Quick & Dirty Snus Reviews

Alright, since I finally nailed out the snubie post I get to move onto more fun stuff. I'm not real happy with the post yesterday, a newbie guide should be shorter, more concise with clear and obvious points to it. But, concise I am not, long and rambling I am.

But rambling or not, I'm going to try and throw out some quick and dirty here. Now, there's not much snus lovers love more than talking about snus, especially giving their opinions and experiences with different types of snus. Half the fun of snus is that there are so many different varieties and while some seem to be generally more or less popular than others, everyone has their personal favorites.

I mean to do one of these early on, with first impressions, but had a second round of new snus coming along, so figured I'd wait til I tried those and cover more varieties at once. Now I've tried those, I nearly ended up putting this off again because I've got a third order on the way. That's what can happen. There always seems to be something new to try.

Anyhow to get organized here, I'm going to break this out into the two orders I've received. Obviously I'm more familiar with the first order snus, having been using them longer, but there are still some second order ones that jumped right out at me and have been seeing daily use while I've started to neglect some of the first round.

First Order: General Portion, General Onyx, General Extra Sterk, Skruf Stark, Roda Lacket, Jakobsson's Icefruit, Ettan, Goteborgs Rape, Northerner Energy Snus, Catch Chill Vanilla/Mint, and General Wintergreen Portion.

Second Order: Nick & Johnny, 1847, Claq Qui, Grovsnus, Gotland Yellow, Phantom Blue, Oden's Kanel Extra Stark, Mocca Pomegranate, Mocca Mint, Catch Dry Eucalyptus, and Goteborgs Rape #2

Yeah, that's a lot of different snus, and there's plenty more out there. This is a far cry from grabbing a pack of Camel Filters each day. I've got more new ones coming along soon too.

Alright, quick and dirty....

General Portion: What I consider a "standard" snus. Straightforward tobacco with a good amount of salt. Most of the General snus varieties are also described as having "citrus" to them as well, but while I get some underlying sweetness, I've yet to really distinctly pick up any citrus. This is a good starting point for new snus users. Standard 8mg nicotine.


General Onyx: The "Premium" of the General line. A little more spendy, can has some nice accents, a white portion snus that actually has black portions which are wedge shaped and fanned out in the can to give a nice appearance upon opening. Saltier than standard General portions, with a spicy peppery kick to it. Get the same sweetness after a while, but still wouldn't call it citrus. This is a very popular snus, and while a lot of folks refer to it having a "silky mouth feel", I find the portion material to be rather abrasive in my mouth until it gets good and wet. I've grown to like this snus more than I initially did, but I always pop it onto my tongue and wet it down before putting it under my lip. Technically a stark snus because of higher nicotine content, at 11mg of nicotine I like it as a "medium" between the standard 8mg and the higher starks. Great with a cup of black coffee.

General Extra Sterk: I love this stuff, after getting used to snus I started using this more and more and it has become my ritual first snus of the morning. With 15mg of nicotine it has one of the highest nicotine contents, and really helps get me going. It was also a lifesaver when trying to beat the after dinner cigarette cravings. On top of that, it's delicious. It is less salty than the Onyx, not really much saltier than a General Portion, has a slightly bolder tobacco flavor, but isn't overly strong. I get a lot of very nice subtle sweetness before long, not any sort of sugary sweetness, mind you, but a very natural mellow sweetness that I've come to love. This snus was a lifesaver for quitting smoking, and is one I am currently having to ration until my next order gets in. It will probably remain one I stock lots of.

Skruf Stark: This is a pretty popular snus with lots of fans. With 14mg of nicotine it falls right under the General ES in strength. However, I keep going back to it to give it another shot and still just really am not into it. It's not bad, heaven forbid, but it hasn't jumped out to me as a personal favorite. It has a sharper and more distinct tobacco flavor, not quite the round and robust tobacco flavor I like, and also lacks the underlying sweetness I seem to enjoy. Still definitely worth trying as it's earned many fans.

