As I’m sniffing some Scotch Black I’ve started wondering about this. Is it simply the color of the tobacco leaf or is it part of the snuff making process?

Pretty sure its either fired or femented, just a guess though.

That’s what I was thinking. The SG scotch black makes me think of a schmalzer in texture. That makes sense.

Composted vegetable matter will blacken. Salts prevent actual putrefaction. http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/4955/fermentation-and-snuff-types

*wanders off to take some SG Black Rappee*

I understand it as being the Maillard Reaction that darkens the tobacco.

The Maillard reaction or nonenzymatic browning reaction mainly involves the reaction of free amino groups of amino acids and reducing sugars.

http://www.leffingwell.com/download/LEFF-TCRC-1976.pdf

That document was a bit beyond me, but light tobacco goes dark with water, or the flavouring sauce, and stays dark. It will lighten up a bit if the snuff dries out but it won’t turn completely back. When you start playing around with tobacco you start noticing these oddities. What is the mechanism? A light level of fermentation? Is that what mailards wotsit is?

I will say this: all leaf starts out green, and then depending on a wide variety of factors, including fermentation, the leaf will darken all the way to black. In the cigar world for many, many years before the boom of the 1990s, the preferred wrapper shade was colorado—a medium brownish shade. However, tastes changed and more concentrated and somewhat sweeter flavors won out. Hence, we saw a lot of very dark tobacco hit the market in the 90s. I would assume that the same kind of thing happened with snuff over the years as tastes changed.

With the mercury  around -15 Celsius ,somehow the senses fail. The black was running like Niagara falls not a pretty sight or site on this grey beard .Have to invest in a rag.  

Dark is good, gray is good and life is a balance. 

@Sly3904: Both suggestions are right. The colour of the leaf darkens during fermentation. So start with a dark leaf, ferment it and it darkens further. In historical times snuff was also artificially colored. For black mostly bone black was used.

Jaap Bes.

Does Swedish snus go through a similar process? thought I’d heard something like that…

Exactly @Mr.O 

I think someone here also uses coffee grounds to color snuff.

Interesting!

A lovely old thread, right up my alley. My background in culinary arts started with the hard sciences; physics and chemistry. The Maillard Effect/Reaction is essentially the reaction of amino acids (incomplete proteins) to heat. It’s the basis of caramelization; the browning of breads, meats, vegetables and such when roasted or baked. It is the opposite of enzymatic browning, which is a chemical reaction of certain foods to the presence of oxygen (oxidation) that is found in many fruits like apples and bananas, tubers like potatoes and some rhizomes like ginger and turmeric. Which brings us to fermentation, which requires enzymes and/or yeasts that essentially decompose whatever material is in the vicinity. If animal it’s putrefaction, if vegetable it is composting. Controlled it’s fermentation where the sugars break down and the base material takes on oxygen and turns dark brown or black. If left to its own devices you end up with mulch. With yeast, the critters eat starch, fart Carbon Dioxide and piss alcohol. Then we get spirits, beer and wine…and smiles. With tobacco we get rich, dark, tasty concentrated scents and flavors and the ammonia in the leaf dissipates into the atmosphere, giving a sweeter, richer and deeper quality that merely cured leaf doesn’t have. If left unattended you get very expensive compost. Salts can inhibit and slow fermentation; if applied too liberally they can retard or even arrest the process. It’s usually added incrementally along the way to get to the desired result. Ethanol can have the same effect, briefly, until it evaporates when the process starts wherever it left off. The longer the process, the deeper the color, scent and flavor…up to that point of no return.

@chefdaniel I love reading your posts like this. I have learned a lot from you already. Keep sharing this kind of content!

@J_S‌ My pleasure.

@J_S‌ My pleasure.

@chefdaniel‌ I’ve seen it mentioned in a number of places that some of the processes that result in darker tobaccos - particularly where a combination of pressure and types of heat are concerned - also result in the breakdown and/or release of nicotine. Thus, while we often assume that darker = stronger, that’s not necessarily true where nicotine is concerned; if the same blend of tobacco varietals are processed differently, the dark is usually weaker in terms of nicotine than a brown. My frame of reference here is mostly in regards to cake/rope/twist pipe tobaccos, but I’ve heard the same about the caffeine presence in coffee beans, as well. Any truth there?

@idbowman‌ Quite a bit of truth. It’s a question of volatility, especially regarding essential oils; each have a different vapor point. Coffee is a flat bitch. Those oils go up the chimney with less heat than it takes to melt butter. Pain in the ass, and if done poorly, tastes/smells about the same. Nicotine isn’t volatile but it will dissipate over time, pressure and heat so you’re partially correct. If you’ve ever had a Gawith XXX black or brown rope you know what I mean…the brown, like brown bogie, are actually higher in nicotine delivery while a bit lighter in flavor. The black twist kicks your ass both nicotine wise and pure flavor wise. There’s also the variable in pH…the higher it is, the more nicotine is available for your friendly mucous membranes to absorb; lungs, nasal, oral…fill in your own blanks here. That’s where sodium carbonate comes into the recipe. I shoot for a range of 7.5-9.5 keeping in mind that distilled water is 7.0. Hope this helps. If not, let me know. Cheers

Apart from blackening by natural or induced chemical transformations, there are snuffs that use some kind of dye, like TPS Madras black, that seems to be colored with actual soot… if it is not made up entirely of carbonized Madras. :-?

We use bone black to color our Mentholin Jaap Bes

@chefdaniel Very informative stuff, there.

Very interesting. I wonder if the Dholakia Black snuff uses bone black. That stuff is the blackest powder I’ve ever seen. And it also has a fermented taste to me, maybe thats why it’s so mild, yet strong, with the “natural” scent of what?, I don’t know… Interesting subject to us less well educated in the area of chemistry. Hmmm… I wonder if these characteristics are true for all the black snuffs.

@mrmannos: longtime fermentation also blackens the snuff. Jaap Bes/

Aww dang, thanks for this one, I love coffee snuffs and caffeine. Now I have a whole new theoretical snuff line to start playing with, I can’t thank you enough for that one, @Juxtaposer !

I use the Maillard reaction on my friends Kentucky Burley Red Tips. It’s easy to do, all you do is get the flour nice and hydrated, I use a 1:1or2 flour/water and put it in a sealed cleaned tin, or possibly a jar, and apply heat say 122°f-167°f for up to 7 days, I use an hour or so for a 30g tin of course grind burley, to darken it. after I take it out of the toaster oven on the lowest setting I wrap the tin in pot holders to keep it hot as long as possible. Smaller amounts of courser tobacco darkens better becouse the heat penetrates it better. And you always do heating in a sealed container and let it cool before opening, or the nicotine tends to evaporate.