESS… @ Grind your main ingredients: Using snuff mill, coffee grinder, blender, chopper, knife, mortar and pestle. The drier the better, remember that when (if) rehydrated the small particles will gain size. @ Sieve: pantyhose, screen, silk, even chaffing with gravity works o.k. ------Main ingredient: Tobacco or herbs; or blends of such. Used as the base ingredients. —Tobacco: Depending on what style of snuff you want. a single tobacco may have outstanding characteristics that may not be able to be duplicated. Very much like single barrel, single malts. Blends will balance and tone the character for a more consistent outcome. -Virginia; high sugar,mostly air or flue cured, also steamed ,ferments and ages exceptionally well - Burley; low sugar , nutty - Oriental; spicy , floral, usually sun cured - Kentucky; moderate nicotine , used as filler - Perique; special fermentation. - Rustica; super high nicotine and other alkaloids, harsh character -Latakia; piney herb smoked -Other: Glauca; no nicotine, other minor alkaloids. rarely used, may be in sheesha, – Tobacco Curing methods; -Sun cured; lighter and sweeter -Flue cured; brown -Fire cured; dark - Air cured; plain - Smoked; as in Latakia --Sweating; to bring out the natural oils --Pressing; intense pressure effects certain beneficial reactions in tobacco. periques, plugs, cakes, twists and ropes provide this pressure to some extent. --Fermenting? as in Perique, also found in aged tobacco, cigar tobacco. It’s not actually fermenting that is going on it is oxidization. Pressure can rupture cells within tobacco which release oxidizers inherent in tobacco.—Herb: non tobacco snuff bases are viable options with unlimited potential, Care must be taken as to any “slow poisoning” effect. Most herbs (as in any plant with an annual or bi-annual life cycle) are safe. Roots, bark, perennial “herbs” require adequate research proofs. -Gota kola; one of the best snuffing herbs there is. research ayurveda. makes a great herb base. -Herbs; sages, mints, chamomile, hemp, echinacea, goldenseal, and most other non-perennial species of such can be used directly in grinds to a large degree. Some perennials like licorice, calamus, orris, saffron, ginger, horseradish, etc. can also be used though studies of reaction symptoms should be done. Other herbs and spices warrant using only small amounts as mentioned in [flavors]. -Corn silk; can be used as a neutral filler of base for the stronger herb snuffs if no tobacco is wanted. - Fructose powder; is used as a base in non-tobacco snuff --Additives: May be used to control the fermentation process, adjust PH balance for free basing nicotine, as preservatives, or to moisturize and texturize snuff. -salts ;sodium bicarbonate (aluminum free) sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, iodine free salt (netti pot salt) sal ammoniac= ammonium chloride -ash; stem or leftover large grind tobacco ashes, fungus ash(not recommended), aloe ash (not recommended) -lime; (not recommended) -humectants; glycerine, propylene glycol, glyceryl triacetate. Other humectants; polyols. sorbitol, xylitol -Oils;; mineral oil, lard, ghee (clarified butter) for oil based snuffs like schmalzlers. @ Flavoring: All the minor ingredients if not used on or with the main ingredients before grinding can be mixed together and added to the snuff as a sauce to rehydrate the base. @ Stir, stir, and stir! --Flavors: Liquors, sugars, juices, herbs, spices, absolutes, oils, extracts, beans, reductions, sauces, masalas, seeds --Scenting: some scents can or should only be used indirectly for scenting snuff. -Flowers; orange, lemon, lime, ginger, plumeria, jasmine, -Beans; vanilla, coffee, tonka, -Leaves; bay, citrus, allspice -Spices; clove, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, can be used indirectly -Incense; amber, --Aging: with or without air, --Storage: airtight and dark with a stable temperature is best for a finished product, Whisper me here to add your junk to my lists please. Will do this anonymously but you can claim it any time.

With regards comment #2, I would be very wary before grinding up any pills and adding to snuff. I would say avoid this, but if you do choose to do it make sure you have thoroughly researched dosage, side effects etc. It would be very difficult to ensure a standard dose and very easy, if you used the snuff long term, to take too much and overuse of vitamins can cause problems in itself. I was found to be B12 deffcient at Xmas and given a supplement by my doctor which made me quite sick - so my advice is don’t do this unless you are a 100% sure what you are doing.

Good call copper, I’ll just edit that out. It never really belonged there, now that you mention it.