Roda Lacket: Oh Roda, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... Uhm, yeah. This one is possibly the hardest for me to describe. It was one of my first favorites and I'm still very pleased with it, even though my tastes seem to be going through changes. It's fairly mild as far as salt and tobacco go, and has a nice sweetness to it that I find difficult to pinpoint or compare to any common taste. A little fruity? But not decisively fruity. It's just pleasant. A standard 8mg of nicotine, this is a good one to carry around as an all around anytime snus. The flavor goes well with so many things. I swear by a Roda Lacket with a plain latte, and have also enjoyed it with Honey Ginseng green tea, or good old southern style sweet tea, or water, or just about anything. Definitely a must try for anyone. I'd recommend it as a good starter snus as I think it is mild enough. The flavor is unique, but not so unique that it disagrees with many people. Not so much a love it or hate it like some snus, more of a love it or like it.

Jakobsson's Icefruit: Now this seems to be more of the love it or hate it type of snus. Well, maybe not hate it. Most snus is pretty hard to hate, but while there are a lot of folks out there who will rant and rave about this snus, there are still a few of us who apologetically admit to not being so fond of it. My first impression of it was that it had a rather brutally sharp and somewhat chemical flavor to it. I've revisited it a few times since, and can definitely pick up more iciness than the initial sharp ick I got from it. It's not minty, so ice is a pretty good descriptor, sharp and pretty fresh, but it just hasn't appealed to me. I've still yet to really find the fruit under the ice, but I'm going to keep trying. Another issue I have with this snus is that somehow the portions seem bigger than normal, so they feel less comfortable to me and seem to bulk out my lip more. Less discreet :( This is often recommended as a starter snus, and it's worth a shot, though I would consider it too unique and strong for a good starter, it's one some folks fall quite quickly in love with.

Ettan: Another nice "standard" snus. Salt and mild tobacco. This is a great all around anytime snus, and a very good starter snus as well. I've only tried the original portions, and am looking forward to checking out the white portion version in my next order. A standard 8mg of nicotine, this is just such a manageable snus in every way. For someone who just wants to pick a type and stick with it, this could easily be the can they carry around with them every day.

Goteborgs Rape: Yeah, nevermind the interesting name. It is supposed to have special characters I haven't taught myself to recreate yet. Rape means something like "course" or something more appropriate in another language. Us Americans have a lot of fun with it of course, since we like to shorten things this one easily turns into "Gote Rape". Questionable humor aside, this is a pretty popular snus, with a pretty distinct flavor. Tobacco and Juniper Berry I believe. I'm not all that familiar with Juniper Berry, but it's certainly interesting. It sounded pretty tasty, so I was looking forward to this one, but it took a while to grow on me. I like it just fine now, but I tend to group it in my mind to being in the same category as Roda Lacket and a few others, so if I'm in the mood for that sort of thing, I'll usually prefer to just grab a Roda Lacket. So, distinct, but not distinct enough for me to want it specifically. Standard 8mg white portion.

Northerner Energy Snus: I thought an energy snus was an interesting idea. Especially since my alarm clock goes off at 5:10am, and despite getting up so early for 7 years now, I still hate it, and still suck at it. I figured it might be worth a shot to keep a snus on my bedside table and pop it in when the alarm went off. Snooze it a bit and maybe by the time I had to get up I'd be a bit more invigorated and willing. I went for the Northerner Energy because I'd heard the Elixyr energy snus tasted terrible. Well, really, so does this stuff. Mostly it tastes sweet, kinda artificially sweet, and the various energy herbs and such lend it a weird taste that doesn't appeal to me. It's a mini portion, low on nicotine content. 5mg I think. It does wake you up a bit, but not a real big kick. Mostly I've abandoned it because using it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach made me a bit queasy for a while.

