Kardus 2006

[Dave***t]

Just had a look at northerner and they have the 2006 edition of Kardus in stock. Anyone managed to try it yet?

After the things I've read people saying about the original limited edition of Kardus, I think I'm going to have to get some.

And what's the snus tool included? Looks just like a large pair of tweezers to me.

[Zero]

It really looks sweet 8) Rather expensive, but if it's even better than normal tin Kardus it may be worth a taste. I'm debating ordering a box with my next order....ah, the internal struggle :lol:

[Dave***t]

Heh, I know exactly how you feel. Although the price is indeed severely steep. A fair bit more than the original edition, I gather? I'm starting to think it might be better to try the 'mainstream' Kardus first and foremost, given that it's still meant to be rather special.

As far as I can tell it's not quite the exact copy of the original limited edition that some people have said, but is it still a marked cut (pardon the pun ) above the competition?

[moisty]

Hmm, quite tempted to give that a try myself, I was impressed with the 'regular' kardus!

They must be pretty confidant that it tastes better than the normal one, as northerner are giving a free can with each box of the 'good stuff' !

[Zero]

Ah, I just caved and bought a box of the 2006 :lol: Anyone fancy a snus-tasting party at mine?

[Dave***t]

Well, in the end I gave in to my sensible side (terrible business, I'll try not to let it happen again!) and ordered a tin of the 'normal' Kardus with my new order to try it out, rather than taking the big plunge.

But please do keep us updated on how the real deal turns out...

[Zero]

Well, my Kardus came in today - it's suprisingly similar to the normal kardus in the tin. It's maybe a bit heavier (seems like it packs into a prilla a bit more easily) but I might have a hard time to tell them apart in a blind test. I'll have to do a close side-by-side to really flesh out the differences. Top quality stuff, though, and the box it comes in is very classy 8)

[StarWing]

Swedish Match (The North American Region, at least) has Kardus Rolls for sale (Free Shipping), but in order to see the ad, you got to turn your pop-up/ad blocker off (or set it to allow all pages from www.swedishsnus.com).

It's 50.00 USD Per roll (again, includes shipping). The cans are 40g of Loose Snus.


http://www.swedishsnus.com/SMNA_US/

You can select Kardus from the drop-down menu (Choose your brand:) or select the Loose link to access it.

[Zero]

Yeah, they've had the rolls of normal tins around for a few months now. They came about after what I imagine must have been big demand for a regular Kardus product. Since 2004, I think they've done a limited batch of Kardus which has sold quite quickly. If you didn't get one or even if you did and liked it, it was a full year before you got a chance to get another. After two years of takers they decided to sell it as a stocked premium product.

[Zero]

I've just found this PDF translation of the booklet (in Swedish) which comes with the tins and boxed Kardus. Interesting stuff.

http://www.swedishsnus.com/SMNA_US/P...-the-story.pdf


Eight steps to Kardus – the world’s premiere snus


1. CULTIVATION

The difference between snus, a smokeless tobacco product from Sweden, and smoking tobacco is big, not to say enormous. Cuba’s greatly admired tobacco, not matter how good for cigar manufacturing, is uninteresting when it comes to snus. Tobacco used for cigars is fermented, which causes it to exude a typical cigar aroma.

There are 67 different types of tobacco in the plant family Nicotiana. The most common snus is Nicotiana tabacum and in certain cases Nicotiana rustica. What complicates the picture is the fact that there are several thousand varieties of Nicotiana tabacum alone. And new ones are continually arising. It is not unusual for a tobacco farmer to discover that a variety has developed in a new direction because of the cultivation methods and soil conditions of that particular farmer and that particular farm. In this way, tobacco is like wine. Pinot Noir grapes cultivated in Australia yield a completely different wine than those cultivated in the United States or South Africa, depending on differences in climate, hours of sunshine, and soil. The same is true for tobacco.

Tobacco is a fickle plant where several variables determine if the harvest is good – among them chance. The plant is an annual, and in contrast to grape vines, has only one year to develop a root system that can absorb nutrients and moisture. Most snus tobaccos need hearty, rich soil and a warm climate. And a skilled and experienced farmer is a must.

Tobacco must be topped. When and how varies, but the plant’s resources must be channeled to the leaves the grower wants. Topping occurs when the plant either reaches a pre-determined height or develops a predetermined number of leaves.

Harvest methods vary. The tobacco to be used in Kardus is harvested exclusively by hand: the entire plant is cut by machete, so-called stalk cutting.

2. CURING

Curing dehydrates the tobacco. During this step, the tobacco matures and aroma and taste qualities are developed. There are generally four different curing methods. For Kardus, we use sun curing and air curing, but avoid curing by heat or fire.

For air curing, the farmer fastens the tobacco plant to a wooden frame, which is then hung in a barn. During curing, which can take a month or more, the tobacco leaves change color from greenish-yellow to brown.
Sun curing is most common in very warm countries. The methods are often deeply rooted in tradition. In India, for example, the leaves are thread one by one onto jute strings that are tied to special frames in the
field. The leaves age for 25 to 30 days. It is easy to see if a leaf has been cured this way because it has a small hole in the stalk where the string went through.

Fire curing is not used because of GothiaTek®, Swedish Match’s own quality standard that ensures consistently high, quality snus tobacco. Fire curing causes the tobacco to exceed the limits for given constituents. Heat curing is avoided because the tobacco is exposed to a high temperature for a short time, which causes the tobacco’s sugar to caramelize. This would result in a snus product that is sticky or gooey.

3. GRADING

There is a difference between the tobacco varieties available. Not only because of climate in various areas of cultivation, terrain conditions, soil, harvest methods, etc. There are also differences in the plants themselves.

