Quick & Dirty Snus Reviews: Round 3

Well, because of the long delay getting to round 2 of reviews, I'm able to jump right on round 3 as I've already had my third order in for a week and a half at this point, and pretty well familiarized myself with everything in it.

This order was a little different from the first two, as it was both a larger order, but actually ended up having fewer new and unique types of snus than the previous two. The bulk of the order was spent stocking backups of a few types of snus that I've come to love and depend on. Roda Lacket, General Ekstra Sterk, and Nick and Johnny. Also picked up a second can of a few others like Goteborgs Rape #2, Ettan, General Onyx, and Claq Qui. Even though I'm not moving through the first cans of these all that fast, I know I'll be using them off and on and will be happy to have a can in the freezer when I run out of any of them.

Of the "new" varieties I picked up, three are actually just the white portion versions of snus I've already familiarized myself with in original portion form. So far I haven't formed a preference for white or original portion, I've been pretty happy with whatever they happened to come in, but as some types are available in both, I figured I'd try out the other format and see if there was an obvious difference. For the sake of the reviews, I'm treating this as new varieties and will review them, but mostly with a regard to how they compare to the original portion for that I've already tried and reviewed.

Let's get to it.

PM 1847 White Portion: 1847 was a snus I was originally a bit intimidated by, as it is a pretty strong and intense tobacco flavor. I found pretty quickly that I liked it a lot, but then realized as much as I liked it in certain settings, or paired with certain beverages that matched it for being strong and dark, I couldn't use it all the time. For this snus, the white portion version seems to mellow it down just the right amount. It is delicious and smooth, comes on a little easier and never overwhelms the senses. I will probably be sticking with the white portion of this from here on, except for the occasional craving for a good kick in the head with an original portion. I'm tempted however to empty each new can of white portion into the one original portion tin I have, as I love these tins, but the black lid appeals to me a lot more than this one. What's that? I could just switch the lids around?

Ettan Vit (White) Portion: A good amount of the fun of Swedish Snus is learning and using new words. It's easy enough to figure out that Vit means White, Stark or Sterk means Strong, and we could always just substitute in the English word. But we don't want to. What the put on the can is what it is. So General Ekstra Sterk is and Ekstra Sterk. Skruf Stark is a Stark. And Ettan Vit is... okay fine, Ettan Vit is generally referred to as Ettan White. I just like saying Vit. Vit Vit Vit!

So Ettan was one of my early faves when I started with snus. A nice mild snus with a little salt, always reminded me of having a cheek full of sunflower seeds. Pretty pleasant and easy to handle while adjusting to the new experience of Swedish snus. The white portion format of Ettan seems to be about the same, except milder. For me now, this means it is way too mild, I don't get enough flavor out of it, and as I don't notice the salt in snus as much as I did at first, I don't even get the sunflower seed salty experience. What this means is that I won't be using Ettan Vit, will surely stick with the regular portions when I want Ettan, but I'm thinking that this may have been an even better starter snus than the Ettan regular portions, as the flavor is so mild it should be easy for any snubie to handle.

General White Portion: Here's one I didn't notice all that much difference between the original and white portions, though I'm probably going to have to do a closer study, as I keep hearing other users say the white has more of a peppery flavor and other variances between the two. For me it's just as much of a middle of the road, dependable standard snus as the good ol' General Portions. The cool thing about the whites though is that General recently started arranging them in the can like it does the Onyx, in the very nice looking "star" pattern. This also gives the portions a wedge shape to them, which a lot of snusers find makes them fit nicely under the lip. I personally like to squish em a bit and even them out, but to each his own.

Gotlandssnus Green: I'm still a little perplexed over the Gotlands varieties. Having picked up the Yellow initially, thinking it was a plain tobacco flavor, then finding it had a pretty heavy sweet and herbal flavor to it that I actually liked quite a bit. I picked up the Green next, hearing good things about it, and seeing that it was intended to be a flavorful snus. Opening the can it certainly smells quite nice. Smells quite "green" in fact. You can practically see it growing on some sort of lush evergreen shrub. What a great smell. Upon trying it though, I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to find that it's flavor was actually much milder than the Yellow. Not bad, mind you, this is another tasty snus, it's just much more subtle that I had expected. I'm still preferring the Yellow over this one. One thing I really like about this one though, is that the can says "Flader" on it, which I take to mean "Green", and I like saying "Flader", yes I do.

Gustavus: This is one I picked up on a whim. Hadn't heard much about it, got decent reviews but didn't sound like anything spectacular or all that popular. My tastes though had been starting to head more and more towards plain tobacco flavors with a good amount of saltiness, so I'd decided to pick up a variety of the more plain snus brands and give em a whirl, knowing that out of the bunch I'd eventually choose just the outstanding ones to keep in the regular lineup. With those expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the Gustavus. It's a plain tobacco, not extremely strong like the 1847, but not as mild as Ettan or General Portions either. It has a certain uniqueness to it that I found immediately appealing. Good stuff that will probably hold a regular spot in my lineup, or at least be one I get the desire for now and then. They recently redesigned the can to be a nice looking black, somewhat rounded at the top and bottom, with a shiny silver flip top "ashtray" lid. I don't have a picture yet, tsk tsk.

