For the uninitiated: Snus (Swedish pronunciation: snoose) is a moist powder tobacco product originating from a variant of dry snuff in early 18th-century Sweden. It is placed under the upper lip for extended periods. Snus is not fermented and contains no added sugar. Although used similarly to American dipping tobacco, snus does not typically result in the need for spitting and, unlike naswar, snus is steam-pasteurized. Source: Wikipedia

Snus comes in three forms: lös, portion and white portion:



Lös has a consistency that's very similar to Copenhagen Fine Cut, but a pinch of lös holds together much better in your mouth. Portion snus is the same tobacco as lös, but comes in a lightly moistened pouch, a lot like Skoal Bandits. White portions contain the same tobacco as lös and portions, but in a dry pouch. The flavor of the snus varies a bit depending on which format you put in your face, even though it's 100% the same tobacco in each.

Snus comes in so many flavors, it'd be impossible to detail all of them. My favorites are the "tobacco centric" types, where the main flavor is tobacco with a little salt and maybe a bit of pepper and bergamot, depending on the brand. From what I understand, these are also the preferred flavors of native Swedes. Other flavors available range from wintergreen and other mints, to fruits, berries and melon, flowers, whiskey, rose oil, and juniper, to name just a few.

Comparisons between Swedish snus and American dip, IMO: if you're coming from a tobacco flavored dip you'll probably be interested in Grov, Ettan and General classic. I think Jakobsson's wintergreen flavor is very close to Kodiak wintergreen.

I got into snus as a way to finally quit smoking fucking cigarettes; 26 years of inhaling those goddamn things will probably be the death of me. Problem is that I just love tobacco, the flavor and smell, and the nicotine. Snus gave me a way to enjoy all of that still, but helps avoid the chems in smokes and the sugars and mouth rot of dip. To be clear, snus is a "harm reduction" product. Sweden mandates that all snus ingredients are food-grade, cleared by their version of the FDA, and their standards are much higher than ours.

The way the product is processed removes almost all of the tobacco specific nitrosamines, which are the main carcinogens in smokes and American dip. Mouth cancer in people who only use Swedish snus is practically nonexistent.

Your taste buds will return to good form, your sense of smell comes back, and snus won't make you, your home, and your car smell like burning. The placement of snus under the upper lip and lack of spitting lets you get your nic fix in a covert fashion. It's very hard for others to tell that you've got a pinch or portion in your face unless you use half of a tin at once. I'm 99% a lös user, and the wife unit still approves. That should tell you something.

My favorites, in order, are: Grov lös, Ettan lös, General lös and General Onyx. Onyx is the only portion snus I use. I also enjoy a pinch of Göteborgs Prima Fint lös on occasion.

In my area, BP and 7-11 both carry a few General portion varieties. I get my General lös from an awesome little cigar shop, Cigar King, in Skokie, IL. The others I have to order online, but it's worth it because the snus is SO fresh and ships straight from Sweden.

TL;DR: quit fucking smoking or dipping and give Swedish snus a shot. Chain snus if you have to; I almost always have a pinch in. It tastes better, has equal or better nicotine strength, and won't fucking kill you.

PS: don't come at me with any of that Camel snus bullshit. I will drown you in alpha piss.

I don't get how people get addicted to cigs. I enjoyed them slightly I guess.

I quit them by accident when I smoked about 4 in a row and then ran 2 miles.

Never wanted one again, I figure its something similar to the way you never want a type of food that made you sick before.

Thunder Frosted is good

The only redeeming quality of Camel Snus is that it's carried in most gas stations now.  So if you are in a dire emergency, you at least have access to a stop gap until you can get the real thing.





 

I've read that Swedish snus is much less likely to promote cancer than American snus.  Something about the different ways that the tobaccos are cured.

Many of the adult members of my family smoked when I was a kid, and I was stupid enough to keep that tradition going. It's my fault, I should have listened to the people trying to tell me never to start. All I can do now is try to make better decisions and hope that the past doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. So stupid.  

