Snussers homemade snus. It's that good.

[Snusser]

A continuation of my snus making notes from Squeezyjohn's method.
First up is batch #5 with a new selection of tobacco from WLT.

Stripping, drying, grinding and sifting took a little more than an hour per pound of tobacco.
I may be in the market for a meat grinder.

 

[squeezyjohn]

If there's one thing I would change about my method it would be the grinding stage which for me takes far too long as well! I have experimented with meat and coffee grinders, but none of them seem able to cope with the flat leaves to give a satisfactory result.

Absolutely bone dry tobacco is the key to getting a good consistent texture ... There must be some kind of industrial spice grinder on the market somewhere!

 

[Snusser]

The end result is worth it!
With the significant cost savings of home made, that prep time is easily worth $100 an hour. Without a doubt, snus making is the best value add hobby I have!

Batch 5:
50g Virginia Red Leaf, dried, ground and sifted into flour.
100g All Natural Burley, dried, ground and sifted into flour.
14g Salt
125g Water
24 hours @ 85 degrees C.
Remove from heat.
Place snus in mixing bowl.
14g sodium carbonate, added dry. Stir very well.
Place snus back in glass jar.
12 hours @ 85 degrees C.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

What's the story with that circuit board attached to the right side?

 

[squeezyjohn]

That looks like a PID circuit Jitterbugdude ... a thermostat which cuts the power to the heating element at a given temperature (here it's showing 80ºC).

I agree Snusser - it is definitely worth it ... especially with homegrown ... it saves money and can create a superior product. I love your set-up - is that a bread maker?

Grinding is more time-efficient if you do it in large batches and store your leaf as tobacco flour (it takes up far less space that way too!). But I'm still on the look out for some kind of better way to bulk grind my tobacco than just using a kitchen blender. My dream set up would be pedal powered grinder using a flywheel and gears - but my DIY skills are a long way off doing that!

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Rock tumbler with ball bearings might fix your problems with getting powder easily.

Might have to experiment with times though, I think it might be too easy for you to accidentally make the powder too fine if you forget about it, try half an hour to start.

 

[squeezyjohn]

sounds interesting - thanks - I love the power of sideways thinking! Mind you ... those ballbearings would have to be guaranteed not to disintegrate and end up with small bits of metal in the tobacco flour. I will have to investigate ...

... edit ... I have investigated and it's been used to good effect in nasal snuff making on this snuff forum http://snuffhouse.com/discussion/8423/methods-for-grinding-your-own ... time for further investigation!

 

[deluxestogie]

http://oaxaca.wikispaces.com/metate

Bob

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Yeah, that's the community I got the idea from, everyone that makes their own snuff starts with things like blenders and whatnot and if they're serious graduate to a ball mill.

The balls don't disintegrate at all, just be sure to buy ones that aren't plated or oiled. I have no personal experience with ceramic balls.

 

[Snusser]

The circuit board is a W1209 temperature controller off of ebay. Super inexpensive. No pid, just set point with a couple of degrees over shoot in this case.
I have a feeling it may be within the tolerance range of the century old Swedish recipe I am attempting to recreate.

For those deciding to try this out, just do it! The aromas during the cook are worth the price of admission. Up until the sodium carbonate is added that is. Then the stuff is unfit for polite company for a week or two at least.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

All this talk of snus got me to start up another batch, been out for a long while.

I'm using some snuff reject, so it was milled in a ball mill and finely seived. It also had various essential oils added to it, so hopefully they bake off, at least mostly.

I'm going to cook at 160 for 12 hours, mix edible lime and leave on the counter overnight and fridge after that. Jbd got me thinking about shorter cooks and I want to try it this way after chatting with him.

God might not even know what kind of tobaccos are in this blend- it was in my jar of "pass" snuff experiments heh.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Been making it for a few years using squezzy's recipe except I don't add sodium carbonate anymore. It was making too much nicotine available for my wimpy body.

 

[Snusser]

I'll admit I like to run the available nicotine right up to sick-to-the-stomach level if more than 2 portions an hour are used. After 30 years of pack and a half a day cigarette use of R.J. Reynolds finest, my daily requirement of vitamin N may be higher than most.

I was taste testing a handful of vape juice flavorings, (non made the cut by the way, chemical after taste on all of them) and was surprised when I found myself having to lay down from a mild nic overdose.

The tiny amount of propylene glycol I add to a tin seems OK. The stuff is FDA cleared for pretty much everything, even in eye drops. I like the almost unnoticeable sweet taste is has.

I am looking forward to trying some of the condiments I've seen mentioned in the forums.

 

[squeezyjohn]

All this talk of snus got me to start up another batch, been out for a long while.

I'm using some snuff reject, so it was milled in a ball mill and finely seived. It also had various essential oils added to it, so hopefully they bake off, at least mostly.

I'm going to cook at 160 for 12 hours, mix edible lime and leave on the counter overnight and fridge after that. Jbd got me thinking about shorter cooks and I want to try it this way after chatting with him.

God might not even know what kind of tobaccos are in this blend- it was in my jar of "pass" snuff experiments heh.

I hope it's nice - but not too nice! There's nothing worse than finding your ultimate snus and then realising you have no way of re-creating it!

 

[squeezyjohn]

For those deciding to try this out, just do it! The aromas during the cook are worth the price of admission. Up until the sodium carbonate is added that is. Then the stuff is unfit for polite company for a week or two at least.

Amen to that - the smell that comes off a snus batch when the alkali is added could put you off the whole thing if you smell it there and then! Like a cross between a dirty men's room in a stinking bar and a baby's diaper ... but give it a few weeks and then it's a whole different ball game - us snus aficionados are using terms like "raw chocolate" and "nutty leather" to describe how amazing it is!

 

[Snusser]

I'm going to cook at 160 for 12 hours, mix edible lime and leave on the counter overnight and fridge after that.

Edible lime? Wikipedia to the rescue. Otherwise known as calcium hydroxide.

In chewing coca leaves, calcium hydroxide is usually chewed alongside to keep the alkaloid stimulants chemically available for absorption by the body. Similarly, Native Americans traditionally chewed tobacco leaves with calcium hydroxide derived from burnt mollusk shells to enhance the effects.


I learn something new everyday hanging around this forum.

 

[squeezyjohn]

That would be the same edible lime function as the burnt punk-ash fungus that the Inuit people use to chew with their tobacco (taken together called iq-miq)

 

[Snusser]

Squeezyjohn, iq-miq is described by a user as 100 times more potent than chew in this article.
Have you tried making a batch of iq-miq or iqmik?

SmokesAhoy, does calcium hydroxide have more or less kick than sodium carbonate? Do you use the same ratios as sodium carbonate?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I could be speaking out of my ass here but when has that ever stopped anyone.
Nicotine is not very available in it's acidic salt form. When you put tobacco in your mouth your saliva will adjust the acidity to be more neutral, freeing up some of the nicotine. When you add an alkali you are freeing more since you can get it to a pH of around 11 before it starts peeling skin. So as a fairly corrosive alkali, lime, with a pH approaching 13 you can use less of it than something else to convert the same amount of flour.

Nicotine in it's alkali form is highly volatile and goes to another dimension or something(or just boils off at ambient temps? I don't know), that's why it has a shelf life now, where the flour if dry can remain good for a long time.

So you free up the nicotine to give a faster more complete affect, whereas unadjusted nicotine salts will eventually free up in saliva over a longer period but if you have a higher tolerance it might not make it's presence known.

Or something. Where is Bob?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Any snus is about a thousand times more potent than chew too, that is just to get your sweet tooth on imo