I'm an American, who's been using Swedish snus since 2004. My search began with the aim of ending my 8 year long smoking habit (14->22 years of age)... with smoking bans on the rise, my teens behind me (read: a new found respect for my health)... I knew it was time to quit. I had seen success with smokeless in the past (namely dip, Copenhagen, Skoal etc) but as a junior executive, the unsightly spittoons, bulging lip and general inability to be discreet just didn't make it a good option for me. As a pack and half (sometimes two) a day smoker, gums/patches just didn't have enough "kick" to satisfy my cravings... so I began googling "premium smokeless tobacco", which led me to Skruf los. I made the mistake of "dipping" it, and after a few unsuccessful attempts and more searching, I learned the art of baking a prilla, and placing it in my upper lip. I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of salivary response, the lack of cravings, and the lack of sickeningly sweet kool-aid/mouthwash flavoring (of dip), the lack of development of leather lip (rough patches... from dip)... long story short, I fell in love with everything snus wasn't. To sweeten the deal, I found a can lasting me 2-3 days which made for quite the savings. In today's market it's at least 1/3 of the cost of cigarettes, even after factoring shipping from Sweden. Further research revealed that the carcinogenic content of Swedish snus was dramatically lower than that of US smokeless (and both being monumentally less harmful than smoking). So to recap, I found Swedish Snus to be an alternative to smoking (and US smokeless) that satisfied my cravings, is cheaper, discrete and less harmful... and I've been a happy snus user ever since. Well, that's the abbreviated back story to my love affair with snus... the purpose of this blog as the title implies is to talk about the different tastes/varieties I've come to enjoy, as well as anything else pertaining to snus. If you start a similar journey you'll find a dizzying number of brands, strengths, sizes etc available... hopefully this will serve as a resource to those following in my footsteps! A little more about me, I'm a corporate food buyer, a foodie, with a strong background in cuttings (comparing flavors), and I'd like to think a very refined palate. As such, I get courted by prospective vendors regularly... taken to the finest eateries in the nation... in other words I'm spoiled by fine taste on a regular basis. Call me a gourmet... call me a snob... call me what you will (trust me, someone has already called me something worse *grins*). Of course, you'll be getting more than a smattering of my taste preferences... so take my advice with a grain of salt or koksalt as it were *grins*.
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