Five grams of snuff, 60 seconds and as little as possible: If you wanted to win the German Snuff Championship on Saturday in Central Franconia, you not only had to be quick, you also had to work as cleanly as possible. There were points for both. 30 teams competed against each other, including four women’s teams. According to the organizers, these mainly come from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, since the tradition of sniffing is particularly widespread around the Alps.
In any case, the amount of snuff is masterful: five grams corresponds to about one heaped teaspoon, as Andreas Künkel explains. He is the chairman of the Schmalzlerfreunde in Markt Erlbach in central Franconia (district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim), i.e. the local snuff club, which hosted the 54th German championship this year. That’s why technology is crucial. “You’d rather stuff it up your nose than pull it out,” explains Künkel. The competition has little to do with enjoyment. “It is not inhaled, that would be far too much.” When you sniff, you only take a pinch of tobacco up your nose.
According to Künkel, the two teams from Markt Erlbach trained regularly a month before the big competition to do everything right. Because there are fixed rules for a sniffing championship that the snuffer and the judges have to follow. For example, the tobacco may only be sniffed out of the tin with one or two fingers at a time, according to the website of the German Snuff Association. And: “Anyone who sneezes during the snuff competition will be disqualified.”
Among other things, it is also stipulated which tobacco is permitted, where the tobacco tin should be and what happens to crumbs under the fingernails. The winners of the championship managed to get almost the full five grams in their noses over the weekend. According to Künkel Christian Knauer from Schnupfclub Dettenhofen, the men won with 4.973 grams. For the women, Petra Leinfelder from the Unterbuch snuff club weighed 4.927 grams. Snuff, like cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products, poses health risks and can be addictive. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than eight million people die from tobacco use every year. It contributes to heart disease, cancer and other diseases.