About Snuff

Snuff is, of course, nothing more than tobacco, ground or milled to a powder of varying coarseness from very fine to really quite coarse, and taken nasally. Once the most popular way of enjoying tobacco, snuff had been in a long slow decline for 150 years until just recently. The habit seems to be undergoing a renaissance now that smoking is becoming so publicly restricted not to mention socially unacceptable. Snuff has the advantage of not affecting others and also of being considerably less dangerous than smoking tobacco, as most of the toxins and carcinogens are only released when tobacco is burned. See the Toque Blog for more on the health aspects of snuff.

I have been snuffing on and off since the mid 70s, when I was living in Regensburg and was introduced to the marvellous snuffs from Gebr. Bernard. An earlier attempt at snuff when I was rather younger was less than successful!

Since the UK smoking ban came in I've been gradually reducing my other tobacco habits (pipes and roll ups) and increasing my snuff intake to the point where I now consider myself first and foremost a snuffer, though I still frequently enjoy a pipe or two. I feel much healthier for it too. Curiously I seem to have turned to snuff from the other routes to the nicotine fix at roughly the same age as my grandfather did. Didn't do him any harm either.

The last half-way decent tobacconist in Hull where one could buy snuff, both in tins and loose, has sadly closed so now I can only get my snuff fix online. At least there are some excellent online retailers out there. You can find links to some of those on the right of this page. There are also links to various other online snuff, pipe and pipe tobacco resources.

I seem to have become a moderately regular contributor to the Snuffhouse forum and through that site I met another local snuffer, John, aka Snuff Head. We meet up in the bar of the St Johns Hotel, Queens Road, Hull on Wednesday evenings and often on a Friday or Saturday as well, along with other local snuffers. A wonderful opportunity to try new snuffs and discuss them. Snuff Head has had some fun with a picture of the pub...