Can you give me some advice where to buy Samuel Gawith boxes that are probably not stale? I recently got a few from Snuff Store and more than half of them were so dry that rehydrating didn’t help anything. The ones I want to try are Kendal Brown Original, London Brown and McCombie.

you’d do well to try snuff.me.uk. i buy most of my SG’s there now, plus they have bulk quantities available. Those are all excellent choices by the way.

I’ll second that on the KB Original as well as orders from snuff.me @saucy As I’ve not gotten any of the tap boxes from snuff.me, only drums, do you think the taps are fresher from them then other vendors? Not as dried?

@OTD I received a dry London Brown and a really fresh Lavender Dark tap boxes from Snuff.me.uk. I think they had the London Brown in stock and ordered the Lavender from the mill along with my KB Original and Black Coffee drums

So it’s simply luck of the draw with respect to the evil plastic tap then.

I think it is.

@OTD - I have to agree with AP. While my bulk KB original was super fresh the tap boxs were not AS fresh but they weren’t as bad as I’ve come across in the past.

I ordered the black coffee from snuff store Uk, my first ever SG, it came outta that box like black sand! THE WORST snuff I have ever tried. Tried rehydrating and it was not much better. Very strange perfume like smell, horrible. Everything else from Snuff Store has been very fresh. I doubt I will give anymore of SG a chance.

@Iggy: you’d be a fool to give up on SG on account of one dried box. They produce some of the finest snuffs available to man.

Fine snuffs, poor boxes. The toasts and SPs seem to hold up a lot longer in those boxes. For any of the the KBs and rappees, I might just bite the bullet and order bulk in the future. Trading with other folks who have bulk is a better way to sample.

@Saucy, I guess I’ve just hit my own personal snuff wall and feel satisfied with the abundance of snuff I already have. It was more comical than anything, watching that black sand pour out and thinking, So THIS is what they were all talkin about.

I see where you’re coming from, Iggy. I had similar experience with Kendal Brown Original.

I don’t think it is reasonable to buy 250g of snuff that I possibly could not like just because Sam uses these stupid boxes. There must be some other way to go. Also I encourage the retailers to post comments on this. As I have seen, some of them posted here on the board. Perhaps it is feasible to ask the retailers about the age of the boxes before placing the order?

This problem only became apparent to me when I was gifted a series of tap-boxes bought in the UK. Normally I buy drums, which are excellent and made to order. No retailer will guarantee factory-fresh produce so the quality of tap-box contents remains a lottery. Moist snuffs, depending on storage, probably suffer after a week in this packaging, and some purchases could be one or two years old. Unlike food purchases there is no ‘use by’ date. Samuel Gawith snuff is supposedly available in the same vacuum sealed 25gr tins that Smiths use. “The large vac packed tin has never been discontinued by us and probably won’t be.” To date I’ve never seen such packaging. Despite Bob Gregory’s claim one starts to harbour doubts concerning the truth of this assertion. Try mailing Mr. Gregory for information on the “large vac packed tin” at: enquiries@samuelgawith.co.uk PS - I’ve yet to receive a reply to my queries, which has left me feeling rather piqued.

There are 2 Sam Gawith’s available from Petersons of Dublin in those 25g vacuum sealed tins: Kendal Brown Menthol and Menthol XX. Tins are really excellent and snuff is incredible fresh. Maybe retailers just don’t order them?

@iggy lol, my experience exactly with the Black Coffee. But for me at least it did seem to rehydrate nicely. As with others, the SG snuff in bulk validates the contention that Samuel Gawith makes a very nice product. Unfortunate it’s marketed in such poorly designed containers. Perhaps this thread could spark another round of civil inquires as Philip suggests.

there was a member here that bought those vacuum sealed tins from the mill and sold to forum members (FarleyFlavours i think) a long time ago.

The only inquiry I’ve made to SG directly has been to inquire of direct purchases. As with PhilipS, never a reply…

@AllanH: “There are 2 Sam Gawith’s available from Petersons of Dublin in those 25g vacuum sealed tins: Kendal Brown Menthol and Menthol XX” I’ve never heard of either of these Gawith snuffs. They’re doing a Kendal Brown with menthol in ? @PhilipS: “Despite Bob Gregory’s claim one starts to harbour doubts concerning the truth of this assertion.” I did a search and found these photos which were posted a couple of years back: http://snuffhouse.org/extensions/InlineImages/image.php?AttachmentID=317 http://snuffhouse.org/extensions/InlineImages/image.php?AttachmentID=319 If a retailer started stocking these I’d definitely buy them, but save for the very occasional bulk purchase I’ve more or less given up on Samuel Gawith due to their damned plastic tap boxes.