I found a somewhat informative report on how Wilsons of Sharrow flavors their snuff. They add their essential oil mixes directly to ground snuff. It is good to get confirmation on their methodology. [quote][color=#66FF33][/b]With the family’s permission, I have listed the blended tobaccos and ‘essential oils’ that are added to create each individual bouquet of Wilson Snuff and Fribourg and Treyer Snuff, yet the ratios will never be exposed to me. Once these ingredients were mixed into a container in the family scenting room, the door was opened and the container was handed to awaiting employee, who poured its contents into the mixing machine. Located on the first floor of mortars and pestles, a large geared water powered barrel, capable of holding 1000 pounds of ‘flour’ (ground, unscented snuff works), was the mixing machine. This water powered barrel simply spun around at a slow revolution, mixing together the family secret ingredients as well as the blends of Burley, Golden Virginian, Flue cures and, sun cures, that create each individual flavor of snuff. A link to the archived Sheffield Exchange website The table on this page listing the natural ingredients of many Wilsons and Fribourg & Treyer snuffs is extremely handy to have.

Samuel Gawith do it the same way, though on a rather smaller scale - I’ve seen it done at the factory.

I wrote and asked for a list including all the snuffs (the one on there is truncated), but they won’t give it; claiming secrecy. I found that odd, since it looks like it was clipped from something that had been published at one time.

I’m moving toward flavor first then grind. Direct for me just makes a royal mess. Indirect is friendly but slower than what I’d prefer. My only concern is drying before grinding. I don’t want to lose expensive flavorings into the air in my shop, I’m also thinking that some flavors, especially oil based ones like florals, might work best if added in a blend step right before packaging. I’m guessing that oils would sit on, rather than infuse into the leaf powder. Hopefully no clumping. Also, this should make an impressive fragrance bloom on opening the tin and provide a lingering nasal fragrance since oil won’t transfer through nasal membrane (at least I think not).

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far from testing. Indirect flavoring is where a highly aromatic flavoring is placed in the same enclosed airspace as tobacco. Since the aromatic scent takes to the air, and tobacco is extremely absorbent of airborne scents, the tobacco picks up the flavor with no direct contact. This is very ideal when the aroma of a plant or other material is non-toxic, but the material itself would be harmful or otherwise detract from the quality of the tobacco. Rose flowers are an example of something where this is useful. Direct flavoring is the inclusion of a flavoring into the tobacco itself. This is normally a liquid. Such could range from essential oils, natural flavor extracts in a solvent, synthetic flavors such as liquid artificial flavoring used for candy, fruit juices, fruit peel oils, etc. I should note that not all flavorings work well with tobacco. Most should be okay for snuff providing the concentration is kept low enough as to avoid nasal irritation. Also, care should be taken to not add flavorings prone to spoilage. So far in my testing: Soda syrup concentrate (flavoring but no sugar) did very poorly. They are predominantly a fruit or other acid mixed with non-aromatic synthetic fruit flavorings. The acid does nothing in terms of aroma and lowers ph making the nicotine hit greatly reduced. The non-aromatic fruit flavoring is subtle at best and easily missed. Using more flavoring trying to increase aroma wasn’t effective. (note: smoked, this flavoring for tobacco was equally ineffective) Synthetic candy flavor oils are incredibly concentrated and highly aromatic. On the other side, nasally most of what I tried gave a fairly poor presentation of the flavor. Just imagine shoving those little red candy red-hot hearts from valentines day up your nose. Flavorful? Yes. Pleasant… hardly. As far as smoked, they actually did better than expected, at least a few flavors.

Contd. Extracts in solvent as used for flavoring baked goods fared somewhat better than the candy flavor oils. Made with natural ingredients the aroma was closer to what would be expected from a commercial product. However, the same issue I had with soda syrup came to play. Non citrus fruits have very little oil in the juice, much of it is simply sugar water and acid. Because of this, flavors like raspberry and cherry didn’t transfer well at all into the tobacco. Others like orange and aniseed did extremely well. Both sniffed as snuff and smoked in a pipe, the aroma was reasonable and pleasant. Also in the extract category is liquor extracts, mentioned briefly because I tried it. Tests with Rum extract produced a vile tobacco, worse than I can politely convey in words. Maybe it works in baked goods, but I don’t suggest it on snuff. Bleh! Chocolate flavoring is easy to make using cocoa powder and vanilla. 2 or 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder in a coffee cup, pour just enough hot water enough to dissolve. Cover and let it cool to room temperature, add a few drops of vanilla extract to hit a sweet chocolate smell, and then use as desired. Makes 2 or 3 ounces. Dissolving in grain alcohol is closer to a true extract, but I find water does well except the tobacco takes longer to dry. I’ve never tried pure essential oils… they’re outside the budget for the project I’m working on.

I know it’s not strictly a flavouring sense (although the tobacco of choice obviously effects the flavour of the snuff), but I’d be interested in having a go at making my own SP snuff. Is there a strict rule on the type of tobacco to use?

I really enjoy the warm, robust, almost leathery scent (along with bergamot and citrus, of course like all SPs) of WoS’s Gold Label. Probably because they use all American tobaccos like Virginia, etc. It’s pure bliss. So @danw1988 although I can’t help you with flavoring, I will recommend Virginia tobacco because its GREAT in an SP.

