European and American snus European and American snus European and American snus
Typical smokeless tobacco products. Select sun-cured tobacco, smoked tobacco, flue-cured tobacco, or any combination of the above, ferment it for ten months to several years, grind it into a powder of a specific mesh size, add spices according to the established formula, and then age it for a certain period. Snus has higher requirements for tobacco leaf grade than cigars and cigarettes. Snuff flavors include essential oils or extracts of plant fruits/seeds/rhizomes, animal flavors (ambergris, castoreum, civet, musk, etc.), and mineral flavors (such as amber).
Snuff originated from American Indian tribes and was discovered by Columbus's expedition and brought back to Europe. In the 18th century, the French ambassador to Portugal, Nic?te (nicotine was named after Nic?te), presented snuff to French Queen Catherine, hoping to help the queen treat her headaches. Eventually snuff achieved remarkable results. In this way, Queen Catherine volunteered to become the spokesperson for snuff. From then on, snuff quickly became popular in Europe, and even once completely replaced pipe tobacco. For a considerable period of time in the 18th century, only commoners and low-level nobles in Britain and the Netherlands maintained the habit of smoking pipe tobacco.
In Europe, snus consumption has never ceased. In recent years, with the ban on smoking in public places, snus consumption in Europe and the United States has begun to rise again. In 2007, the UK enacted a smoking ban, and snus consumption in the country soared by 80% in the same year. The United States became an emerging market for snus in 2005. Since 2005, the amount of snus imported into the United States has doubled year after year. Tobacco giants such as British American Tobacco and Marlboro began to develop and launch modern snus.
European and American snus is subdivided into three categories.
The first category is dry snuff. Dry snus is the most typical snus, and "dry snuff is real snus." There are two types of dry snus in Europe and the United States. One is very dry snus, such as McChrystal, Samuel Gawith, Wilson, etc. The proportion of wet ingredients (mainly water and glycerin) accounts for 2-3%. This kind of snus is very dry. It will only clump when it gets wet; the other is snuff with a slightly moist texture, representative ones include Poschl and Ozona, with the proportion of wet ingredients accounting for about 8%. This kind of snus will look like a pile when poured out. The second type of snuff with a moist texture has two advantages: (1) Because the snuff particles are wet, the specific gravity will be high, making it less likely to choke the throat when inhaled; (2) The moist texture can reduce the concentration of spices in the snus. The speed of evaporation is beneficial to maintaining the aroma of snus. European and American snus with low humidity generally has coarser particles (60-80 mesh, and up to 200 mesh from China and India), and will not feel choking.
The coarser particles and/or slightly moist texture are the characteristics and advantages of European and American dry snus. Dry and thin non-European and American snuff, if you smoke it with a little force, it will get into your throat and choke you. There are hundreds of flavors of European and American snus, many of which are fresh fruit flavors, which are very elegant and bring a feeling of happiness. Of course, European and American snuffs are also very powerful. For example, British brands such as McChrystals and Wilson have products for super addicts. They have a strong taste and a small amount goes into the nose, giving people a sense of satisfaction.
The second category is moist snuff. Moist snuff looks like mud, dark brown or dark black, with wet content accounting for about 40%, and is popular in Sweden. It is said that in 2007, the consumption of moist snuff in Sweden exceeded that of cigarettes. The method of using moist snus is special: shape the "snuff mud" into a small pyramid shape, put it between the lips and outside the teeth, hold it gently, inhale through the mouth, and the nicotine will enter the body along with the aroma. Then spit it out when there is no smell. . The disadvantage of traditional moist snuff is obvious - part of the "snuff mud" may fall between your lips. Of course, the Swedes already have an improvement plan for this problem. They package the "snuff mud" in small breathable paper bags similar to "Lipton Black Tea". When you put it to your lips and suck it, it will be very clean.
The third category is white snuff. White snuff is a white or orange powder that does not contain any tobacco ingredients. It has a cooling sensation (mint flavor) and no cigarette smell at all. White snuff is recorded in Qing Dynasty documents. Experiencers in the Qing Dynasty said: "Try a little bit of (white snuff), it is also a good product. The philistines live in it and cannot get it." This rarity at the time is now easily available. Of course, the term white snuff in the industry specifically refers to snus that does not contain tobacco, but it is not necessarily white, there is also orange "white snuff".
The inventor of snuff is said to be a European tobacco merchant in the mid-16th century. Due to poor management, a large amount of tobacco was accumulated in the warehouse and became moldy and spoiled. When he felt desperate, he smelled a very strange and attractive smell from the moldy tobacco. Soon, the almost bankrupt tobacco merchant announced to the world that he had invented a new tobacco using tobacco. Smoke - snuff. This claim, while interesting, is patently unfounded.
Snuff is different from smoking. Smoking is to light the cigarette with fire and suck it with your mouth; while snuff is sucked with your nose. It is made by grinding tobacco into powder and aging it in sealed wax balls for several years or even decades. It comes in various colors such as black purple, old yellow, bright yellow, and has a mellow and spicy smell. But broken down, snuff mainly has five flavors: sour, tangy, paste, bean, and bitter. Sometimes a kind of snuff has several flavors, among which the pungent ones are better. But even if it is bitter, after the bitterness, it still has a mellow aroma with endless aftertaste. Because valuable medicinal materials are added to snuff, it has certain medicinal value. It is said that snuff has the effects of improving eyesight, refreshing people, warding off diseases, and promoting blood circulation. Modern pharmacological research shows that snuff can kill a variety of viruses, especially viruses in the nasal cavity.