Lucky Strike: I initially stayed away from all the "cigarette" snus varieties. Philip Morris, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall... I'm not sure if I just wanted to stick with the more "exotic" stuff that had interesting names I had never heard of (and liked saying). Or if I just wasn't interested in snus that might taste anything like cigarettes. Either way, the whole thing broke down when I got inspired to try the PM 1847 and liked it. Also, having liked the tobacco and salt flavors of Ettan and some others, I was advised to try Lucky Strike along with a few others. So I did. Lucky Strike cigs were always really the only smoke I would have considered a suitable substitute for my regular Camel Filters. They were the only ones I had now and then that blended a nice flavor with just enough kick in the back of the throat for me. That being said, Lucky Strike snus doesn't taste like Lucky Strike cigarettes. It is however, a strong tobacco snus, with a smokiness I find nice, though I'll advise that some people feel it is too artificial tasting, or they just don't like a smoke taste to their snus. For me, it's great. This is also another one with a great can. It's a big bold manly can. With that simple and bold Lucky Strike logo on top, it is thicker than most snus cans, with a nice black lid portion, and a steel bottom portion. Inside there's a plastic sleeve that fits between the two, sealing it pretty well. This can could probably double as a projectile weapon in a pinch. Though I suggest only throwing your snus in the most desperate of situations, and only when you're reasonably sure you'll be able to retrieve it afterwards. The picture here shows the can after it is unwrapped from the outer labeling it comes in, so you can see the steel bottom portion. The only thing the can is missing is the fairly standard "ashtray" compartment. But for this can, I can live without it.

M by Mocca: Now here's a pretty can for a plastic one. Nice grey silver color, a modern looking rounded edge design with an ergonomic dimple in the top to get the ashtray lid off. How nice. Okay okay, the snus, the snus. Right. I picked this one up as another of the plain tobacco testers. Most of the Mocca line I've seen or tried were of the heavily flavored variety. Remember they do those heavily flavored minis in the cute colorful metal tins? The Pomegranate that smells like Bazooka Joe? Mhmm, so I was curious to see what they did with a plain tobacco. And? Not bad, not bad at all. Mellow, nice flavor, but really all in all nothing outstanding. With a whole variety of plain tobacco snus on my plate, this one sorta just blends in. My main gripe with it though would be longevity. Or lack thereof. It's really a decent flavor that a lot of folks could be perfectly content with, especially those who aren't as much of suckers for some hefty tobacco flavors like I seem to be becoming. But the flavor fades out very quickly. I'm talking no time at all. I know most Swedes only keep their snus in for 30-45 minutes tops, and a lot of us Americans are kinda crazy in that we probably average at least an hour, and sometimes forget one for two hours or so. But I didn't get 30-45 out of this one, and with so many that'll keep going for an hour plus... there's not much point for me in this one.

Oden's Kanel: Remember how the spot for my Oden's Kanel Extra Sterk in the last batch of reviews was filled with a story of getting the wrong snus, and realized I'd ordered Extra Sterk instead of regular strength? Right right. Well, because of all that, I ordered a can of regular strength Kanel with this order. Now, the funny thing about this is that the day my order arrived, I received a separate package containing my replacement can for my original order of Extra Sterk. Only... it wasn't Extra Sterk, they sent me original. I wasn't about to go back to customer service for such a small discrepancy, so I ended up with two cans of Oden's Kanel Original. Fortunately for me, this stuff is delicious. The only downside is it's going to be a while before I get to try wiring myself up on the 17mg Extra Sterk. Delicious. Did I say delicious? Alright, opening this can you can immediately smell the cinnamon. And it smells delicious. Now, I've always been a fan of cinnamon, and even though I know most everything cinnamon flavored is also pretty highly sweetened in this country, and that cinnamon doesn't really taste like that, I was still somewhat surprised by how the flavor of this really is just cinnamon. There's a mild sweetness, for sure, but it's mostly a delicious spicy cinnamon flavor, that almost hints at gingerbread or clove. I also somewhat expected this snus to burn or tingle in my lip more than most, and it didn't. It's really just a heavenly, pleasant, delicious snus. Highly recommended.

Retro: The last, for now, of the plain tobacco snus. There seem to be several incarnations of the Retro can, and I haven't found one that matches the newest that I have. All the cans I've seen have been pretty stylish looking, in fact the previous design was actually more retro and happening looking in my opinion than the much plainer style of the new can, though I like the nice beveled edge design on the new one. This was another snus recommended to me because of my penchant for plain salty snus like Ettan. This one is definitely more distinctive than the Mocca, as well as lasting a more normal amount of time. It's distinct flavor, however, is not one that works so well for me. It's fairly salty, but doesn't stand out to me as a good balance of salt and flavor, and the flavor has more of a bite to it than I usually go for. If there's bite I want a nice boldness to balance it out, but usually I prefer a more robust and rounded tobacco flavor. Not bad, just not my cup of tea. I don't hate it, I'll finish the can, but I doubt I'll buy it again unless I decide to give the white portion format a chance.

That's it for round three. I'm guessing I probably have one more order to go with another handful of new ones to try and then I'll be able to line up about a dozen as my faves that will be staying in rotation for normal use.