There’s another thread here about snuff snobs, and while I’m sure I’m one of those, I think I’m more of a snob about names for snuff. 

I’m not a big menthol/mint fan but take for example the variations you find in that type. From Wilson’s of Sharrow you have on the one hand Crumbs of Comfort or Prime Minister, and on the other you have Spearmint or Menthol. Pedants disarm! I know there are distinctions between the actual tastes here, but you take my point. Why call a snuff Raspberry or Vanilla? This is like naming your dog Dog. Why not Duncan’s Pinch, say. And Sideboard. (Or, anyway, something a little less precious than those, but that at least requires some imagination.)

This is a roundabout way of getting to a very specific case. Toque’s Quit. I understand that these days a certain amount of novelty is necessary to appeal to those who don’t take snuff but who might, but I do wish Roderick would give it a name better fitting its character.

Should he ever decide to (or if you’ll all just indulge me) might I suggest Gunpowder? The name is appropriate for any number of reasons. It sounds tough for one. Also it evokes the stuff’s strength and fineness of grind. And, I noticed the other day, it has this lovely subtlety of flavour that reminds me very much of Gunpowder tea. (Actually I think it’s called Special Gunpowder. I think the label is Temple of Heaven.)

There are also others that have good names that I wouldn’t change, but if I had to I could. My new love, SG’s Black Rappee I might call Briar Cake for instance.

The name for Toque Quit in my little circle, because of both the difficulty in taking and the high nic level, is ‘The Widowmaker’.  It’s fun watching people set their scalps on fire with a solid sniff of that stuff.

That is pretty tough.

You mustn’t forget I started my career in the wine industry and there we moved from fancy French names to the name of the dominant grape variety. My poncy names are Spanish Gem, SP Extra, Berwick Brown and St Clements. 

What’s wrong with calling a dog “Dog”?.. its clear, concise, communicates much with few words and is easy to understand.  Raspberry is, raspberry, blueberry is blueberry IMHO.  I often call my wife of 30 years “Y-ife” (pronounced the same, but spelled differently).  The “Y” comes from the first letter of her first name.  She often calls me “hus-bland” because… well… er, um… ?

I’m a noobie, and haven’t tried it, but Toque Quit makes perfect sense to me because, as I understand it, it is a basic tobacco flavor with high Nic that makes quitting fags easier.

In many circles I’m referred to as “asshole” because… well…er… um… I gotta go now. 

Jaap Bes does some cool names. He also clearly states the ingredients of his snuffs which when naming otherwise is somewhat important to me. There are some snuffs that are misnamed like raspberry snuffs that are actually raspberry menthol (there is a few of those). I never did like the name Quit because I was never a cigarette smoker I could not relate to it. But the awesome snuff that is named Quit is known to me as Quit. I do like the letter Q so it’s cool. 

Who the hell is “Tom Buck” anyway?

A corruption of “Tumbak”, which is itself a corruption of “tobacco”

@Xander are you sure tobacco is not a corruption of tumbak?

I think tobacco was a corruption of Tobago, which is now the name of a Carribbean island.  The story I remember about that, was that a tobago was the Y shaped tube device Carib indians used to take snuff.  Somewhere it got confused. 

Tumbak was African in origin.  Pretty sure sub-Saharan African but I can’t recall specifically.

Someone may like to write to them and say;  You first heard it on snuffhouse.org > http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tumbak

Sorry just tried my link, they want you to join.  You can get in as I did by google tumbak, then look for the dictionary link 5 down at present.

I think Quit is a good no nonsense name, considering it’s a powerful, no nonsense snuff. Anyway, it maximises sales - people who want it as NRT will be more likely to buy it, and that’s only a good thing. There is just an outside chance that something like Quit or QWS will eventually be noticed by someone with the clout to influence advertsing or health warning labels. A long shot but worth considering.

Snuff hasn’t really helped me quit smoking, but it does keep me at my desk during the workday. My life would be pretty colorless without snuff in it; does that make me a snuff snob? I think so, 'cause I’m always trying to turn smokers onto it, usually with disastrous results… Taking snuff is definitely an acquired skill, and probably an acquired taste. I think it’s just too strange for the run of the mill smokers out there. But I wouldn’t live without it anymore, and I’m picky as hell about what I’m snuffing and what I’m snuffing it from. The snuffbox thread was a treat!

Personally I appreciate the descriptive names of most snuffs; helps me to guess what I’m getting into. Toque Quit though - too much for me! It was one of the first snuffs I bought, and the tin is still mostly full. I only hit it once in a great while, after I’ve had time to forget what happened the last time… Yikes!