I am not sure what the world record is for the number of different snuffs tried in one weekend, or whether it exists at all but I think that this weekend I had a pretty good stab at it. I am, of course, in a very privileged position that as Company Director, I get to sample all of our products before I put them on the website. I mean Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t put a dish on his menu without sampling it first would he?

I have recently received a delivery of the finest snuffs from Samuel Gawith and Wilson’s of Sharrow and a couple of new flavours from Gawith Hoggarth for good measure, so I thought that it was my duty to try all of these snuffs out. I have to say that all in all it was a very pleasurable experience and was amazed how well snuff goes with a bottle of Pinot Grigio or two, and also a fine malt!

I started by tucking in to the Samuel Gawith range. Now, I have never tried these snuffs before and they seem to be strangely not talked about that much in snuff circles. I can not understand why, because to my palate these snuffs are remarkably well produced. The first snuff I tried was the mandarin flavour, which has a delightful aftertaste, and I found with all of their fruity snuffs (cherry, peach, raspberry and apricot) that the balance between flavour, smoothness and nicotine to be absolutely spot on. The same can be said with the fragrant snuffs such as the delightfully named ‘Otterhound’, ‘Jockey Club’, ‘Richt Kind’ and ‘Golden Mull’, which can often be overpowering in snuffs. I am not a big fan of the fragrant snuffs, which often taste like planting a geranium up your nose, but Samuel Gawith have again got the blend spot on.

I then moved on to the tobacco flavourings and the family favourites of ‘SP no 1’, ‘Irish D Light’ and ‘Kendal Brown’. No great surprises really. All very well blended and a ‘must’ for those keen on stronger tobacco scents.

So after blasting my senses full of fruit and fragrance I moved on to the menthol selection to clear the sinuses and refresh my taste buds. ‘Dr Verey’s Plus’ is a delightfully smooth spearmint, ‘Afterglow’ an equally smooth peppermint and ‘SG Menthol’ is the refreshing menthol that I was looking for to put me back on the straight and narrow.

One bottle of pino down and 20 snuffs tried. At this stage I am feeling pretty good about life, but am refusing to look in the mirror to see if my face has picked up any collateral damage from the copious amounts of snuff.

The unopened box with the magical words of ‘Wilson’s of Sharrow’ stared longingly at me. I could virtually hear the snuff calling ‘Try me, try me!’, so I waited no longer and tore into the carton of fine snuffs, like a child on Christmas day to see what Santa had brought me.

I had to start with one of the legends of snuff, ‘Crumbs of Comfort’, which is as smooth a snuff as you are likely to find, closely followed by the other crowd pleaser ‘Tom Buck’ (one for more refined snufftakers). After a roasting with the toasty ‘Irish High Toast’, I thought it was time to get a little more sophisticated and move onto ‘Prime Minister’, which is a wonderful spearmint number with a bit of a kick, and ‘Royal George’, which has a fruity flavouring, which I could not really distinguish at this stage, but I liked it. Adding to the deliriously fruity mood that I was now in, I hopped over to ‘Cherry Menthol’, which does what it says on the tin: It’s Cherry and it’s menthol, it’s lush!

A slight pause whilst I opened the next bottle of vino and realised that I was in need of a bit of a menthol lift so I reached for the tin of ‘Menthol Plus’ and took a reassuringly large pinch. MISTAKE! Ooh brother, that has a bit of a kick, and got me back on my toes again and my snuff-vino induced quick step around the lounge would have surely received a warm welcome and a ‘10’ from any judge on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. A pinch of ‘Best SP’ and a warming pinch of ‘Honey Menthol’ took me up to a total of 32 snuffs.

I must say that at this stage I was a little worse for ware, and to be frank a bit of a mess, both physically and mentally. However, attack is definitely the best form of defense so I pulled out the latest Gawith Hoggarth arrivals. A pinch of high society’s favourite ‘Ambassador’, followed by a puff of ‘Peppermint’, a wee dram of Glenmorangie and a tipple of ‘SP’ and it was game over. Yes folks, 35 snuffs, a good few glasses of wine and a tot of whisky meant that that it was indeed full time for me. The first few minutes of ‘Match of the Day’ seem like a distant dream as I lumbered my way to my resting place and slept like a newly born baby.

I therefore proclaim myself the holder of the World Record number of snuffs taken in one day unless any of you out there can prove otherwise, but remember as my Grandma always says, "Take everything in moderation",

Happy Snuffin'
The Snuffman