So we all know that certain snuffs, especially natural snuffs, can vary from batch to batch. So I thought I’d just start a thread to share experiences with that. Most of us have ridden the Grunt train already so I’ll leave that one alone. This last one of my 10 35g tins of white elephant is *completely* different from the other 9 and also different from the first batch I had originally. It’s yellower, much chalkier, and has a scent almost like some sort of weird biscuit with some kind of herb in it. It’s awesome! But in a blind scent test I’d think this was some unknown Indian white for sure if I didn’t know it came out of a White Elephant tin. The other 9 in the box were somewhat closer to Dholakia White. There was not a ton of scent behind the fishiness and it was paler. It still had some nutiness though And the original I had smelled like pecans, very buttery.

I won’t beat a dead horse here, but I am almost convinced that my SG Hazelnut is something entirely different than what others have described. I’ve noticed different coloration in tins of Royal George before as well. I will have to say that as of yet I haven’t bought many duplicates of one particular brand or scent.

SG Black coffee seems to have a variation in batches where the scent profile runs the gamut from smelling like Copenhagen plain dip to smelling like instant coffee granules, I much prefer the latter.

Variations generally happen for two reasons: crop differences and changes to the blend. The first is the most common - a batch of tobacco may be slightly lighter or darker in which case it is introduced incrementally to the companies store of leaf for the particular snuff that is being made, mostly without any discernible difference (or anyone noticing, depending on how good the blender is). Changes to the blend - the ingredients - are probably much rarer and the only reason I could see for that happening is an ingredient becoming unavailable or too costly or perhaps a recipe being lost - which could happen when only one or at the most two people in the company know them, although that would need some pretty slack practice on the blenders part but anything is possible if you are busy and it is one of many contract blends. It’s difficult to give any hard facts on that because recipes are secret and never divulged - although they are sometimes sold. A blender of many years experience once told me that most complaints about a snuff being different are often about snuffs from the same batch - i.e the customer enjoyed one tin, complained about the second but both are from the same batch. Taste is strange thing and we can and do taste, or smell, things differently from one day to the next and most of us have disliked a snuff at some point only to love it a year or two down the line. Contamination can happen but I would think that is more down to faulty packaging and picking up contaminants in the warehousing. I have bought new tins only to find the snuff dried out; clearly you only need the seal to fail for it to pick up other scents - air out, contaminant in. Grunt is an unusual one - I think the recipe must have changed for some reason for it to be such a different product in it’s later versions. We will never know.

Grunt is an unusual one - I think the recipe must have changed for some reason for it to be such a different product in it’s later versions. We will never know.

Unless the blender chooses to enlighten us, which he has so far not done…

The same snuffs that both you and I have will become very different over time. Our snuffs will age and constantly change to become more and more unlike each others. Even your own separations of stock will yield snuffs that are different from one another. How a snuff is shipped, how it is stored, what environments it is exposed to, all down to the minute details will change your snuffs. Your snuff tomorrow will not be the same as it is today. For example, a certain box will immediately and dynamically influence a snuff. With manufacturers, strict quality control is important. Unfortunately shipping environments may not be under their control. Temperatures might be to blame in some cases.

I just took advantage of the sale on F&T at Mr snuff , picked up 3 50 s of HDT they are quite a bit different both in color and in taste from what i usually get , and this being my nearly exclusive snuff i get quite a bit. The new snuff actually reminds me of fubar snafu plain a little more bite and that hint if chlorine . BUT what’s missing is that wonderful after snuff aroma that is the best part of HDT

after reading through this I will say yes. Snuff is temperamental. I’ve had a pinch from the same tin same day smell wildly different. And the nose is a strange beast. And much of the sense of smell is in the brain which chooses what scent aspects to acknowledge or ignore. Ever notice how when going somewhere stinky the scent will go from over powering to not there in a few hours. Everytime I go to New York city the smell almost knocks me out and then is gone.

And the smell of a cup of coffee is incredibly intense when you’re going through caffeine withdrawals.

Had this with some SG SP no1 high mill, First tin I bought was decidedly sweeter than the last two which are more akin to wos best sp

WoS Prime Minister, which was one of my faves. The first few tins I had, 5g then 10g as it became a regular, were awesome. So, naturally, I ordered a 25g tin. Completely different. The perfect balance of spearmint and menthol, was gone in the bigger tin. It was much more menthol and much less spearmint. As such, I still haven’t finished the tin. It’s still good, but I usually go for SM Blue, McC’s O&G or Viking Menthol for my bedtime snuff now.

I take @Juxtaposer‌’s point totally. I decanted my tin of White Elephant into a sterile glass jar and popped it in the fridge. This completely changed the texture, colour and scent to a darker, deeper aroma (even better than before), similar to what @horus92 mentioned. Even when aired and warmed. Ultimately, I always feel it’s better to have several smaller tins than one large. Wouldn’t order much over 25g of anything.

Wilson’s Gold Label can either by a lovely lemon snuff or pale imitation of Tom Buck. Suffice to say, I much prefer the former.

@3_D Thank God almighty, I’m not alone at this! My first ever tin of HDT, which I got about a year ago, was subtle, easy on the nose but with the right amount of burn, smoky, buttery, delicious! I got my second and third ones together: the second reeked of ammonia, but it quickly dissipated, leaving a powder behind that, while not so glorious, retained some of the qualities that made me enjoy the contents of my original tin so much. I couldn’t complain, and thought (because I’m with Abraxas and Juxtaposer on that) that my taste was simply searching for something different than the undoubtedly wonderful snuff I was trying. “My bad”, I thought, and finished the less-shiny 25 gram tin. But then I opened the third one: a terrible, flowery smell expanded throughout the room, effectively fumigating all the poor insectoid beings that use to lurk its shadows. “NO, nonono, this can’t be happening, I RUINED MY HDT!!!”- I thought, because the smell was similar to the one that comes out of my “not so well liked snuffs” box, where I had put the UNOPENED tin, so I think I had it contaminated by the invasive reek of some Packard’s or Gawith Apricot tin. But once the odor dissipated, I came to realize that it was the smell of ammonia gone nuts. To this day, it hasn’t left the tin, which I have consistently aired, cooled, heated and whatnot. Curiously, I also got these two tins on a sale, but on Snuffstore.de… Coincidence or mayor WoS screw up? We’ll probably never know. The snuffs that experiment the worst batch variance of all are the cheap Pöschls: not the Schmalzlers nor the traditionals. Gawith Apricot is the major offender: I got two or more batches that were different in color, aroma and grind, and two this day I don’t know if this is simply explained by crop variance or because the manufacturer uses the left overs of their different RYO and pipe tobacco brands production.