I’m very intrigued by what I’ve read about black rapee, as I ussually like strong dark flavours in everything else like coffees and teas. I am unable to get professionally made snuffs where I live and so have been making everything myself out of locally available tobaccos and essential oils. What actually makes it black? Anybody have any pointers for the method if I wantex to try my hand at making some? I am a big do it myself type and I love the idea of traditional crafts, so making my own black rapee might be right up my alley. Rolled carrots? Any info very welcome.

@ matero: Dark colour can be achieved by fermenting the snuff or by colouring with a dark dye such as bone black. Jaap Bes.

I would suggest using a snus recipe with half the amount of salt to effect the Maillard reaction on the tobacco. This will give you a dark rappee type result. You may want to experiment with other types of “cooking” using very low heat settings. Unless you have a large enough mass to let the tobacco cook itself in a manner very similar to composting.

Black rappee is made by pounding dark tobacco (often from Kentucky and Virginia) in brine like cut tobacco. It is then left to ferment - sometimes for several years - in cool rooms after being compressed into batches of several hundredweights each. Thereafter it is pulverised and remoistened with brine. Traditionally it is gros (coarse) and moist. The method of production is known as the Paris Method because of its one-time associations with France. Samuel Gawith in England still make black rappee, which is unscented and one of the few remaining natural snuffs. Brown rappee is made using the same technique only with different tobaccos. London Brown, also by Samuel Gawith, is possibly the only remaining example of classic brown rappee. It is very similar to genuine French Morlaix (not to be confused with several current brand names). Unfortunately the rappees can only be appreciated when bought by the drum as the tap-box contents are ruined by dehydration. Other examples of black rappee (but slightly adulterated) are Princes by Wilsons of Sharrow and Santo Domingo by Fribourg & Treyer, who also used to make unscented black and brown. The violet flavoured Santo Domingo is very good but also very expensive. One wonders where you live if postal delivery of snuff ordered on the internet is not possible.

I think he lives in Qatar.

Yes, I live in Qatar, where for some odd reason snuff is banned from importation although cigarettes and pipe tobacco is not. I’m sure my experiment is nothing compared to the product described by PhilipS, however I did just grind up some good tobacco and cook it with salt for a while and sealed it up in ceramic. The result is moist, sweet, and dark, already a greatly improved aroma to that of the original tobacco. Can’t wait to see in a couple of days. Thanks to all who posted.

By the way I realize now that it’s rappee, not rapee as I wrote. Thanks for not ganging up on me about it.

Its ok. The word is an English corruption of the Spanish/Portuguese word: rapé. They use the word to mean any snuff in general, but in English as you know it means course ground snuff. The carotte was a tighty wrapped long carrot shaped roll of tobacco which was grated on a snuff rasp into powder, hence: rapé. I wonder if Qatar’s laws may be banning oral tobacco and mistakenly include snuff with that. Ask Roderick if he has shipped to Qatar before with success. He’s shipped most everywhere. Would you get in much trouble if you tried to order some? One could merely write “tobacco” on the customs declaration, and be telling the truth.

Im not worried about getting in trouble as much as simply not getting my merchandise. It would probably just wind up being intercepted and sitting somewhere and I would be out of the money.

I don’t know, Matero, read THISKinda scary.

hmmm…Wow. Suwaika is more of a chewing tobacco though, and the fact that they were selling large amounts probably had more to do with it. Besides them being “asians”, probably Pakistanis or Bangalis, who are pretty much slapped around here. Being a US citezen, I’m probably not in that kind of danger. Just the way things are. My psuedo-rappee is coming along nicely though. I like the aroma on its’ own, as well as an additive to my other snuffs. i find if I add a bit to the jar and shake it up vigorously it adds a nice bit of moisture and body.

Goes great with my chocolate, which I made by taking chocolate cough drops from Switzerland and just letting them sit in the jar whole, infusing the snuff with their flavour. I’ve had succcess with honey and menthol flavoured losenges as well. Purists are probably wrinkling their noses at this, but I’m out in the desert.

Not wrinkling my nose matero - I am thinking how delicious chocolate cough drops sound! Never heard of those!

Yes, the swiss take their cough drops very seriously. Coffee. chocolate mint, and I’m not sure what else. As long as they don’t go bacon cheddar on me I’m all for it.