Thank you @transistor . I’ll bear this in mind. I’ve never actually tried Gold Label, so I’ll give this a try also.

@transistor Do they make any Latakia tobacco based snuffs that you know of? I would think that would be the “ultimate” in robust leathery scents.

@snuffnpuff Molens makes a latakia scented snuff (not made with latakia tobacco apparently)

@PikeMopers hmmmm… interesting, thanks.

wow! I forgot about this thread. Any pipe tobacco with Latakia makes wicked snuff no problems.

You might like the new toast range from Mr Snuff if you are into latakia.

@snuffster new toast range? by who?

@danw1988: For their SPs, WoS uses Zimbabwe Burley (flue and dark fired), so I think using a dark burley would be the place to start.

I’ve been using for that essential oils, and it’s very good. But what I’m not confident of is using synthetic oils. On one side - their aroma is stronger than of natural aetheric oils, and usualy the variety of tastes is a lot wider. But the big question - are they completely safe? Can’t they cause serious damage such as cancer?

After almost two years I certainly have some things to edit on my original post. Maybe sometime next year.   

I use Tom Buck for my base and then add whatever flavors I want to experiment with.

I have had my greatest successes with whole coffee beans and shreaded amber (sold as perfume at my local Indian store.) Shreaded amber melts at body temperature.

All the esoteric information is good but what I would like to know is what specific recipes people have tried at home that have worked for them. I have ordered some oil of bergamot and lemon and I am wondering if anyone has tried adding this to a plain scotch to make a simple homemade SP? If they have what amounts did they use and how did they add the essential oils? Just simple stuff that works for someone who doesn’t want to buy and grind his or her own tobacco or replicate a recipe from 1600s but wants to add some flavoring to store bought scotches. Any help and/or recipes would be appreciated. 

http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/5642/recipe-for-queens-snuff#Item\\_14

"1 dram with 8 oz of fine Scotch snuff " 

Answer to below question… no I have never used essential oils myself.

I usually throw a vanilla bean in with my dry Scotch snuffs.

@Juxtaposer   You have used this recipe at home yourself?

I have a really good recipe for making a plain moist black rappee out of any Scotch snuff.

 
In a crock pot that is plugged in to a dimmer line for lower temperatures.

Cook at 50c-75c - 122f to 167f for five to seven days.

One part Scotch snuff to two parts water. For small batches use a ramekin to hold the snuff.

Stir once or twice a day adding water if necessary until the last day. It will be very soupy at first but not to worry the tobacco will absorb its own weight in water and the rest will cook off. 

The variables of time and temperature are for brown rappee to black. You can see on the fifth day what you have and continue according to your desired results. Jar air tight when desired moisture level is achieved preferably while cooling down but not necessarily so. Don’t worry too much about how it smells while cooking. After about a week in the jar let it air out a little then it should be ready to go.

Enjoy.

@ Juxtaposer Thanks I will save that. That is exactly the kind of recipe that interests me. Hopefully others will chime in with their personal tried and true recipes.

As for the queen’s snuff recipe I find it confusing. “Oil of lavender 2dr., essence of lemon 4dr., essence of bergamot 1 oz. : mix [1dr. with 8 oz of fine Scotch snuff constitutes Queen’s Snuff]” Do you mix the lavender, lemon and bergamot together and then use 1 dram of that mixture to combine with the scotch? 

Yes, that is correct. Whatever the scent mix may be.  Also note my answer to your first question above it in edit.

http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/1087/snuff-recipes

@ Juxtaposer Thanks for the info. Hopefully more people on here will pop up with their recipes.

@Juxtaposer I just bought some essential oils, lavender, bergamot and lemon, to attempt my own SP but I noticed after buying that even though they are 100 % essential oils they all say do not use internally. I then looked on a couple of sites and there are food grade oils that are made to be taken internally. Do you have any knowledge of the differences? Should I chuck the oils I bought and buy food grade for safety or does it matter at all? I assume you aren’t a doctor and that this is not medical advice so no liability for you, I was just interested in your opinion as you seem to have tried your own recipes. 

Check the list of ingredients in the oils. It may be something that will upset a stomach. If you are not comfortable having the oil itself in your snuff you can use the scents indirectly. That would be putting the snuff and the oil mix separately in the same closed environment. This would be the recommended method anyhow unless you intended to have an oiled snuff.

 Doctor? I’ve never even stayed at a Holiday Inn.

@Juxtaposer The only ingredients are lavender, lemon and bergamot so I should be good to go. Thanks for your two cents. 

