New General Snus, Catch Snus, and Goteborgs Rapé Snus for 2012

Swedish Match today announced the the upcoming release of new General Snus, Goteborg’s Rapé Snus, and the first Catch Collection snus for 2012.

On Week 5 (begins 1 Feb) and GR’ Kardus will be released.

Åre, Sweden is one of the top ski resorts in the world, named #1 by Condé Nast Traveller in 2008. My only attempt at skiing resulted in chaos, mass panic, and ultimately my smashing into a retaining fence. I’ll buy the Goteborg’s Rapé Åre Edition to impress folks at the ski lodge while describing my past Olympic Ski medals as I sip brandy while wearing a phony cast on my leg.

The Goteborg’s Rapé Kardus Edition is 250 grams of loose Goteborg’s Rapé wrapped in the traditional ‘letter snus’ or ‘kardus’ style. It will be available for several months.

In the General Snus brand line-up, General Strong Mini White Portion Snus will become available in Week 6 (begins 6 Feb). As the name states, General Strong Mini White will come in cans of 20 half gram white portions arranged in the unique Swedish Match star formation.

Since Swedish Match has switched to listing nicotine amounts as percentages instead of milligrams per gram or portion, I have no idea how much nicotine this snus contains except to say more than a General Mini White Portion snus. Hopefully either the world will discover a conversion formula which is accurate every time or the manufacturers will go back to the traditional measurement standard so we can stop guessing how strong is strong snus.

None the less, mini white portion snus fans now have a higher nicotine alternative without giving up comfort.

Some great news for nicotine fans; also being released in Week 6 is the long awaited General Long Extra Strong Portion snus! Seeing as how the weight and nicotine percentage are the same as Lab Series 06, I’m somewhat comfortable ranking this snus at around 20mg/portion nicotine.

Now the bad news: As of today, General Long Extra Strong Portion will only be available over the counter in Norway.

Moe Unz, Snus Lord of SnusCentral.com has already launched a campaign to make General Long Extra Strong snus available through Snus eStores (primarily his. Moe doesn’t feel like driving to Norway any more than you do to pick up this long anticipated ultra strong snus).

I’m meeting with the good folks at Swedish Match during Week 6. If our friend Markus Ersmark hasn’t had his legs accidentally broken during Moe’s “Give us General Long Extra Strong Snus or else” Campaign, he will be attending with hopefully good news. If not…….I am not responsible for the actions of the SnusCIA Black Ops Team. The SnusCIA also denies having anything to do with the mysterious 2011 disappearance from Swedish Match of Joakim Blom. It is mere coincidence that Joakim disappeared soon after a meeting with Moe.

The 2012 Catch Collection of Snus also begins Week 6 with the release of Catch Lafayette Street Spearmint Mini Portion Snus. The only Lafayette Street of any note which I’m familiar with is in the Soho district of New York City. I have no idea if this is the Lafayette Street Swedish Match is referring to or how it relates to spearmint. Whatever the case, the can graphics are pretty cool.

On a sadder note, Swedish Match has decided to discontinue production of General Smooth Medium Portion Snus during Week 6 as well. Apparently they didn’t sell as well as expected in Scandinavia. As with all things which end badly, I also suspect the French were somehow involved too although I can’t imagine how. Farewell General Smooth! I’m an American so I had no input on this decision, so don’t hate me General Smooth.

The complete photo line-up of these new Swedish Match snuses can be found on the SnusCENTRAL Facebook Page in the photo gallery. Don’t forget to enter the “Win 50 Cans of your Favorites Snuses” Sweepstakes while you’re there too! The sweepstakes ends 20 January 2012.

As always, enjoy your REAL Snus!

LARRY WATERS

Swedish Snus Ambassador to the United States
Reporting for SnusCENTRAL.org