It would be great of someone who actually has some brown or black rappee could post a photograph of the stuff so I can see what kind of consistancy I’m going for. What I have now resembles hashish (not implying any of us have ever seen that contraband substance).

Have you ever seen Copenhagen Snuff (fine cut)? It is just about that texture, maybe not as coarse, but very close.

and the moisture? the stuff I have now is moist enough to leave a stain on your fingers and nose, but withing minutes it dries and will roll off if i rub my fingers together.

@matero: Rappee should be very moist.

Black Rappee from SG is fantastic. Scotch Black is even better. I feel for you, matero. If you have US citizenship, get a US friend to order for you APO? Embassy?, or get a PO box in UAE or Bahrain,army base? whatever it takes. You need this snuff!

DEATH PENALTY??? I’m sitting in my shop surrounded by jars of my experiments, successful and otherwise. Wow…hope I don’t get raided. All the materials I use are legally available in the market though, so I don’t see why grinding them up should suddenly change it into a heinous crime.

PS…sniff

I hope you gave those jars code names. You might want to encypt those recipes too!

They’re unlabelled I go by sight and smell.

Death Penalty for snuffing??? No way, surely??? I know the middle east is culturally a little behind us (Before anybody shouts “racist”, I mean with their human rights records, lopping off arms and hands for stealing etc.), but that is absurd. Stefan

No worries, it just seems a bit extreme but not impossible. Stefan

Maybe 400 years ago. Some Sultan in Turkey was into that sort of thing (beheading). I have not heard much since then.

My black Rappee attempt is officially unsuccesful. It wound up just being a clumpy unpleasant mess. I suppose I’ll just have to wait untill I’m back in New York or somewhere before I can get a taste. Meanwhile, I’m almost tempted to throw away most of my flavoured jars and just stick with my orginal. Finally ground, dry tobacco, which i spray a bit of water on and then shake up. Less clutter of all these jars and it does the trick nicely.

It is a sad state of affairs that people are afraid to point out human rights violations because they’ll be accused of culturaly insensitivity. I just want to say that is pure insanity. Should we say that america was just culturaly diffrent before the civil war and that we can’t say slavery was wrong because that would be insensitive to our forefathers or that we can’t blame nazis for being bad because that is just their way and we should be more sensitive. I’am all for cultural sensitivity but it falls way behind the rights of induviduals to live their lifes and not be in danger of loseing their lifes are their freedoms. It’s not like you’re making fun of their gods or artistic customs. My favorite is when you get told that a human rights violation is o.k. and you should accept it because that is their religion, even though the human rights violations never come from religion but from hatefull extremists who break more tenents of their religions then the average atheist. Example no where in the koran does it say woman should be considered and treated like inferior beings yet exremists use Islam to do that more importantly if it did say that then it would be wrong anyways. So basicly cultural sensitivity is awesome but don’t let it trump decentcy and human rights just so you can be a dogmatic moron. Honestly I don’t see someone being killed for possesing snuff but then again it’s possible. In Saudi Arabia marijauna sellers can be beheaded (high quanities). So it isn’t much of a stretch to say that if snuff is banned dealers might get some harsh sentences. In all honesty (this isn’t legal advice but pure speculation) it may be more dangerous to be making you’re own snuff esepcialy if the quanity is above a certain arbitairy amount. Might make you look more like you are selling. Basicly find out the laws and act in your own best interest. Are there lawyers there that you can trust? Ask them for a friend visiting if he should leave his snuff at home and what can you tell your friend before he visits that he should be aware of. Ask if he is in any danger to bring small amounts for himself or if he has someone send him snuff is he in danger. Seriously it looks like you probably won’t be beheaded but might spend enough time in jail that what ever other form of tobacco might be a much better idea. Also as a foriegner you may be targeted (this is true all over the world sadly). Find out what you can as discreetly as possible.

I really didn’t intend to start a whole discussion about whatever direction this thread is going in. Just trying to make my own black rappee in my little coffee shop.

Sorry its hard not feel concern for someone who is having a hard time getting decent snuff. Oh yeah and in addition to that I really think it’s beyond approiate for people who might want to help you with that to be aware of what legal ramifications you might be facing. I know personaly I don’t like helping or encouraging people to do something that might be really dangerous. I’am just saying your situation changes enough facts or has the potential to do so, that nothing mentioned so far is auxiliary but in fact direly pertinent. Sure you want to make a black rappee that is great but because of your situtaion and possible legal ramifications people might need to know more before feeling comfortable helping you with that. Of course you can say that you don’t care but it’s still important and part and parcell of the whole picture.