@BradMajors Kendal Brown Menthol is same as Menthol Brown and Menthol XX is Menthol Extra. For some reason those Petersons Gawith tins have slightly different spelling of names than usually, confusing.

Hopefully an online retailer will step up and carry those vacuum tins. They look exactly like the tins I got from G. Smith’s, and are also similar to the J&H Wilson tin I have. I’d buy a lot more SG snuff if they were sold like that.

@AllanH: I’ve never heard of Menthol Brown either !

Heard of Menthol Brown, but not Kendal Brown Menthol. SG must be desperate if they are contaminating their flagship offering with menthol. Samuel Gawith’s standard 1oz snuff tin was very good. It was sturdy and kept the contents in excellent condition - just like their pipe tobacco 2oz tin. About the time my tobacconist (a very good one long since gone) started procuring me tall 1lb tins of SG that were usually used for loose sales of snuff in little paper packets, the latter started a range in tins with hinged lids - like some Illingworth‘s snuffs. These were unbelievably bad. The loose fitting lid rattled, the cheap hinge was wonky and a good shake would expel the contents quite liberally. After a year or so these were discontinued. Hopefully the plastic thingy will follow suit. Back issues of the journal Tobacco show that the Kendals were interested in Pöschl style packaging 30 years or more ago. It took the management of Kendal Brown House three decades of ponder to make a bad decision that any experienced snuffer like myself would have rejected in minutes. Unbelievably they said yea instead of nay. The reason, of course, was to entice novices with attractive packaging, like the child-catcher in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Only a novice would buy these dreadful boxes. “If a retailer started stocking these I’d definitely buy them, but save for the very occasional bulk purchase I’ve more or less given up on Samuel Gawith due to their damned plastic tap boxes.” Ditto. I would always throw in around six assorted tins with my order. Damned if I’d waste money on worthless contents now.

I contacted Snuff.me.uk about the vacuum tins, I was told that they could not order them, but I was more than welcome to order a drum.

Maybe MrSnuff and NicotineRush can get these tins in stock when their move to the U.K. is complete ?

Well stokes, your post saves me an e-mail to Jamie, I had thought to ask them as well as Samuel Gawith. I did send off an inquiry about the 25g tins and availability to SG, will be interesting if I get a response.

@PhilipS Kendal Brown Menthol works really well, flavours are kind of separate; strong, earthy tobacco and mild, refreshing menthol. This snuff is safe to offer to anyone. And other curious thing about those Sam Gawith tins; not just the names were weird but even the health warning is wrong, the one for pipe tobacco not snuff!

Just received an order from snuff.me.uk yesterday. Included was a 10g tap of SG Apple. Aside from the fact that I currently have a new favorite snuff, damn that Apple is GOOD, the condition of the snuff was as if from a bulk drum. Moist and pungent! Nothing like any of the other SG snuff I’ve had from those “evil plastic” tap boxes. But then again, this was the 1st time I had gotten one from Jamie. I commented as such to him in an email last night. In reply this morning he indicated that his relationship with Samuel Gawith is such that his stock is usually fresh. So… if you’ve a mind to get 10g boxes of SG you should certainly consider snuff.me.uk Excuse me now as I must take more of that Apple snuff!

I have e-mailed Samuel Gawith in the past enquiring whether I could buy direct, because of the number of stale tap-boxes I had bought. No reply, so no business from me. I prefer the Wilsons range anyway and they have always been courteous enough to reply to me. I don’t see why people should have to buy in bulk because of the failings of their crappy dispensers.

A lot of the Samuel Gawith snuffs are not as sensitive to the tap box environment as the moist dark snuffs are.

Best place I know for Gawith in tap boxes is John Hollingsworth & Sons, Birmingham - a “proper” tobacconist, they store all their snuffs with the same care as their cigars - in a well-regulated humidor. They have quite a good selection from Sam Gawith’s, Wilsons of Sharrow, some of the better blends from GH, along with products from Poschl and Imperial (J&H Wilson, Hedges …). Excellent shop in Birmingham (Great Western Arcade) - they also have a shop in Solihull (which I have yet to visit). Certainly the snuff from the Birmingham shop is consistently in excellent condition.

Peterson’s of Dublin have a selection of Sam Gawith in tins now. Just today got another tin of London Brown. Messy but so good!

25 gram tins are the way to go. avoid the tap box disappointment ,Your going to use it anyway

i dont see how people cant get hold of the 25g tins, ive tried a load of SG snuffs, and never once owned or physically seen one of those tapboxes. talking of SG… do they have a physical shop themselves? and id also like to take a look round the mill, like the thread where someone took pictures round molens.