Made my own snus...

[DreadPirateJones]

Alright, to start off I'd like to thank everyone in this community for the wealth of knowledge that led me on this journey. Been thinking about this for a while and decided to order some dark air cured and some Maryland 609 whole leaf. Ground it down to flour and followed squeezeyjohn's recipe loosely.

Here's what I did:
225g tobacco flour (50/50 dark air cured and Maryland)
270ml water
18g salt
Cooked at 165F for 48 hours in sous vide bath
4.5 tsps lye water
another 24 hours in sous vide at 165F

I honestly had no idea what I was doing when I started. This has only had a few days in the fridge and I can tell already that the finished product isn't up to snuff.

My first mistake was that my grind wasn't fine enough resulting in a difficult bake and chunky appearance and feel.

Second mistake was the huge batch. Live and learn I guess...

After the cook I added a little vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol. Both in small amounts. I took about 80g and made mint snus using dried ground mint leaves and 20 sprays of mint essence.

So far it has a nice strong but not overwhelming buzz and strong flavor. It doesn't drip much and when I tried the mint it alternates flavor between strong tobacco and light mint. Not bad in my opinion. Might try menthol to give it the extra mint kick.

My only issue so far is the bake. It simply doesn't hold together. I think it's the coarse grind but don't have any experience to base that off of.

I also have licorice root powder that I haven't used yet.

My next batch will be smaller, probably 100g tobacco flour and I'll try a higher cook temp. I'd like to see more of a roda or ettan bake and feel to it.

Anyways, thanks for spending the time to read my rant, this has been consuming my thoughts and time lately. Any tips thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

[SnusOn.Com]

Welcome DreadPirateJones ! Great to have you here.

That's great that the information here has helped you on the road to making your own snus.

[Premium Parrots]

Yes!! Welcome to snuson. Keep us up to date on your progress please and enjoy the site.

[DreadPirateJones]

Hey everyone, I have a small update. My snus has had a little over a week in the fridge and I've tried it a number of times now. The taste is still very strong tobacco, so much so that the mint seems to have almost disappeared in my small trial batch. Im wondering if it lost the flavor because the jar is still open in the fridge to allow the ammonia to dissipate. It's still giving off a fairly decent amount.

I ordered some Virginia leaf and im going to try blending that with my dark air cured and Maryland blend. Hopefully that'll provide a more rounded flavor.

Im only disappointed with this trial because it's not really useable except at home where I don't mind having a ton of loose tobacco all through my teeth. It still doesn't bake at all. Tea bags work well but are a time consuming process.

I've already learned a lot in my first batch. Thanks again for all the information everyone! Im excited to start another batch but already have a ton of snus...

[Chbronson]

Hey

I'm trying to make my own snus too, for the first time. Mine is in the oven, 5 hours to go.
Maybe try to add some rubber arabicum, I'll do that and I guess it'll hold together much better then without.
Cheers

[DreadPirateJones]

Hey there, good luck with your snus making! I'm really glad to see other people here new to the experience. What kind of tobacco did you end up using? Did you use the crockpot method or sous vide?

I hadn't thought of using rubber arabicum, that would make sense though. At this point, I'm considering this first batch to be just an experimental batch. Gonna try adding different flavors and things to see what works and what doesn't. Im thinking the grind is simply too course to be used outside the house. Might try to use it more like dipping tobacco and see how that goes...

I'll try and add some photos of my process soon, I'm just somewhat illiterate when it comes to computers. And lazy. Extremely lazy haha. Keep me updated with your snus progress please!

[DreadPirateJones]

Haha the dangers of drinking and replying, just realized you said it was in the oven. Anyways, I'm really curious how your homemade turns out!

[SnusOn.Com]

I'll try and add some photos of my process soon, I'm just somewhat illiterate when it comes to computers. And lazy. Extremely lazy haha. Keep me updated with your snus progress please!

Please do DreadPirateJones It will be interesting to see.


Be interesting to see how things are going your end too Chbronson


:-)

[Chbronson]

Hey everybody,
Well the snus I made smells really horrible, I read it but I didn't believe it haha evil, I'm excited how/if it will change with time. Just tried a prilla and yeah not great but tastes much better then it smells.
I did a 50/50 blend virginia/burley. Had both laying around and didn't know how to blend it, so I thought I'd just put all I have in the oven and let's see how it goes. It was 650gr tobacco flour.
I cooked it 90c for 24 hours after mixing with water and salt. Had this in a lock&lock box, air tight. Afterwards i mixed in the natrium, gummi arabicum, propylenglykol and glycerine. It's a little too wet i have to say but it holds together really well. I should have used less water to mix in the natrium (guess about 160-200ml too much) .
I used different kind of flour. One part was almost powder and the rest is a little....ah damn don't know how to say this in English. But I was trying to kind the kind of grind that "Grov" is like.
I didn't add any kind of flavour now. Maybe I'll do later when I put the lot in smaller boxes. I didn't want to mess up the whole mixture with over-flavouring or something so I didn't do anything.
I have ca. 1800gr snus.
can't wait till it's ready to use !! I'll add some photos. One is dry, one is after adding water and the last is how it is now.

