Toque Rustica

Huysmans

I've been enjoying the Toque Whiskey & Honey immensely since I bought a tin last week. I am now thinking of buying a bag of Rustica. Is it a good snuff to take on its own as well as blending? Any comments before I make the plunge of buying a 50g bag gratefully accepted.

volunge

Go for it, if you are intending to make your own snuff. It's a raw rustica powder, which comes already finely ground and saves your time. You just need to add some alkalizer and water to make a nice snuff from it.

Taken on its own or blended with other snuffs it doesn't do much. Natural citric acid which this species produces and fine grind gives a nice burn, it has its specific hayish, honeysh, slightly tart and herbaceous scent and sourish taste, that's it. Nicotine is there, but non-alkalized powder delivers only a slight fraction of total amount. Mixed with other plain snuffs (say, toasts), it adds to the flavour, and you might find it enjoyable.

If you are not up to making your own true (=alkalized) snuff, better opt for another bag of Toque USA W&H, for it delivers 99% more nicotine than raw rustica powder.

P. S. I am a big fan of Toque USA W&H myself.

Huysmans

@Volunge thank as always for your very helpful and detailed advice. It sounds like I am better off buying a bag of W&H as I am in all honesty looking for something with an extra Nicotine hit and W&H has that together with the ideal grind and aroma.

ALLex

If i blend toque rustica with a plain snuff like toque Quit or Toast 

will the rustica get alkalized from the plain snuffs alkalizers?

volunge

@ALLex, yes, but not that much as one would probably expect with most snuffs.

It might sound as a paradox, but there's absolutely no point in mixing raw rustica with anything weaker than strong (unless you are mixing for flavour only). Funnily enough, only strong and extra strong snuffs can be boosted with it. Which already are strong on their own. The most alkaline ones. And contrary to some logic, it works best, blended at a humble 1:3 ratio (one part rustica to three parts really strong snuff). Approximately.

SHbickel

You're so helpful, @volunge ! Your explanation speaks to my experience and answers questions I didn't know I had.

Gormur

I take Toque Rustica straight every morning.  It perks me up.  I don't know if I could take it all day because I might start sneezing like crazy.  It's quite potent in nicotine.  I think you'd like it

Huysmans

Are there any other Toque snuffs which contain Rustica?

volunge

USA W&H is the only one.

If you are interested in rustica-based snuffs, there quite a few are made by other manufacturers.

The strongest one is Janta Dragon Brand Madras snuff. Sadly, it's been out of stock for a while.

The mildest one is Neffa Ifrikia.

6P LA Natural is medium strength plain rustica snuff. This snuff is a base of their Super Kailash and Mysore Sandalwood. Green Dragon / Begum Green are made from green rustica, a tad stronger than LAN / SK / MS.

Then, there are some SWS snuffs with rustica in the blend - Lundy Foot and St James Parish Blend, to mention but a few. The latter is one of the strongest snuffs on the market, on a par to Toque USA W&H. Some other SWS snuffs with rustica are low-potency (come non-alkalized, like Havana Toast).

Also, Mr Snuff has just launched three new rustica snuffs: Rusty Trombone, Rusty Nail and Iron Throne, they are available on mrsnuff.com store.

Hloridison

I mix the toque rustica with white elephant and ntsu black. 1 part of each. It hits me very good. And my tolerance is really high. It also tastes good.

SHbickel

Rusty Trombone?! I'm guessing they didn't look that one up in Urban Dictionary before they printed the labels!  :))

volunge

:) I wish I haven't, @SHbickel... But snuff looks fine, the grind is on a coarser side and it's probably oiled, if I get it right from the video posted on Snuff School channel. I naively thought that it stands for an old, hard-bitten conk...

Curious to know, is that connotation well/widely known in English-speaking countries?

tobaccobob

And the Toque Ambrosia I think,contains some rustica.

volunge

@tobaccobob, I believed it did, too. But it was denied by Roderick.

Huysmans

@Volunge I'm British with a very wide vocabulary of those sort of words but I have never heard of a rusty trombone before!

Curious to know the strength of the snuv rusticas and whether they are alkalised as you described earlier.

n9inchnails

@volunge I doubt there is a person in Canada that doesnt know what a "rusty trombone" is :))

Its a very "cable TV friendly" way of saying it and widely used in sitcoms.

SHbickel

@volunge Where I live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, I'd guess most people younger than 40-50 who aren't prudish would understand it as a vulgar term.  It cracks me up.  (Pardon the pun.)  It's a hilarious name for a ridiculous "move" and makes me laugh every time.

volunge

Thanks to all for your answers. Boy, do I enjoy learning English here! :)

Huysmans

I can't pretend to understand the following article but it has an interesting conclusion on the effectiveness of Rustica as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory remedy.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13880200902896020

MrSnuff

@Huysmans 

very interesting article. Thanks for that.

Wild_Alaska

Gonna just take a break from the rest of the forum to concentrate on reading all @volunge ‘s comments for a while.

SHbickel

See you in a couple of years!   :))

Huysmans

There are very few of my questions that haven't been comprehensively answered by @volunge somewhere in this forum!

Huysmans

@Volunge going back a bit in this conversation you mentioned that strong and extra strong Snuffs could be boosted with the addition of 1/3 Rustica. Which Snuffs would you class in this category? Would it work with something like Silky Dark?

volunge

@Huysmans, it would work with Silky, yes. And any other snuff, abundant in alkalis - Indian white snuffs, guls, Madras, stronger SPs (Gold Label and Grand Cairo).

But you can easily turn that raw rustica powder to snuff, following formulas posted on Snuff making 101 thread, and use it as a stand-alone snuff or as a mixer.

Huysmans

Thanks @Volunge I followed the instructions and alkalised some of the raw Rustica with Sodium Carbonate and wow it certainly packed a punch. Lots of ammonia and in terms of strength a night and day difference from the raw flour.

I have now tried mixing the raw Rustica with Silky Dark and KB Scented and yes it works really well.

Omgroma

I also followed the instructions, 3 days ago, and yes … wow! Very strong indeed! I too will be mixing it with other snuffs for sure