At the end of the 15th century, European explorers discovered tobacco on the American continent and brought it back to Europe for cultivation. At the beginning of the 16th century, explorers set foot on the American continent for the second time, discovered the local indigenous people's custom of snuffing, and brought this custom back with them. After that, explorers brought tobacco to Luzon Island, which is now part of the Philippines, and then to Japan and Korea. Finally, it was spread to China in two ways: one was from Japan and Korea to Northeast China, which was later called Guandong smoke; the other is spread from Luzon Island to the southeastern coast of China. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a famous doctor named Zhang Jiebin. He said in "The Complete Book of Jingyue": "Tobacco has not been heard of since ancient times. It came from Fujian and Guangdong during the Wanli era, and was cultivated in Wu and Chu later... "It can be inferred that snuff was introduced to China at this time.
The ingredients of snus are not fixed. People in different regions often use different raw materials to prepare snuff according to their own preferences. For example, in ancient France, Napoleon was addicted to snuff. He consumed seven pounds of snuff every month. French snuff preparation generally uses American tobacco, salt, soda, red wine, cream, syrup, tamarind tree juice and other raw materials. Some snuff is also mixed with tamarisk, red hardwood, yew, sumac and other bark, musk, gum and other powders. The price of snuff varies depending on the grade. Good snuff is expensive, one tael costs dozens of taels of silver. Even the snuff of inferior quality is not affordable for ordinary people.
The way to take snuff is very strange. In the early 16th century, when the Spanish monk Romon Pane accompanied Columbus on his second expedition to the Americas, he witnessed how the American Indians took snuff. - First take a thin tube, put one end on the cigarette powder, put the other end in front of the nostril, and then inhale hard into the nostril. This method of snuffing was once spread across almost the entire American continent. The tobacco used by American Indians to make snuff was often of the highest quality, and only the inferior or rough tobacco was used to make cigarettes. This shows how much Americans attach great importance to the production of snuff, and how important snuff snuffing plays in American life.
Snuff was introduced into our country, first entered the palace, and was immediately loved by the emperor and ministers. According to records, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to China. From the time he entered China from Guangdong until he went north to Beijing to meet the emperor, he not only presented the snus he brought from Italy to the officials he met along the way, but also Some precious snuff was also presented as tribute to the current emperor. Emperor Wanli couldn't put it down when he first saw snuff, and he also greatly appreciated Matteo Ricci and used it in great importance. This move was learned by some other Western envoys, so snuff became the best gift for Westerners to meet the Chinese emperor and please local officials. According to records, in the late Ming Dynasty, there were trading houses in my country that specialized in importing snus, namely "Tianbao Hang" and "Qiahe Hang" in Guangdong. They bought the snuff shipped from the West and then sold it to all parts of the country.
In the Qing Dynasty, due to the emperor's praise, some local officials regarded it as an important thing to pay tribute to the emperor. According to records collected by the First Historical Archives of China, during the Yongzheng period, countries such as Germany, France and Italy continued to pay tribute to foreign snus. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the above three countries as well as the United Kingdom, Portugal and other countries also frequently donated foreign snuff to the Qing court.
Moreover, the snuff presented to the Chinese emperor by envoys and missionaries from Western countries at that time was not only of excellent quality, but also exquisitely packaged. Most of the snuff was packaged in large bottles with golden flowers, sealed with yellow satin, and locked in wooden boxes. Some of them are packed directly in boxes, with the name, manufacturer and registered trademark on the outside of the boxes, and small bottles are used to carry them with you. In the Qing Dynasty, the palace was a big user of tobacco. Almost everyone including emperors, concubines, princes and princesses could not live without snuff. Emperors and queens often used snuff as rewards and gave them to their relatives, princes and ministers. Historical records record that during Emperor Jiaqing's sixtieth birthday celebration, Jiaqing was so happy that he rewarded some ministers who were watching a play in the Ningshou Palace with one to two bottles of snuff each, totaling more than one hundred. bottle. In order to meet the needs of the royal family, in addition to tribute from foreign envoys, officials from various places often paid tribute to the court. Sometimes they simply purchased imported high-grade snus directly from the market and paid tribute. After Yongzheng, various places continued to pay tribute to snuff, and the Guangdong Customs established a custom of paying tribute twice a year, two boxes of snuff at a time, until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
After the late Qing Dynasty, due to the invasion of opium and the popularity of dry tobacco and water pipes, fewer and fewer people took snuff. Nowadays, snuff has become more of a private collection, and almost no one smokes it anymore.
The raw material of snuff is mainly sun-cured tobacco. Initially, it was just a matter of using red (toad head) smoke noodles and adding some yellow sheep dung ash. The grass eaten by the yellow sheep is a valuable medicinal material. Therefore, the yellow sheep dung can have a therapeutic effect on some diseases. Mongolian snuff sniffers account for 60% of the population. Later, due to the improvement of scientific and cultural knowledge, the method of making snus became more scientific. The raw materials of sun-cured tobacco leaves are dried in the sun, crushed and sieved, and the powder obtained becomes the primary snuff product. The initial product is then smoked with steam and other spices are added. For example: 50 grams of tobacco noodles, 2 grams of cardamom, 2 grams of mint ice, 2 grams of borneol, 5 grams of angelica dahurica, 2 grams of white sandalwood or red sandalwood, 2 grams of safflower, 2 grams of cloves, 3 grams of alkaline powder, stir well into powder , divided into small bottles or packets, which is the finished snus.
Snuff has basically the same effect as cigarettes. It can not only relieve the craving for tobacco but also refresh and eliminate fatigue. In addition, snuff also has the functions of clearing the brain and improving eyesight, lowering blood pressure, and preventing encephalitis. Snuff does not irritate the lungs and trachea like other cigarettes. Decades of practice have proven that people who use snuff rarely suffer from coughs and asthma, and no encephalitis.
Generally speaking, snuff will not cause harm to the human body, nor will it be addictive.
But everything has a degree, and anything that is excessive will bring about the opposite effect.