Catch Chill Mint/Vanilla: This is a limited edition. Catch is doing a quarterly flavor thing, with one for Jan-March, one for April-June, etc etc. If you want it, go get it if you can still find it. This is a mini portion, only 4mg of nicotine, much smaller portion that fits easier under the lip and is more discreet. Not my thing at all. Not enough nicotine, the flavor is alright, but you don't get as much flavor with the smaller portion. It's sweet, a little minty, didn't notice the vanilla much, but I only tried it once for the sake of curiosity. My biggest beef with mini portions is that a can only comes with 20 portions instead of the 24 that normal large portion cans come with. Yet, for fewer portions with half the nicotine you pay the same amount or more. Makes no sense to my frugal nature.

General Wintergreen: Got this as a free sample, figured it was worth a shot. Whew! Minty fresh. Strong wintergreen flavor definitely drowns out any tobacco flavor if that's what you're looking for. It was too much for me. I like mild sweetness and mild flavor mixed with the tobacco. This one also seemed to burn in the lip a bit more than others, I think something to do with the wintergreen. This snus will probably definitely appeal to some folks who like strong minty stuff, or don't want to taste the tobacco. Just not for me.

Okay, that's as quick and dirty as I get. Still, I've decided to break off the second order into a separate post. Be back soon!

Snus Vs. Cigarettes: Round 2

Alright, here I am, finally back for another report. I'm a little brain addled today, so we'll see if I can cover the couple things I want to here.

First I plan to report in on my continuing experiment with snus vs. cigarettes, of course. Then a little further in hand out some info as to what I think a newbie snuser (snubie ;)) can expect when getting started with snus. This will be based both on my own snubie experience and other general experiences I've picked up from everyone sharing their stories over at the snuscentral forums.

Right-O. So, today marks two weeks to the day since my first order of swedish snus arrived. I've also now marked just about three full days without a single cigarette. Not that long, I know, but it's not something I've been able to say since I was 14 years old.

Some people seem to immediately pick up snus and put down the cigarettes, making a full switch all at once. I still had a few packs kicking around, which made it pretty easy to pick one up when I felt the craving, and while I was pretty determined to quit, I'm not all that good at torturing myself unnecessarily. So I decided to not put too much pressure on myself or the snus , and try and let things take their natural course. I also pretty well convinced myself this path would be more objective in being able to judge snus vs. cigarettes.

In the first days I immediately cut down to 3-4 cigarettes a day, with relapses here and there as I ran into the addiction of routine, the fact that I'd integrated smoking into my life at a point when I was growing up and "defining" myself and my lifestyle. And of course, habits are habits. We get attached to our routines. Not to mention that when you're a smoker, there are often times, especially in the early years, where you really and truly enjoy smoking. The longer I smoked though, the more I realized how many cigarettes I was smoking without even paying attention to them, much less getting any enjoyment out of them. Even at the end though, when I was pretty sick of smoking, incredibly sick of the smell and its pollution of my clothing and of the one room of the house where we smoke, there were still those certain occasions where I found smoking truly blissful.

The first smoke of the morning, while not always the easiest or most pleasant smoke of the day, served the purpose of replenishing nicotine after going through the only lengthy smokeless period of a day... sleep.

The coffee and cigarette smoke. Which has always been one of my faves, naturally, as a huge fan of coffee since a young age. Having been a barista for 10 of the last 13 years, coffee has obviously been a pretty regular part of my life. I really did often wonder if it would ever be possible to quit smoking without making a career change.

The after dinner cigarette. Oh gods above! Is there anything more satisfying than having a wonderfully delicious and filling meal and following it up with a relaxing smoke?

And finally, the random stress smoke. How many times in my life, when things have gotten hectic, when some shit has gone down, when the kids are being batshit or have found some new antic to pull and instantly complicate our existence, has the phrase "I need a fucking cigarette." rolled out of my mouth? It's more than just the ease of getting that nicotine hit. It's a pause. A pause in the situation at hand, a pause for thought. Really probably one of the more truly useful types of smoking situations.

Okay, that's not really all of them. I could throw in the social clumsiness smoke, the awkward silence smoke, the boredom smoke, the you're smoking so I'm going to smoke smoke, the 7 minutes to kill might as well smoke smoke, and on. And on and on. But I digress.

