Spanish Gem

Somewhat finely ground for a Toque snuff, this one is also a little on the dry side. The base tobacco shines through, along with fudge and honey scents that show up. The tobacco scent is the main attraction here, with any other scents riding along in the background. Nice smell, and works well just about all day long.

It speaks for just what a truly excellent company Toque is that a snuff like this is probably their weakest offering. The big problem here, I find, is the flavor - or lack thereof. Describing it as "Quit with honey" is quite helpful, as before I read that description I couldn't pinpoint a flavor of any sort - but, yes, it's similar to Quit's base, with added honey and a pinch of Coke. It is, most certainly, a very nice scent, and a rather uncommon one - the closest parallels I could draw would be to Toque Original and Toque Coke.

But herein lies the rub: After those first few seconds pass and the nose burn subsides, this original flavor gives way to a warm, fulfilling glow of... nothing at all. I don't think the problem is a "stale" tin, as the tin I have is still rather dark and moist and came direct from Toque. It's just so subtle, so bland as to be entirely non-existent. Subtlety is fine, but there's a firm line between "subtle with" and "lack of", and I find this snuff to exist deep in the neighborhood of "lack of". I suppose if one goes on a flavor-finding safari, one can return to base camp with results - as a lot of people have. But I just can't help but find the practice of Scent Safaring for a scent as elusive as this to be rather futile and pointless - at a certain point, one might as well just completely cede to one's imagination.

The rest of Toque's line, even Natural and the "classic" original fruits, all have very distinct, lingering flavors - but this Spanish Gem is the olfactory equivalent of a polar bear blinking in a blizzard. Take it if you want a snuff without a smell, as the mechanics are all fine and there's definitely a nicotine kick here - but I find this snuff very boring, and "boring" is everything a snuff should aspire not to be. Be as painful as an American scotch, as horrid-smelling as a rotting skunk, or as clogging as a schmalzler if you must - even be all of those at once if you utterly insist - but please don't be as milquetoast and forgettable as this.

Nice initial burn along with a... warm oiled leather?
Think freshly worked saddle soap or old book store perhaps, but think also the comforting aspects of that smell. Not a negative at all!

Within a minute or two the real fun with this snuff begins. Is it chocolate or honey that's soon followed by a lemon or possibly orange type of fruit, citrus aroma? So far for me I usually get the chocolate 1st followed by a citrus of some sort. But not always. Most of the reviews I've seen on this one mirror my experience.
The Spanish Gem has, for me, the four primary notes of chocolate, honey, orange and lemon with the faint undertone of tobacco. The order in which the scents present themselves seems to change from one pinch to the next.

Toque did extremely well with this one!

A jewel among snuffs! Spanish Gem is delight from opening the tin though the sniffing and to the final blow of the nose. The moment the tin is opened you smell a strong and wonderfully honey-laden tobacco scent which only gets better once sniffed. The flavour is remarkably complex. The honey appears to be quite natural though I couldn't say what sort of honey it is. There seems to be an underlying fruitiness as well, though I can detect none of the cheesy sock odour that others have commented on. There is a touch of tartness to the flavour which I find offsets the honey perfectly. I also detect a certain "fustiness" (for want of a better word) that I think works very well with the honey and tobacco. While relatively easy to take on account of the moisture level, the Gem does have a decent burn to it and it certainly satisfies my nicotine needs. I suspect that if it were allowed to dry out it would be really rather sneezy! The flavour is a good stayer, lingering even beyond a hearty blow of the nose. Toque's Spanish Gem easily scores a 6 on my scale of 1 to 5 snuff boxes.