I am particularly interested by the enjoyment of food with snuff. I believe that tobacco is the lost art of the table and that its consumption with repasts enhances epicurean pleasures in a similar manner as the selection of alcohol. Before anti-smoking legislation legitimately came into place to protect our collective lungs, tobacco was consumed before, during and after meals in the form of cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Being buccal pleasures, it is incontestable that tobacco affected the enjoyment of meals. I often wonder how traditional seasoning was influenced by the consumption of tobacco. My quest is to find snuffs that enhance the enjoyment of food. I call these “foodsnuffs.”
JNF’s Indian Rustica “Jack” is such a foodsnuff and is particularly suited to the closure of meals, either as an enhancement or replacement of dessert. At first address, this finely ground taupe-coloured snuff smells of Madagascar vanilla and English custard. Upon uptake, its sweet irradiant burn ebbs into flavours of scraped vanilla, egg custard, nutmeg and clotted cream. It recalls flan, crème anglaise or the vanilla sauce served with luftwaffles or strudel. Sustained by an insomniac’s measure of nicotine, “Jack” is a welcome addition to any late-night pudding menu.