So, fulfilling the nicotine addiction bit is really only part of the challenge. Breaking the habit of reaching for a cigarette in any number of habitual situations is a whole 'nother ballgame. I fought it here and gave into it there, wondering if it would become easier or harder once I didn't have any cigarettes left on hand. So far I haven't found out. I think I still have two smokes left in my last pack. And just to mess with myself, I keep that pack in the inside pocket of my jacket, that oh so convenient pocket I love any jacket for having.

I struggled with and overcame most of the random habitual smoking instances first. Those times when I just reach for a cigarette without really thinking about it. Okay, I still often reached for a cigarette, but most of the time realized I already had a snus in my mouth, obviously didn't need the nicotine, and would possibly make myself sick with the added nic spike of smoking and snussing at the same time.

Surprisingly to me, the coffee and cigarette smoke was one of the first big ones to go. This was probably helped along by cold wet weather, discouraging me from standing out in it. Or perhaps more so by finding that the first snus to become a fave of mine, Roda Lacket, went exceptionally well with a basic, single tall latte. This allowed me to start a new morning routine and replace the old. I now have a Roda Lacket around the same time every morning, usually with a latte, though I switch up my coffee drinks a fair amount.

The biggest challenges ended up being the after dinner smoke, and the stress smoke. After the first week there were days where my only smoke was the after dinner smoke. Other days I might have 2 or 3 smokes, and those were generally random stress smokes.

But in the end what really got me past most of the challenging smoking situations has been the fact that the less I smoke, the less enjoyable I find it to smoke. I relapsed last Saturday and smoked a whole handful in a day, and regretted it quite a bit for how it left me feeling. After that the next couple days each time I gave into a craving and started smoking, I was strongly aware of how little I was enjoying the smoke, how it wasn't doing much of anything for me, that it tasted pretty ick, made my mouth feel dry and pasty, and that while smoking it I was thinking about some sweet and/or salty deliciousness of a snus.

So all in all the experiment seems to be a success on the side of snus. I can't say I don't still have cravings for cigarettes. And I can't guarantee I'm not going to smoke those last two I've got at some point. Three days without smoking isn't making the cravings lessen, quite the contrary. But when I face the craving and think about what it's going to be like to actually go light up, I realize pretty quickly that it's pretty much pointless, and that makes it pretty easy to set aside.

So that's that. The way quitters tend to relapse, I know three days smoke free wouldn't convince any sort of skeptic, but I find it pretty unimaginable that I'd return to my lifestyle of smoking a pack a day.

Now, even if I never smoke another cigarette, I'm still an addict. I don't find this fact exactly thrilling, but am still incredibly happy about breaking the chain of cigarettes. There are so many things about smoking that are pretty negative in nature aside from the nicotine addiction. Over the last two weeks I've fallen in love with swedish snus. So when I post about the stuff, you'll hear me enthusiastically praising it, lauding its virtues, raving about how much I love it, maybe even seeming a bit evangelical about it.

So let me lay out something right here. I may not always say it at the time, but when I talk about how wonderful swedish snus is it will always be in the context of vs. my previous smoking habit, and in the context of a tobacco product, none of which are completely safe or good for you. If you're not an addict you are best of staying that way. If you are an addict and can kick that addiction, you rock. If you're an addict and are probably going to stay an addict, then aim for the least detrimental path possible. For nicotine addicts, that path seems to be snus.

With the cravings I fought and the challenges I found quitting smoking using snus, I can hardly imagine what it would be like to try and quit with some other methods. Other nicotine replacement methods don't seem to offer the same amounts of nicotine, or as pleasant a delivery, and tend to cost a fortune. Of course, their goal is to wean you off nicotine, not permanently replace, but I have to wonder how long it would have taken me to develop a strong enough desire to quit for those to be enough. And cold turkey? I shudder to think.

Alrighty, that's the report. Because of the length it ended up being, and my brain addled and tired state, I'm going to close here and break the post of what snubies can expect in their first days and weeks into a separate post to follow soon.

