History of English Snuff

For those of you that may not truly understand what nasal snuff is, let’s go over it real quick. Nasal snuff is basically air dried tobacco that’s been ground and flavored with a blend of natural flavorings like flowers or mint and artificial flavors like Vanilla, chocolate and in the case of Toque snuff, even PB & J but it wasn’t always like this. When nasal snuff was first discovered by the West, it was just sun dried tobacco that had been ground down into a coarse powder. No flavorings were added to the mix and only the tobacco flavor was to be enjoyed. In the 1560’s Jean Nicot brought tobacco plants back to France and introduced snuff to the French nobility where it became an instant hit and the preferred way to enjoy tobacco.

In the mid 1700’s nasal snuff found it’s way to England where it made a transformation of sorts. The early English refined the way snuff was processed by changing the way the tobacco was ground. Until this time, snuff tobacco was ground into a coarse powder that resembled corn meal. The English manufacturers actually used water powered mills, similar to those that produced flour, to grind the tobacco which gave it a finer feel that was close to the grind of baking flour. They also experimented with adding flavorings like Roses, Cinnamon, spearmint and Camphor to give the tobacco a more appealing scent.

In the early part of the 20th century, Nasal snuff began to fall from favor due to the introduction of the pre-rolled cigarette yet, some snuff mills remained open simply because this form of tobacco use really never really died, it's numbers gradually faded to only a small part of the English population. Today, English snuff use is begining to re-emerge as a popular way to enjoy tobacco again due to the smoking restrictions being put in place around the world. We have gathered as many of these brands in the following category as we could find!