What's That Brown Stuff the Queen Is Snorting in Bridgerton?
No actual royal orchestras were playing Thank U, Next in the Regency era. But the royals did snort snuff.
Afternoon tea calls for a snort or two, obviously. Ever the monarch, Queen Charlotte, takes her hits from what looks like a golden spoon, usually while engaging in juicy gossip, or attempting to wind down from her efforts to expose Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton.
The queen’s enthusiasm for sniffing her mysterious brown powder has sparked plenty of curiosity and confusion among viewers—in fact, many have begun to speculate that the queen has a serious drug addiction.
What is Queen Charlotte sniffing?
The substance that Queen Charlotte is sniffing isn’t a hard drug—it’s snuff. Snuff is a type of smokeless tobacco, made from pulverized or finely chopped tobacco leaves. Sold in a variety of flavors and scents, it gives “snuffers” a swift, concentrated hit of nicotine, allowing for an immediate but fleeting sense of relaxation. There are two ways you can take snuff: you can have it “moist,” by placing it in your mouth, or “dry” by inhaling it through your nose, which is what the queen is seen doing.
Surprisingly enough, snuff is still readily available for purchase in smoke shops across Europe, and is regulated in the same way that other tobacco products are. Popular flavors include coffee, cinnamon, rose, and mint, but modern times have given rise to varieties like Cola and bourbon, too. Avid fans of shows or books set in the Regency era have probably encountered snuff before; it was hugely popular among the upper crust society of 19th-century England. As opposed to other more common tobacco products, snuff denoted wealth and opulence—truly, a vice fit for a queen.
Is it dangerous?
Some people believe snuff is a safer alternative to smoking, but the National Cancer Institute says otherwise: snuff may be free of tar, but the nicotine and other harmful chemicals it contains can still lead to nicotine addiction, and can cause cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and pancreas. Other consequences include gum disease, heart disease, and stroke, among other health issues.
You can rest assured, however, that no actual snuff-snorting took place on the set of Bridgerton. The substance that actress Golda Rosheuvel (who played Queen Charlotte) was inhaling on the show was only colored sugar.
“I think it’s like glucose stuff,” Rosheuvel said in an interview with Decider. “At the end of the day, I’m like, yeah, wild sugar rush. It’s harmless, it’s fine. Absolutely harmless.”