I've tried a few of the minty snus offerings, and haven't found one that tastes natural. Of them, Jakobsson's wintergreen tastes "best" to me, but the flavors of the snus tobacco just seem at odds with the mint. I haven't tried the Thunder yet, but my local shop does carry it. I'll definitely give it a shot. As far as the Camel stuff goes, they say that they've changed their formula to produce snus like the Swedes that's better and more natural tasting, but the skeptical part of my brain reminds me of how long big tobacco carried on with their "No worries, smoking is fine! Flavor country, no link to health problems, blah blah blah." Just don't trust them. I really don't know whether I'd choose to buy that or a can of Copenhagen in a tobacco emergency. First world problems, I guess.

The bear is correct about the different curing methods. Swedish snus uses mostly air or sun cured, I believe, while American dip has traditionally used fire cured and fermented. I don't know the science behind all of it, just going off of cancer statistics relative to product used.

Oh yes it is, I miss it, I gave it up though.

Nope.

I get even weirder...I take snuff.

No smoke, no need to spit, just take a pinch and blow your nose a few minutes later.

Takes a little while to learn how to do it without blowing your sinuses up, especially with the finer grinds.

Go here if you're interested, or send me a PM.

MrSnuff

ETA: MrSnuff also carries the Swedish types snus...snuses?

Unfortunately, they do NOT carry Death By Snu-Snu...sigh.

General Blue Label

So good

Where do you find the Swedish stuff?  All I see is Cope pouches and shit locally.

OP, tell me about the stuff that is like copenhagen.  Like what brand, where I can get it, etc.

Need to get off the Copenhagen.


Thanks.

Cope every now and then

I don't really use it very often anymore, but I have some Thunder wintergreen right now.

I tried to quit smoking last year by switching to a combo of snus and e-cigs. Didn't take. I didn't like e-cigs at all, but still use snus when I'm working and it's impossible or inconvenient to smoke (working outside when it's pouring down rain, for example). Help cut me down from half a pack a day to 7-8 cigs a day.

I use red tin Camel, I like the taste, give me a break. Plus it's available pretty much everywhere. Had planned on trying the real Swedish stuff but never got around to it. Don't care for mint, exotic flavors, etc., just like the regular tobacco. I did try General, which is available at one chain of convenience stores around here, but didn't really care for it compared to Camel. Maybe I should try Grov or Ettan. Only ever used portions, never tried the loose stuff.

I use Grizzly Pouches as a no smoking crutch. The Snus pouches actually cause me to crave a cigarette for some reason.

For General products, you can use the General Snus Locator. I had to register on their site to use the locator, you will probably have to do the same. The idea is just a basic age verification; can't really blame them for doing that considering how litigious Americans are. FWIW, I gave them one of my legit e-mail addresses, and they have never used it to contact me for any reason. You could probably just give them BS info, to be honest.

When using the locator, make sure you select which product you want to find. Almost all of the 7-11, BP and Speedway stores in my area carry a few General products, but only two in my immediate area carry lös, and neither of those two is a gas station or convenience store. Both are cigar/tobacco specialty shops.

There are a few online options available also. My favorite is SnusCentral. They carry the largest selection of Swedish snus, price per can is usually the best, it's always fresh and shipping is FAST - two or three business days via UPS. The only downside is that shipping is somewhat expensive. I think I paid $23 for shipping on my last order; it was a flat fee. Thank your Uncle Sam and the PACT Act for that. My advice is to order a bunch of snus at once, freeze what you won't dip into immediately, and just keep a can or two (or whatever you normally use) in the fridge. In my area, smokes are upwards of $10 per pack, so making up the difference with shipping isn't hard. Properly frozen, your snus will keep fresh for a year or more.

Other online options include BuySnus and Northerner. In my experience, BuySnus and Northerner are usually more expensive per can, but they do occasionally run sales. Also, the selection on Northerner is somewhat more limited than SnusCentral and BuySnus. Do some comparison shopping and pick what works best for you!

Snus that compares with Copenhagen: Grov lös tastes most like Cope, but Ettan lös is closer in terms of tobacco grind. Both are finely ground, but Grov is a bit more coarse. The difference is almost nit-picky, honestly. In flavor terms, Grov is straight tobacco with a little salt. Ettan is tobacco and salt, but it also has a slightly malty thing going on in the background. Both are great, but Grov lös is my 1A and Ettan lös is my 1B. I keep a can of General lös around for a flavor change-up. Grov, Ettan, and General are all available on SnusCentral and BuySnus. Not true with Northerner.

