Maryland 609 for snus

[JCsnus]

Hello all! I ordered 1 lb of Maryland and 1 lb or burley tobacco to make snus with before I realized how weak Maryland tobacco is in terms of nicotine.

This will be my first attempt/attempts (I have a few recipies I want to try) at snus and I want to make sure I'm not making a product that is too weak for my tastes. I'd like to end up with a normal strength 8mg/g snus at the end and I am hoping you fine folks could evaluate my proposed recipie before I mix any product. The recipie is as follows.

**
5 can Snus Batch

• 100g tobacco flour
• 10g (5-15) sea salt
• 7g (3-10) Sodium Carbonate
• 110g (100-120) water, separated
• 10g propylene glycol
• Any desired flavorings (pick 1 per batch)
  • 1 tsp cocoa (ettan)
  • 5-10g licorice powder
  • Splash peaty whisky

1. Preparing the tobacco
   1. Starting with sun or air dried tobacco, roast in an oven at @ 150f for ~15 minutes until crumbly.
   2. Grind in a coffee grinder. Sift and regrind larger bits until all is flour consistency.
2. Cooking the tobacco
   1. Dissolve salt in 85g hot water.
   2. Mix any powder flavor if using and tobacco.
   3. Knead water into tobacco to form paste.
   4. Cook in a canning jar in an instant pot for 2.5 hours. Let pressure release naturally.
3. Preparing the Sodium Carbonate
   1. Roast baking soda in the oven @ 210f for ~1 hour.
4. Alkalizing the snus
   1. Dissolve Sodium Carbonate in 15g hot water.
   2. Add propylene glycol.
   3. Mix cooked tobacco and Sodium Carbonate solution.
   4. Knead mixture for ~20 minutes. Knead in a bag if necessary.
      1. This process will produce ammonia and will smell.
5. Resting
   1. Let Snus offgas ammonia for ~1 week in a fridge
   2. Add liquid flavor if using

**

So please help me out with the following:

1. With a mix of 50g Maryland and 50g burley lamina only with no midrib, should this make a normal strength 8mg/g snus?

2. If the 50:50 mix wont hit that strength, what ratio of Maryland can I mix in?

3. What are your thoughts on amount of Sodium Carbonate? I want to avoid a burn in the lip if I can.

4. Thoughts on salt? Do you like less or more?

5. Any suggestions on flavorings and/or amounts of flavorings I'm planning on?

6. Any tips, tricks or suggestions to tweaks I can make to this recipe based on your experience.

You don't have to answer all of these and any response is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @JCsnus. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself Forum. You may want to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar.

Bob

 

[JCsnus]

Welcome to the forum, @JCsnus. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself Forum. You may want to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, linked in the menu bar.

Bob

Thanks for the tip, Bob! I'll check them out.

 

[wruk53]

Hello all! I ordered 1 lb of Maryland and 1 lb or burley tobacco to make snus with before I realized how weak Maryland tobacco is in terms of nicotine.

This will be my first attempt/attempts (I have a few recipies I want to try) at snus and I want to make sure I'm not making a product that is too weak for my tastes. I'd like to end up with a normal strength 8mg/g snus at the end and I am hoping you fine folks could evaluate my proposed recipie before I mix any product. The recipie is as follows.

**
5 can Snus Batch

• 100g tobacco flour
• 10g (5-15) sea salt
• 7g (3-10) Sodium Carbonate
• 110g (100-120) water, separated
• 10g propylene glycol
• Any desired flavorings (pick 1 per batch)
  • 1 tsp cocoa (ettan)
  • 5-10g licorice powder
  • Splash peaty whisky