Snus vs. Cigarettes: Round 1

It's been about five days since my first order of Swedish Snus arrived and I started trying out a selection of brands and varieties, trying to use it to replace my fifteen year addiction to Camel Filter Cigarettes. So not a lot of time on the Snus yet, but enough to feel more familiar with it and to report in on first impressions and general progress.

As an addict whose only form of nicotine delivery has ever been cigarettes, snus is taking some getting used to. I've never tried chew or dip. My father dipped skoal for many years before quitting, and I can remember many a long car ride where he'd put some in and the car would fill with the nauseatingly sweet cloying smell. That and the random Bud cans kicking about with spit in em was enough to form a permanent aversion to the stuff.

I've never had any sort of tobacco juice floating around in my mouth, nor really tasted tobacco that wasn't being incinerated and inhaled as smoke. Nor have I really had many things stuck up under my lip, especially my top lip, which just seems like an odd place to put stuff. So all-in-all this was a brand new experience for me. I'd read so many testimonials from people who absolutely love the stuff, swear by it, and quit smoking, chewing, or dipping relatively easily by using snus, that it was hard not to have high expectations colored by all the favorable commentary.

It took about a week for my first order to arrive from The Northerner. Not bad for overseas mail. I ordered on a Thursday and received it the following Thursday. By the time it got here I was looking forward to it so much, and getting more and more sick of smoking each day, that I "Woohooed!" when I opened the mailbox and it took a fair amount of restraint to keep myself from skipping back across the lawn to the house. So again, it was hard not to color my first experience with high expectations.

I went inside, ripped into the padded envelope and started pulling out the couple handfuls of small round cans, lining them up in front of me. I get a weird aesthetic thrill out of having any multitude of small things, strange, and hard to explain. It's amazing I don't have collections of random objects. I also enjoy design, so laying out these little cans and looking at the various packaging and labeling designs was a joy in itself.

Now to get down to it. I decided to start at the top, with a General Onyx portion. These are technically "White" portions, meaning the portion doesn't go through a final stage of wetting, where the teabag like portion material is saturated with tobacco juice, making it moist and speeding up the time in which you start getting the full flavor and juices from it. But the General Onyx portion material is black, and very smooth. The portions are also arranged in the can in a circular "fan" where they sit up on edge, instead of all just being tossed willy-nilly into the can. It's a pretty impressive package when you open the sleek looking chrome topped black can. The portions are also more tapered, rather than being a plump little pillow of snus. It seemed this might help it fit under the lip better, conforming to the contours of mouth and lip. Though after trying a variety out, I can't say the Onyx really sit up there easier or more comfortably than some others.

Finding the right spot under the top lip for the portion can be a little tricky at first. Really, there didn't seem to be an innate spot where it just fit and sat comfortably. Initially, all portions seem to feel bulky under the lip. You really feel like you've got a huge bump in the front of your face. It can be somewhat surprising to see that it's really not very noticeable, and if you can look at yourself unselfconsciousy, you'll probably realize that to someone who didn't know it was there, they would be able to tell. The biggest effect it has is that you lose some of the natural mobility of that side of your lip. When you talk or smile or laugh, the portion holds one side of your top lip more or less in place, resulting in a somewhat crooked smile, though still not anything too strange or deformed looking.

At first, the portion burned pretty well against the inside of my lip. This is often described as a "tingle" in snus instructions, but it was most definitely more of a burn. This tapered off some after a few minutes, to mostly be replaced with a salt and peppery taste, along with an unfamiliar tobacco taste as the portion "juiced up" as it got moistened with saliva. The juice wasn't really the tastiest thing ever, nor did it feel especially pleasant going down my throat. The sensation in my throat was definitely more of a "tingle" than a "burn", but really wasn't very comfortable at all.

So it wasn't an immediate love. It wasn't an "Mmmmm delicious" sort of experience. I stuck with the portion for about an hour though, giving it the full chance, and waiting for the nicotine to set in. Despite having a higher than normal 11mg of nicotine, I didn't get any sort of buzz off of it, though I certainly didn't find myself jonesin' for a smoke or anything either. For the most part I found myself wanting to get done with the portion, not because I didn't like it, but because I still had a multitude of other varieties to try out.