Let me know how yours turned out !!

[Premium Parrots]

Hey C-Bro, Looks good. Better keep your tobacco away from the cat or it may flavor it for you. Those kind of look like cat litter boxes.

[Chbronson]

Haha great advice. These boxes are great. I used to store cigar boxes in those for long-time aging. There is almost no air loss. 1 pack of boveda and it kept 69% humidity for around 2 years.

Cheers

[DreadPirateJones]

Hey Bronson, that snus is looking great! I'm sure that the nasty smell will fade. From what I've read here and elsewhere it can take longer sometimes, my batch still has a slight ammonia smell. But the flavor and smell are much closer to real snus now than when it was fresh from the cook. Besides, you have 1800 grams of snus to let age. It'll be interesting to see how it develops. I mean, how fast can you go through that much snus anyways haha.

Now that I can taste my snus better I like the flavor of the dark tobaccos but I'm still set on trying a half Virginia and the other half a mix of the 2 dark tobaccos, finer grind and shorter cook time with higher temps.

[SnusOn.Com]

Hey everybody,
Well the snus I made smells really horrible, I read it but I didn't believe it haha evil, I'm excited how/if it will change with time. Just tried a prilla and yeah not great but tastes much better then it smells.
I did a 50/50 blend virginia/burley. Had both laying around and didn't know how to blend it, so I thought I'd just put all I have in the oven and let's see how it goes. It was 650gr tobacco flour.
I cooked it 90c for 24 hours after mixing with water and salt. Had this in a lock&lock box, air tight. Afterwards i mixed in the natrium, gummi arabicum, propylenglykol and glycerine. It's a little too wet i have to say but it holds together really well. I should have used less water to mix in the natrium (guess about 160-200ml too much) .
I used different kind of flour. One part was almost powder and the rest is a little....ah damn don't know how to say this in English. But I was trying to kind the kind of grind that "Grov" is like.
I didn't add any kind of flavour now. Maybe I'll do later when I put the lot in smaller boxes. I didn't want to mess up the whole mixture with over-flavouring or something so I didn't do anything.
I have ca. 1800gr snus.
can't wait till it's ready to use !! I'll add some photos. One is dry, one is after adding water and the last is how it is now.

Let me know how yours turned out !!

Looking good Chbronson :-) Thanks for sharing this with us.

Do update us on any developments and let us know if you decide to add any flavor and how that turns out.

[SnusOn.Com]

Hey Bronson, that snus is looking great! I'm sure that the nasty smell will fade. From what I've read here and elsewhere it can take longer sometimes, my batch still has a slight ammonia smell. But the flavor and smell are much closer to real snus now than when it was fresh from the cook. Besides, you have 1800 grams of snus to let age. It'll be interesting to see how it develops. I mean, how fast can you go through that much snus anyways haha.

Now that I can taste my snus better I like the flavor of the dark tobaccos but I'm still set on trying a half Virginia and the other half a mix of the 2 dark tobaccos, finer grind and shorter cook time with higher temps.

Thanks for sharing this with us DreadPirateJones All very interesting :-)

Even manufactured snus sometimes can have an ammonia smell to it when it's really fresh which fades with time so hopefully the same will be true for your's.

Do keep us updated on any developments.

[DreadPirateJones]

Hello all!

It's been a while, and I have a few things to say about this batch I made a while back. Firstly, I've gotten used to the strange fluffy texture and I can kinda bake it now but its the messiest thing I've ever seen. Its sticks to fingers and is too juicy. Once in the lip it kinda stays together but is still "fluffly." Do you all that have made homemade snus think a finer grind would solve this?

I also have found that the flavor has become much mellower, it's still cigar like but not harsh. The juice gets to be a bit much, but I think that has to do with the fact that the nicotine strength is definitely on the stark side.

Overall, i actually ended up liking it despite thinking it would end up being a scrap first project. Its definitely not something to use on the go though.

ChBronson, I'm really curious to hear how you're huge batch turned out over the last little while. Are you using only that snus? How has the flavor developed?

Hopefully I'll start another batch soon. I have the flour, but too much snus to justify making more. Anyways, happy new years everyone!