This is purely my opinion, but lös is the most satisfying in both taste and effect. Give it a shot, if you haven't already. YMMV.

 
If something is less than $55/gram, it doesn't belong up your nose.

This thread finally motivated me to order some real Swedish snus. Ordered a grab bag of cans from Buysnus.com, no mint or fruity flavors, just straight tobacco:

Ettan Loose
Ettan Portion
Ettan White Portion
General Extra Strong Portion
Kaliber Original Extra Tobakssmak Portion
Kronan Portion
Odens Extra Strong Original Portion
Odens Original Portion

They appear to be out of Grov, otherwise would have ordered a couple of those too. I like portions, only got one loose can. Hopefully I can find one flavor/brand I like better than Camel. Camel seems kind of weak to me, it takes the edge off, but not really a one-to-one substitute for a smoke.

I'm hoping I like the Odens, it's cheap :) Camel snus is actually more expensive per "dose" than the stupid expensive American Spirits I smoke.

After having heard about snus from a co-worker of mine, I finally broke down and picked up a can of General Original Portion from Quik Trip. I had been smoking a pipe, the taste of which I enjoyed immensely. Being asthmatic however, I would much rather have found an alternative. Copenhaggen and the like never appealed to me, I never even bothered trying the stuff.
Snus however is discreet , delicious, and apparently statistically safer. I have a portion under my lip as I type this. It's a shame that the big tobacco companies are unwilling to make snus in the Swedish manner. I have a feeling that snus is going to become very, very popular-if the government is doesn't mess things up (like that will ever happen).

It's really cool to see that we've got some snusers around here, and I hope that you guys who are new to snus find it as satisfying and enjoyable as we do.

A few more thoughts:

Edit to OP: When I was typing up the OP, I said that lös was comparable to Cope Long Cut. I am dildos and my brain went sideways. I meant to say that lös snus is similar to to Cope Fine Cut. I've changed the OP to reflect that. I'm sorry for my mind going fucky. What I said about Grov and Ettan is correct, though. Grov is more coarse and Ettan is finer, but the difference is pretty much negligible.

Lös flavor injector: A buddy of mine hooked me up with a Mortar snus tool. This thing packs awesome lös snus into cylindrical servings, and can be adjusted for short, medium and long segments. Pull back the plunger to your desired depth, jam it into your lös can a few times to reach your desired portion length, then shoot the snus into your upper lip, slightly off-center. I don't use it all of the time, usually only in public/social circumstances, but it does prevent your thumb and fingers from turning orange.

SnusCentral and BuySnus both carry the Mortar for $5 or $6. Totally worth it. There are other tools, the Prismaster and Icetool, but they are cheap garbage (Prismaster) or absurdly expensive (Icetool). Mortar = affordable AND quality.

I call it a flavor injector, mainly because "snus syringe" makes my mind think of someone going into an alley to do junkie things.

Copenhagen snuff for me when I dipped.

Loved the flavor plus not many ever needed a pinch bad enough to bum one off of me.

At times.. Its great when shooting

I tried it. At the time I tried it, I was a two pack a day smoker. It gave me nausea, extreme jitters and heart palpitations. I figured if it could do that to a two pack a day smoker, I ought not mess with it. I use ecigs these days.

PNWRN is the only one so far that understands "Snus"...imo.










You put it right here in the "snuff pocket"...







then you belt it up the nose.

The local grocery store used to sell it. It's a fine powder that you snorted and the  post nasal drips gave off the flavors of what the Snus was.

I like regular in the lip snuff better but would have no issues using snus again.





 




I am a current user of regular Copengahen snuff and their pouches, the only two flavors I feel there should be. Actually it's all I feel there should be as snuff is concerned.






 

ETA - Looks like I was wrong in my thought. Snuff is what was inhaled and Snus is what was brought about to put in the lip.


So...again...Copenhagen and Copenhagen pouches.

I snus damn near constantly, especially at work.  Usually place a big order every two or three months from SnusCentral, otherwise pick up a log of General white.  Still occasionally use my e cig, but don't smoke anymore.  I was never into dip, and I don't know how I used to smoke knowing this was around.