The real test came the following day, the first day of starting with Snus first thing in the morning and going through a workday with it. I have to say it worked well. I pretty quickly grew to really like the nicotine delivery of the snus, as it gives a much longer lasting appeasement to the addiction. I got a little wound up when I combined my morning coffee with a portion, the caffeine and nicotine together had me twitching along for a bit, but for the most part it seemed the more constant supply of nicotine gave me a more peaceful fix than the quick but short lived burst from a cigarette, that quickly leaves me wanting another cigarette.

As the days have gone by, I've gotten more and more used to the sensation and taste of the snus. I do find it much more enjoyable to snus while having some drink to sip on, and the flavors combine well with a variety of things. I've already decided that Roda Lacket for instance, pairs nicely with my morning latte, while Ettan or Onyx goes better with black coffee. Roda Lacket is so far my favorite, so I've combined it with more things, like Honey Ginseng green tea, delicious. And so far most of them have gone just fine with the dark beers I favor. Overall though, I probably primarily just keep a glass of ice water handy to sip on and keep the portion wet and my mouth rinsed. I've never been a big fan of drinking water, so am probably taking in the recommended amount of daily hydration for the first time in my life. Add that to only smoking about 4 cigarettes a day after so many years of at least a pack a day, and there are some pretty immediate indications that snus is going to be much healthier for me.

As far as quitting smoking, I'm sure that will come in time. From the first portion I tried, my smoking dropped drastically, and since then, like I said, it's been around 4 cigarettes a day. I still find it challenging at times not to smoke, mostly due to routines and habits, and those times when I feel the need for an immediate boost of nicotine. First thing in the morning, after a large meal, when I'm just sitting around with little to do, or most especially when I'm feeling particularly stressed. I'm sure any of these things would be fairly easy to overcome, except that I've still got cigarettes around. I had about two and a half packs left in my carton when the snus came, so until those are gone, I'll probably still find myself reaching for one at times. There've already been more than a few times I've found my hand going for them out of habit, then realizing what I was doing, and that I currently had snus in my mouth, and certainly wasn't craving nicotine.

Even without having entirely quit so far, just dropping to a few a day I've started to notice odd side effects. I've already been startled a time or two when I've sensed odd smells. I've smoked for over half my life, so I'm pretty used to the "normality" of only really picking up on strong, pervasive scents that were in close proximity to me. So it's still catching me by surprise, and giving me that "something is out of place" feeling when I'm in a familiar area, around familiar things, and suddenly smell something unusual, only to hunt it down and realize it's nothing unusual at all.

Cigarettes also are smelling and tasting worse and worse as I go along. Which is one of the reasons I was able to pretty easily get past my initial neutrality towards the taste and sensation of the snus. I knew that cigarettes don't really taste good, how could they? That when I started they were kinda nasty and we really just kept puffing on em to get that nice nicotine buzz. We always said we'd quit as soon as we stopped getting the buzz, that there'd be no point after that. Of course, once you stop getting that buzz, you're hooked. But we were 14, what the hell did we know?

So that's where this experiment is at. About five days in, I'm snussin' all the time, and only smoking a few times a day. Getting more and more used to and fond of the snus, more able to distinguish particular flavors in the varieties, and pick out my personal faves and not so much choices. Putting together a second order to try out some more of the many different types, and get some of the more heavily flavored and mini portions for Ariel to give a shot as so far she's not at all fond of the regular tobaccoey flavors.

Even having a portion in pretty constantly, I've barely made a dent in the first order of 10 cans I put in. That order ran me about $38 with shipping, which in today's market would get me what... not even eight packs of smokes. Obviously the cans I have will last me much longer than the eight days tops $38 worth of smokes would last. Even buying cartons would be $45 every ten days, and $45 worth of snus could easily last twice as long or longer. So the good things keep adding up.

I'll update again on the continued progress of this experiment, once I have a better idea of daily use and have been using it long enough to get more familiar with the flavors and such I'll list off some of my faves and give some tips for picking out varieties to start with.