1. Preparing the tobacco
   1. Starting with sun or air dried tobacco, roast in an oven at @ 150f for ~15 minutes until crumbly.
   2. Grind in a coffee grinder. Sift and regrind larger bits until all is flour consistency.
2. Cooking the tobacco
   1. Dissolve salt in 85g hot water.
   2. Mix any powder flavor if using and tobacco.
   3. Knead water into tobacco to form paste.
   4. Cook in a canning jar in an instant pot for 2.5 hours. Let pressure release naturally.
3. Preparing the Sodium Carbonate
   1. Roast baking soda in the oven @ 210f for ~1 hour.
4. Alkalizing the snus
   1. Dissolve Sodium Carbonate in 15g hot water.
   2. Add propylene glycol.
   3. Mix cooked tobacco and Sodium Carbonate solution.
   4. Knead mixture for ~20 minutes. Knead in a bag if necessary.
      1. This process will produce ammonia and will smell.
5. Resting
   1. Let Snus offgas ammonia for ~1 week in a fridge
   2. Add liquid flavor if using

**

So please help me out with the following:

1. With a mix of 50g Maryland and 50g burley lamina only with no midrib, should this make a normal strength 8mg/g snus?

2. If the 50:50 mix wont hit that strength, what ratio of Maryland can I mix in?

3. What are your thoughts on amount of Sodium Carbonate? I want to avoid a burn in the lip if I can.

4. Thoughts on salt? Do you like less or more?

5. Any suggestions on flavorings and/or amounts of flavorings I'm planning on?

6. Any tips, tricks or suggestions to tweaks I can make to this recipe based on your experience.

You don't have to answer all of these and any response is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone!

That sounds like a decent recipe. The salt content may be a little high though. I normally use about 6 to 8 grams of salt to 100 grams of flour. The sodium carbonate amount is about right, I use 6 grams per 100 grams of flour, and it doesn't irritate my gums. I would however recommend buying washing soda, which is pure sodium carbonate rather than making it from baking soda, the reason being that it can revert back to sodium bicarbonate if it is not stored properly, thereby not alkalizing properly. Also, I'm not a fan of using a pressure cooker, I've tried it a few times and I prefer the slow cooker method and longer cook times. I've never used burley in a recipe, so I can't advise you on that. I have used MD609 mixed 50/50 with Dark Air Cured and it makes a very good Snus with a high nicotine content. Your flavorings sound like they would be good, but I would consider the addition of ammonium chloride (Salmiak) to give it a traditional Swedish Snus aroma. I think you're on the right track though, make small batches like that and tweak it each time, you'll get it down pat in no time.

 

[JCsnus]

That sounds like a decent recipe. The salt content may be a little high though. I normally use about 6 to 8 grams of salt to 100 grams of flour. The sodium carbonate amount is about right, I use 6 grams per 100 grams of flour, and it doesn't irritate my gums. I would however recommend buying washing soda, which is pure sodium carbonate rather than making it from baking soda, the reason being that it can revert back to sodium bicarbonate if it is not stored properly, thereby not alkalizing properly. Also, I'm not a fan of using a pressure cooker, I've tried it a few times and I prefer the slow cooker method and longer cook times. I've never used burley in a recipe, so I can't advise you on that. I have used MD609 mixed 50/50 with Dark Air Cured and it makes a very good Snus with a high nicotine content. Your flavorings sound like they would be good, but I would consider the addition of ammonium chloride (Salmiak) to give it a traditional Swedish Snus aroma. I think you're on the right track though, make small batches like that and tweak it each time, you'll get it down pat in no time.

Thank you for the advice! I can scale the salt down and I have ordered some washing soda. It sounds like I don't have much to worry about with the tobacco blend.

 

[Bottenslam]

Strenght of the snus i think nobody here can awnser on, but adding more salt and hitting the right pH Will make the nicotine more biologicaly avalable. And If you do lös, you can just use more or less as you see fit.

I would say more sodium carbonate, i add 10g per 100grams of tobacco flower.
Salt i would say 11grams, bit ofcourse that is a taste thing

If making a really fine snus i would add less water, as its easy to add more later on if needed. Cant give you any numbers tho as i always eyeball the water.