Several times this weekend I caught myself lighting a cig without really thinking about it. I'd take a drag or three, but before I'd smoked the thing halfway down, I would realize that I wasn't getting much pleasure out of it. So I put it out and reached for a snus can. Ah, sweet satisfaction!

I'm trying to make the transition from cigs to snus as effortless as possible. When I've tried to force myself to quit cigs in the past, I always got a rebound effect. The forbidden fruit syndrome, I guess. Telling myself I couldn't have a cig only made me want one that much more. So now I'm not even trying to forbid myself a smoke. I'm just letting snus seduce me away from them, bit by bit. And it appears to be working.

I've also noticed that when I see cigarette smokers on the street, I'm starting to feel just a tiny bit smug, knowing that I can have a cigarette if I want, but I don't need to have one, like they do. A little petty of me, I guess, but it's all in my own head, anyway, and no one but me (and now, you) is any the wiser.

Another first impression...

Oden's Classic Cinnamon

Mmm... smooth. This is a tobacco-lover's snus. There's just enough real cinnamon to enhance the tobacco taste, not so much flavoring that it covers up the tobacco. The flavor is earthy and slightly sweet, with that touch of spice. Seems like a solid, simple, working-class kind of flavor. But that simplicity is a little deceiving. My pipe-smoker's palate tells me there's quality leaf in that little pouch. There's likely some sweetener added, but I think some of the sweetness is coming from the tobacco itself. I get just a whisper of grassiness along with the sweetness, and that means naturally sweet Virginia tobacco, and a quality grade at that, to my tastebuds. And every once in a while I get a hint of a bittersweet, cocoa-like flavor that I associate with premium Burley. Overall, this is a very comfortable, anytime snus -- like your favorite armchair, or that special sweater. I'm a mythology nut, too, so I can't help liking a snus named for the great Norse All-Father, or admiring the wolves and ravens (Odin's favorite animals) embossed on the lid. Another keeper.