Carinogens On Your Lips

Well, RJ Reynolds may finally have done the unthinkable. After more than 15 years of smoking, and smoking Camel Filters for all but the initial six or eight month Marlboro "training wheels" Reds period, it may very well be a Camel product that leads me to put down the coffin nails and try out that whole "breathing air" thing.

Surely it's a culmination of a variety of things. Matters of finances, lifestyle, and health adding up to lay more and more pluses on the side of not smoking. And these days, what can really be considered a plus to being a smoker?

Taxes have come and the promise of more coming. There's a market down the street that's always been the cheapest place around and a pack o' crack went from $3.75 to $4.95 overnight. Cartons from $35 to $45. For a smoking household of two, that's an instantaneous increase of $60 to the monthly expenses. $60 added to the $210 already being spent on cigarettes, that is. $3240 a year. You could probably do something better with that chunk of change.

You can't comfortably smoke in public anymore, which was always a lot of fun. At least in Oregon, and probably a few other places. The rest of you, your time is probably coming too.

The only real plus to smoking I can come up with is that greedy addicted one.

I LIKE IT I LOVE IT I WANT IT, GIVE ME A FUCKING CIGARETTE!

I mean, smoking isn't really even cool anymore.

But I digress.

At the same time as Oregon's statewide smoking ban was coming into effect on January 1, 2009. I began receiving emails from Camel about "What do you think of the concept of oral, smokeless tobacco products you could have anywhere?" Ooooooh. Yeah whatever. No really, it made sense. I thought it was good timing on their part, if they could pull it off.

Apparently though, by that point, they already had this stuff developed and out in test markets. So hot on the heels of their hinting at the idea of the thing, it started to appear. Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks, Camel Strips, and CamelSNUS. Innnnnteresting.

Now, I was curious about these products, not as a replacement for smoking, more as an add-on to smoking. Something for those times when you can't smoke, or are totally inconvenienced to go find a place where you can smoke. So when the displays and such started popping up, we inquired about them. Mostly we found out they were going to be around $5, while real live cigarettes were still $3.75. Still they seemed like they might be worth a shot if they weren't a daily habit, an emergency backup of sorts.

Camel solved any hesitancy for me though, when they sent us coupons to try their new Orbs out for free. So yesterday Ariel went out to replenish our cancer stick supply, and cashed in a couple of the coupons. She returned with some "Mellow" flavor Camel Orbs, in a futuristic "child-proof" tic-tac dispenser. Complete with instruction manual.

I probably should have held off on trying these things out until I started craving a cigarette, for science's sake, to be able to gauge how effective they were. But I didn't. I shook the thing around, pried it apart with two hands, and dispensed the little brown pill thing.

Popped it into my mouth and was immediately assaulted by horrendously sweet foulness slowly melting to grainy glop on my tongue. I probably should have spit it out, but I wanted to do it right, absorb it all, see if the result could somehow be worth the experience. I tried sliding it away from my tongue, up between my lip and my gums. This just seemed to distribute the flavor rapidly through my saliva to take over my entire mouth and further enhance the foulness. Ever so slowly it melted away on my tongue. I really wasn't sure at times that vomiting wasn't a possible outcome of this experiment.

As soon as it was finally over and done with, I started searching the net, thinking surely there would be people out there decrying the grand foulness of this product. I searched "Camel Orbs Taste", my google shorthand that I was sure would lead me to various instances of Camel Orbs tasting like crap, shit, poo, goat ass, etc.

The second google result was "CamelSNUS vs. Swedish Snus", followed by a snippet of commentary that included both "Camel ORBS" as well as words like "throw-away" and "disgusting". So I felt I was on the right track to the vindication of my new found hatred through the shared views of others.

As it turns out, these products are still pretty damn new, and possibly not available in all areas yet. So most of the commentary regarding them is still just speculative opinion. I found one livejournal post of a guy who tried the "Frost" flavor and seemed to be saying they were gross while concluding that he liked them. I dunno.

