Scenting snuff with essential oils

You'll need Tick as you go

• 10 g plain snuff
• Essential oil (for bergamot, 3 to 4 drops at most)
• Up to 1 ml 95 to 96% food-grade ethanol
• Optional: menthol crystals, up to 0.5 g per ml of ethanol

Equipment

Method

1. Step 1 of 3Put one drop of oil in your empty mixing bowl first, then add the snuff. That way a dropper cap can't flood it.
2. Step 2 of 3Thin the oil, and any menthol, in the ethanol and mix it thoroughly into the snuff.
3. Step 3 of 3Leave the snuff in an open bowl for 30 minutes, stirring it now and then, so the ethanol airs off before you take any.

Rest time

30 minutes in an open bowl.

Notes

Some oils, such as eucalyptus, peppermint and juniper, are flat on their own and work better blended or with menthol. The highest amounts makers use, from the German and Belgian ingredient databases, by weight of the finished snuff: lavender 1.1%, orange 1%, bergamot 1.75%, clove 0.5%, peppermint 4%, lemon 0.75%, eucalyptus 4.5%, camphor 2%, menthol 5.8%. For an oiled German-style snuff, dissolve the oils and menthol in pharmacy-grade liquid paraffin warmed to about 42 °C and mix that into an unoiled base. When measuring in drops, use less if you're unsure, and skip any oil you're allergic to.