One of the old Fribourg and Treyer employees states that there was a ‘lost’ variety of snuffs that were flavoured solely by the blending of various tobaccos and that in the early days of the firm perfuming a snuff with non tobacco ingredients was not the norm. This was printed when FandT was still a family firm so somewhere along the line there was a break in the continuity of production, which is interesting in itself. I’m paraphrasing from memory but the booklet is reproduced on Filek’s site. You can get very good snuffs just by milling the tobacco and letting it mature with enough natural moisture or just some added H2O.

@greencrow - be wary of essential oils, I knew someone who got pretty sick by using a lot of them in the bathtub. I would say the rule of thumb has to be that if you can’t eat or drink it don’t use it as a flavouring.

@Snuffster Thanks for your opinion Snuffster. My girlfriend seems to agree with you as she has thrown those away and ordered food grade, lol. She is easy going till health stuff comes up then she reverts to mother lion mode. 

I can say when I worked at Wilsons (J & H NOT & Co) F & T was always hand blended in very small quantities and was very labour intensive, in the 1980’s we ran all the lines F & T did they probably lost them when they moved production to Liverpool, presumably before W & Co took it on.I loved the names, Masulipatam, Dr JRJ, Seville etc We used to sell an assorted pack of 12 and they were expensive.

Also, those of you meddling with essential oils be very careful if you don’t know the recipes!!!

Another excellent fact from the snuff shop floor, thanks so much gillybean for all the stories; part of our art of snuff’s noble history, and should be treasured. You must have some fascinating memories of the snuff world of old. Was working at WoS a happy place to be? >:)

Hi Snuffster

Firstly, I didn’t work at Wilsons of Sharrow, they were our rivals, I worked at Joseph & Henry Wilson’s at Westbrook Mill, the brothers who broke away in 1833 and set up Westbrook Mill.

Yes it was a great place to work,  bit like going back in time and to be honest it was my first job so I didn’t have anything to compare it to.  There were about 8 of us admin staff and about 27 in t’mill. Very much a family firm with a very low turnover of staff people in the office rarely left, it was like a small family.  Looking back it was my favourite job though I didn’t know it at the time and one I have fond memories of, how the working environment has changed since then.  

I do a bit of writing for the STE, it always amazes me how people find snuff so interesting!

Of course, I am so sorry! Slip of the finger.

I think your reminiscences are fascinating - don’t forget most uf us have never been in a snuff mill, so I hope your articles long continue.

Gillybean, by all means, please continue writing your reminiscences in STE so that we who were not privileged to have been there may learn about the inner workings of a classic mill. Great stuff indeed.

I have found Gillybean to be some of my favorite reads in the STE, Thanks and please continue!

Just found this site which may be a good resource for snuff flavorings. Food grade scents/ oils. Great variety. http://www.sparknaturals.com/ I am not endorsing these products and have not used them. Just thought they may be of interest.

Just got some cola syrup and am excited to have a go at flavoring a batch. I was thinking about using it in place of water when basing/salting the flour (with a little extra sodium carbonate to overcome the citric acid in the syrup). Another approach would be to base it, dry it, and then case it with the syrup. Can anyone suggest if either of these methods would work better than the other?

The cola experiment yielded tasty results. I went ahead and cased some Brightleaf Virginia (sweet) toast with cola syrup (the syrup is made with real kola nut). The flour was then sieved and air dried twice until just slightly moist. The real kola nut totally shines through. It’s the easiest snuff to take that I’ve tried- very clean and refreshing. The smell is somewhat different than soft drink cola- in a good way. The scent doesn’t have a ton of staying power (maybe because I was too conservative with the syrup). Next time, I’ll start with raw flour and substitute the syrup for water when basing/salting. I’ll use a more neutral (not sweet) leaf, too- maybe aged burley. The syrup is available on Amazon and is fairly inexpensive. Cheers!

Tried this method with the banana, bubblegum and the chocolate edible essence with good outcome via indirect flavoring. Have several syrup flavors but have yet to try them to make any snuff the way you describe @SammyD13.

@nicmizer How long would you expose the snuff to the flavoring vapors?

4 to 7 days seems to work. After the seven days I didn’t notice any more infusion taking place. Months later still has the flavor I initially intended it to have. May try infusing a second time to see if it adds more pronounced flavor to the semi aged homemade snuff infusion. Sticking to the dark chocolate for now. Will be doing another batch of the Banana Fostner soon.

when using oils i like using card board  oil the card board and set up a stand in the tobacco so the card board will not touch the tobacco this will add a nice hint of flavor to your snuff peach is my favorite with menthal 

The link to Sheffield doesn’t work. Is the info available anywhere else?

Some lost sites can be retrieved with a help of Wayback Machine:

Nasal Snuff (scroll down for the essentail oil tables)

Unless you want just a hint of a flavour, add your essential oils directly to snuff.

Safe amounts and more details: adding essential oils - #13 by volunge

Thanks so much! Most interesting.

Great advice. Thanks so much.