Favorites are Islay Whiskey portions (it is amazingly good), skruf sterk los, roda lacket los (and sometimes white), and Grov white.  Nick and Johnny killed off an old favorite, but the Lab 02 slim strong was great for times when I wanted a little more.

Are the health ramifications of snus as bad as smoking or dipping?

Not trying to start a fight or suggest it be banned, I'm just curious.

Most studies indicate it is far safer.
 

All day, every day.





General Extra Strong, General Onyx, and Skruf Xtra Stark are my jams.

 

Snu Snu?

I wish.  I'd ditch traditional dip in a second.

I can't bring myself to pay the exorbitant shipping costs to make an order.  Thanks, government.


Now if several Arfcommers wanted to go in together and split costs, I might be interested....

Have you checked the General Snus Locator to see if it's available in your area?

 
yeah, no stores remotely close.

How is the Goteborges Rape?
http://www.snuscentral.com/regular-strength-loose-snus/47-goteborgs-rape-loose-snus.html

Personally, I don't like it very much. There's a rather strong flavor of juniper, it reminds me a lot of gin, but it is not good mixed with the tobacco. The only flavored snus I've found I like is the Lab lemon, and multiple licorice offerings. I got a really good one last time in a Bag 'o Snus, but can't remember what it was. I'll have to go search.


ETA: found it. Nord66 Nordic breeze. Not always a fan of mint, but I found the mint+licorice to be outstanding.

It's alright as a once in a while, change of pace deal. It's kinda flowery tasting. Taste is purely subjective, though. Order a can and see if you like it. I'd also recommend Göteborg's Prima Fint; I really enjoy Prima Fint. It's a mild, slightly sweet snus that fits in with the "classic" snus group: tobacco with mild citrus in the background.

The cool thing about snus is that it isn't very expensive at all, as long as you order enough to make shipping charges reasonable. I'm happy if I end up paying $4 or $5 per can, and a single can covers my needs for 3-4 days. I pretty much always have a pinch in my face, too. In my area, dip price is on the same level, and smokes are $10+ per pack. When I was smoking, I'd do 2 packs/day easy.

Is all the Los cut the same or does it vary by company?

Not a big fan of pouches.

I dislike pouches, as well. The only portion snus I use is General Onyx.

Lös grind varies by brand, but the difference is miniscule - at most. Think fine cut Cope, or finer. You will not find twigs or pieces larger than 1/10th of a millimeter. Grov is the most coarse I've used, probably at, or slightly finer, than 1/10 of a MM. Snus grind is really freakin small.

My snus of choice is Oden's extreme licorice. I also like General original but it seems it has been discontinued. It was a good after breakfast dip.

Tag

I've got a pinch of General in right now. Just checked SnusCentral, all of the General line appears to be available including Classic (which is original, AFAIK). General also has a Classic Licorice, which might be right up your alley.

Looks like a couple stores in my area sale the general loose snus. Going to try it out before I go ordering online.

I know the EU did an extensive study (like a decade long iirc) before allowing it to be sold in the EU

It's my main go to.



I don't mind the juniper I kind of like it.  



I shared some with an arfcommer (who shall remain nameless) and he put it in his mouth and yelled out "It's like fucking potpourri! in my mouth! what is wrong with you?!"





And it says rape on the can.  I like rape.
 

Sounds kind of iffy in the taste department. I just played this conversation in my head:
"What are you dipping?"
"Goat Borgs Rape."

I ordered from a website OP posted, and didn't even look into the "rape" one.  I don't want to somehow find myself in court or some such shenaniganous shit, and have to say yes to a question asking me if I ordered some "rape".

As my previous post said, ordered on 6/3, shipped from Sweden, just got here.  6/5.  That's incredible.  Got a little variety, spent a lot on shipping for only a dozen or so cans, but next order will be bulk on what I like.

Awesome! I was kinda wondering if they'd get it to you in two days or three, but either way that's pretty damn quick from across the pond.

I'm curious to hear what you bought, and how you like it. That goes for everyone who read or posted in this thread - I wanna know what you think!

It's for faggots.

Care to elaborate? Or did you just want attention?

Damn you all; I'm contemplating an order.

Here's what sounds good to me:


Goteborgs Rape Lime

Jakobsson's Wintergreen

Skruf White Portion

Catch White Spearmint

Skruf Mynta Slim White