I ordered a half kilo of this untried and sight unseen more than a month ago, just on the strengths of the reviews that I’d read about it here and elsewhere. It was a bit of a step out of my comfort zone. I like the more coarse, moist Abraxas range, but I usually only have a couple of pinches a day. For all day, frequent use, I’m really into fine dry snuff. Even so, I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m not disappointed. The half kilo came in a big, white cylindrical tube, more than half full, with a screw on lid. Reasonable packaging, nothing exceptional, I’ve decanted it packed tight into two large Bell and Mason glass jars. It’s dark brown, about the colour of ground coffee. It’s a reasonably coarse grind, at least compared to the snuff I usually use. Quite moist, too. It smells like tobacco, and nothing much else. When I took my first few spoonfuls, I was a bit surprised that it didn’t smell stronger in my nose. I was also surprised that the burn was quite mild. But the burn builds up and unfolds. With the fine, dry snuffs I usually use, you can do spoons of it back to back. When I’m working at my computer, I can just take Cheeta or DW back to back, every minute or so. I wouldn’t do that with the Viking. You can just take your time and let it do its business. And it does have a good strong aroma, just if you’ve done some 6P Cheeta earlier in the day, you might miss it. Eathy, cocoa-like, bitter chocolate, like a good English pipe tobacco in the tin. Compared to the fine dries, it makes me a bit congested if I do lots of it. Wash out my nose and a little bit of those Indian whites will fix that, though. Bit messy compared to the whites, but not too bad. I think I’ll mainly take it at home, though. I’ll stick to the fine dries out and about. I think it’s a really good, basic snuff. Probably most of the people who’ve used snuff for a while and tried a good range have tried it, so I’m probably preaching to the converted. Still, for those who haven’t, I’d say it’s really worth trying as an example of medium-strong, quite coarse, quite moist, plain snuff. One of those every snuff user should try it kind of snuffs. IMPORT TO INDONESIA: I’ve had PMs from an expat in Bali about importing, so if there’s any other lurkers from here, the half kilo was a big enough package that it got held at customs for a few weeks. Eventually turned up, no duties or such. they don’t usually bother if the declared value is under $50. ADMIN QUESTION: What’s the protocol if you do a review on snuffhouse? Are you meant to try and find an existing thread and bring it to life? Start a new one? What’s the right way to do it?
Admin answer: the protocol is generally to find an existing thread and add to it. However, for a nice formal review such as yours it might appear awkward to add a review after some general chatter. We used to try and separate reviews from discussion, but it got too hard to separate. If you have an interest, please also post your review on http://www.snuffreviews.com//