I just received Viking Dark Rapee in the mail, and thought to leave a short review on it for anyone looking, since online I did not find many reviews of it since WoS took over. Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of trying the old one, but I will leave my thoughts on this one. Additionally I heard people say that this Viking Dark Rapee(VDR) is same mix as Samuel Gawith Silky Dark, and though I have tried Silky Dark it’s been too long for me to remember, so I will unfortunately omit that comparison from the review as well.

Now for the good stuff:

Appearance, grind and texture: VDR visually appears quite dark brown, almost black, though it has some hues of chocolate and cocoa, it also appears fluffy and moist. Visually think of it as if dark milk chocolate was a snuff. It is very moist and it does have clumps here and there, but if you press it with your fingers it does not form a prilla, but stays pretty fluffy. The grind is on the coarser side, but not Schmalzler coarse, and I think the amount of moisture it has, compliments the grind really well.

Tin Notes: smelling it out of the tin it screams barn. It has some pungent peaty notes but they present themselves masked under warm tobacco smell so it is pleasant though the pungency is something that reminds me of makla. Some other notes that I am picking up is the smell of loose snus, a little salty and reminiscent of wet dirt, and noticable smokiness.

Pinching time, in the nose: I used the pinch method, about apple seed pinch per nostril, and first thing that pops out to me is a pleasant warm burn, it is not a burn that you would experience with something really strong or menthol(clarification: this has no menthol in it), but it is a warm cozy gentle burn, that dissipates after about 30 seconds. In the nose snuff is much less pungent than what was coming from the tin, but the notes of dirt and snus tobacco remain. It was easy to take, and settles nicely in the nose, and with small pinches there is no noticable drip. It also has some cocoa notes to it, and is on the sweeter side. The smokiness is also present, though I would call it more of a cigar smoke notes rather than wood smoke. There are subtle notes of wet wood as well. The flavour does not linger for long, stays in the nose for 3-5 minutes.

Vibe: It is a really pleasant dark snuff with vibes of reading a old book in an old library on a rainy day, in the evening, with fire crackling, and pipe smoke filling the room. I think it is one of the best cozy solitary snuffs for me, but those are just the images it gives to me.

I would rate this snuff a 9/10. It is very pleasant and recommend it to anyone who enjoys fire cured cigars, and schmalzlers but wants something darker and more natural.