This is a crazy world we live in.

Humanity is insane right? Sheez.

hmm…shammah is a kind of chewing tobacco used in yemen. In both articles they translate different kinds of orally taken tobacco as “snuff”, even though they claim it’s taken nasally, this is not the case. Nasal snuff is not common in arab countries, but when it is taken nasally it’s called “nashooq” or that which is sniffed. Most people I asked about it before I started making my own never heard of the practice. I appreciate your concern and didn’t mean to come across as uncaring, I just didn’t expect my thread to take on such a socialogical hue. I think,however, that in each of the three articles presented, the fact that the tobacco products were being mass produced for sale is what led to such sever measures. In the Saudi Arabia story, the targeted customers being minors was a big part of it as well, as would be a man selling Marlboros in front of a schoolyard in Kansas. I will continue to keep my little habit to myself though just in case. Many people here use suwaika, or chewing tobacco, quit openly even though it’s technically illlegal to sell. It seems a bit inconsistant as cigarettes and even liqour are legal here and sold right in the airport at the duty-free shop. I’m visiting Oman next week with an eye to opening a new business there instead. Seems like a nicer place.

Omani bedouin I met here did know about snuff and said they mix the tobacco with the ash of a desert shrub. We went looking for it and burnt it for the fluffy white ash, but it didn’t seem to improve the snuff at all to my taste, so I just started taking plain green arabic tobacco and grinding that up instead. I did manage to get a small tin of Ozona President included in a care package from NY and nobody seemed to care, even though I’m sure the box was inspected before being left in the PO box. My mentholated experiments seemed pretty close to it, besides it being dark brown while mine is olive green. I had some eucalyptus oil sent to me as well.

thanks for not taking my post the wrong way. It’s so cool to learn about other places and especialy their variances of one of my favorite hobbies. I’ve always wondered about the arabic green tobacco since I know it would at least be interesting.

Yep, good luck. This looks like one of those occasions where nothing is very clear. The two articles are very ambiguous with ‘snuff like’ substances and offences of ‘selling on the street’. I bet the local cops wouldn’t be any clearer either. Anyway, homemade snuff can be fantastic; once you’ve got it off I expect it will be significantly better than Poschl!

Thank you all for your supportive comments. What I think I’ll do is get a very small brass Turkish coffee mill. This is fitted with a snuffbox-sized cap-bottom to receive the ground coffee. I’ll just carry that with a small amount of prefectly legal course tobacco, and as I need snuff just grind and sniff(with a wee bit of water added). No need to have compromising jars and tins about. True, I won’t be enjoying a variety of flavours, but there is a certain freedom in austere minimalism. I couldn’t get a French meal where I am either. That’s part and parcel of life in the desert.

That sounds good. It really sounds like the law is focused on sellers and if they are big enough into stopping selling having any quanity around seperated may technicaly make it look like you are selling it. I know in america if you have illegal drugs beyond a certain weight it becomes dealing or if you have the same drug in too many packages. Again not legal advice but if you are grinding it in small amounts it really seems safer. I’am sure that one thing that is common in police work all over the world is that you get to hear every silly lie, turning it into a boy who cries wolf thing. I mean I’am sure that some people who really are selling say I have all these ones for myself. Then again no idea how serious they are about it or how they really do it. Sounds safer though. Sounds as much like a tax issue really. Like we don’t get taxes off of these sales. For example moonshine in the U.S. big crime (still commited regularly actualy) and they always say it’s health reasons but it’s illegal mainly because of taxes that are not collected.)

Have you tried Gothenburg Rapé?

That’s a snus, though, correct?

Yes its a snus. Not sure you’ll get an answer from matero. This thread is over 2 years old.

Good eye, Xander. :))

@ matero: Dark colour can be achieved by fermenting the snuff or by colouring with a dark dye such as bone black.

Jaap Bes.

Charred bones? Really??

@Viertel: Yes, really. Jaap Bes.

Hi Matero to make a rappee your need a crock pot with a low enough temp, so this is one wepsite that will show you how to make a temp controller for your crockpot http://vaporbaker.com/2010/06/28/how-to-make-and-use-a-slow-cooker-temperature-control/ I have some rustica that I have been meaning to make into a rappee