Where I ended up was snuscentral.org, and not directly to the page containing the throw-away and disgusting statements, as the forums are only open to members. So I pretty quickly got entirely distracted from my original mission and started reading about Snus.

WTF is Snus?

I'd seen displays for the CamelSNUS, and knew it had it's own weird little refrigerated display. But I had figured SNUS for a made up name of their own invention. Instead it turns out to be a tobacco product they've been making in Sweden for a couple hundred years. It's tobacco you hold in your mouth, but that you don't have to spit. It comes both loose, like chewing tobacco, or in "portions" little sacks made of tea bag like material that you can neatly tuck between your lip and gums and absorb the nicotine.

So it's smokeless, discreet, and not messy and gross like chewing tobacco. But here's the really big thing. Swedish Snus is treated as a food product in Sweden. Meaning it falls under the mandate of their version of the FDA and has it's production, ingredients, and health effects being looked at and having to fall under certain guidelines.

As a result of this, Swedish Snus is steam pasteurized, and in the process destroys most of the carcinogens found in tobacco. This results in a tobacco product that is 98% safer than cigarettes. Nicotine is still not a healthy thing to put in your body, it's bad for your heart, and possibly for your pancreas. But 98% healthier than cigarettes is a pretty big thing. The potentially cancer causing carcinogens in tobacco products are called TSNA's. The more there are, the more risk for cancer. Chewing tobaccos such as Skoal and Copenhagen range from around a 40 TSNA level up to around 130. Swedish Snus ranges from about 0.4 to 2.8.

Now as for the CamelSNUS, we don't know what the TSNA level is, nor what's in it, or how it is made. Tobacco products aren't regulated by the FDA in such a way that they have to disclose that sort of information to the consumers.

What we do know though, is that CamelSNUS will probably cost about $5 or so, and comes with 15 small "portions" to a tin. Swedish Snus comes in a few different sized portions, and contain as little as 4mg or currently up to 17mg or so, with most normal portions seeming to be right about 8mg. The standard seems to be 24 portions per tin, with tins being between $2 and $4.

Digging around it turns out a great many people have quit smoking by switching to Snus. Especially in Sweden and Norway, but also in the US. From their stories, it seems quite a few have simply picked up Snus and put down cigarettes. That easy.

Sure, they are still addicted to nicotine, but they've gotten rid of all the other negatives to smoking cigarettes. Like... smoking them. Smoke here, smoke there, smoke everywhere. Sucking burning shit into your lungs; something that should probably be reserved for recreational activity only. Not to mention smelling like smoke, not being able to smell to know you smell like smoke, and even if you could smell after years of smoking you can't really breathe deeply enough to get a good whiff of anything anyhow. Oh, and all the coughing, throaty, lung cancery shit.

As with smoking, people who've switched to Snus seem to vary in the amount of their daily usage, but the majority seem to be in the 8-10 portions a day realm. Of course, with various strengths of portion to choose from, that can amount to a variety of levels of nicotine intake. But, financially speaking, 8-10 portions from a tin of 24 means a tin lasts a couple to a few days, and at less than the cost of a pack of smokes, that promises pretty decent savings.

So I'm going to get me some. There's a fairly staggering variety to choose from. We searched local tobacco shops today to see if we might be able to find even a single kind to sample, but alas, no one even knew what I was asking for. So I'm ordering up a variety to try out. It's an exciting prospect. So exciting I've hit that rare point of being more hopeful than cynical.

Mostly, I guess, I'm really very curious to see what it's like to not smoke. I started smoking when I was 14, and I've never tried to quit. Ever. I'll be thirty at the end of this next summer, so having spent the majority of my adolescence and entirety of adulthood to date with a daily habit. With a cloud of smoke trailing me through my daily existence, I really wonder what life would be like without that.

So we'll see. The experiment could be a complete failure, but for a pretty meager investment it is certainly worth a shot. If nothing else, I cannot imagine it could in any way compare to the absolutely foul taste of failure that Camel Orbs left in my mouth.