Tobacco ages from the bottom up. The leaves closest to the ground are called lugs. They are thinner and have weaker taste qualities than the large leaves in the middle of the plant. Between the lugs and the leaves are cutters. The leaves at the top, the tips, are not fully-developed in either size or character.

Grading means sorting tobacco according to different qualities or grades. The first grading to be done, farm grading, is a rough division that the farmer does him/herself. Most often, the farmer grades the leaves only.
Raw tobacco dealers do their own grading. He – because of tradition, it is almost always a man – judges the quality of the whisks (bound bundles of tobacco leaves) more carefully using five criteria – body, gum and oil, color, luster, and aroma.

Body refers to the leaf’s thickness, feel, and structure. It is a highly subjective judgment based on how the tobacco feels in the hand. Gum and oil refers to the leaf’s wax and oil. This has a lot to do with the current seed type, but also with growing conditions, which are influenced by the weather and soil. Color judgments are based on a brownness scale. Tobacco is usually classed as light brown, medium brown, or dark brown,
but there can even be shades of green, yellow, red, or orange. Luster refers to the leaf’s shine. Snus tobacco can be everything from flat to shiny. Certain tobaccos are so shiny that they seem to sparkle. Describing aroma requires a way with words because the dealer uses the same kind of language that is used to judge wine. Some common terms are dried fig, bouquet, hay, jute, grain, and nut.

Then it is Swedish Match’s turn. We choose what we want from the large selection offered by the raw tobacco dealer. We also choose the quantities. It may, for example, be a question of choosing a gold nuance in a basically medium-brown grade. The grades we choose and their respective quantities comprise our own grade.

The grading for Kardus tobacco is comprehensive and time-consuming. Three crops come from our own fields in Vietnam, Hungary, and Spain. These are small crops. From Hungary, for example, we procure only one carton of tobacco, and the quality check is, therefore, more stringent than that done for ordinary snus. The only crop we buy on the open market comes from India.

4. AGING

The next stop on the road to Kardus is the packaging factory where farmers’ tobacco bales are opened and where we do a through inspection of the grade to be used. Inside the packaging factory, the tobacco is placed on a conveyor belt. The order of the grades on the belt is already determined. The grades are arranged successively so that the flow always represents our own final grade.

The next stop in the process is re-dehydration, i.e. the tobacco is dried again so that its storage condition is stable. At this point, the leaf is transformed from a living plant part to a raw tobacco good. Prior to this step, the water content of the tobacco leaves can vary by three to four percent. After this process, the tobacco grade has uniform water content.

5. SELECTION

Kardus consists of a number of crops, for the same reason as the manufacture of cognac: it is required for the creation of the complex, nuanced flavors that make this snus an outstanding, pleasurable product.
For the production of Kardus, we selected from among all harvests in 2004. There were more than 50, and they came from all over the world; but only four were considered for Kardus. Which four they were, and that there were only four, took months to decide.

The recipe is our core knowledge. Through the testing of innumerable combinations using objective and subjective criteria, Kardus was born. The objective criteria are nicotine content and chemical qualities. The subjective criteria are taste, flavor, and aroma. The subjective criteria often result in discussions that are very lively, not least because the discussions determine the grade.

The four selected crops are the basis of a snus that – according to our tobacco masters – is balanced, flavorful, and mild.

Kardus has a smoky, spicy, tobacco taste that is reminiscent of dried fruit, figs, and plums. It has a noticeable sharpness and a balanced salty-sweet taste, with a touch of cacao. The aroma carries hints of raisin, strong wine, vanilla, and hay. Most interesting, but at the same time most difficult to explain, is the smokiness and hints of dried fruit. We neither smoke the tobacco nor add flavoring. This says a lot about the complexity of snus tobacco.

6. CUTTING

Kardus is cut, as opposed to nearly all Swedish snus, which is ground. Kardus’s taste, therefore, is closer to that of pure tobacco, especially that which has not been flavored. This has to do with cut surfaces and oxidation. Ground versus cut snus has different characteristics similar to pressed versus chopped garlic. The cut structure conveys flavor nuances and highlights that ground snus can never achieve.

Tobacco is cut in one of mainly three ways: fine cut, cross cut, and long cut. Kardus is long cut, which provides a structure that is reminiscent of the long threads of pipe tobacco. This type of cut holds together well in the mouth, despite what one would think. Novice snus users can find it difficult to fit snus of this cut in the mouth comfortably. But by the second try, they have learned. Removing the snus is not a problem either.

7. PREPARATION

After cutting, the tobacco goes directly into the snus mixer. Ordinary salt, which acts as a preservative and flavor enhancer, is added. Snus without salt easily acquires a flat taste.

No flavoring, however, is added to Kardus. We want the taste to be as original as possible, i.e. pure tobacco taste. Flavoring would also destroy the hard work behind the choice of grade. By adding flavor, the effort to find and compare various tastes, and to find new tastes through mixing, would be in vain.

The tobacco is then sweated. Raw tobacco is bitter and does not taste especially good. After a thorough sweating, it is both milder and tastier. Sweating also pasteurizes the tobacco since it still contains bacteria. Now, for the first time, the tobacco is called snus. It is now time to evaluate the aroma. Evaluating finished snus, for example a can of General, can be done by most people. But Kardus is a very special snus. Only a handful of people, with over 100 years of collective snus manufacturing experience, from Swedish Match’s snus factory in Göteborg have the right nose. They look for aromas that in some way deviate from our expectations. No machine in the world can evaluate aroma.

The snus is then inspected and put in a large cooler to mature for a week. After storage, the aroma evaluated again to be sure that nothing unexpected happened during refrigeration. Even consistency, which is important for Kardus, is checked.

8. PACKING

Kardus is hand-packed, which is extremely unusual. But in this case, it involves very small volumes. This year, only 4,000 packages of Kardus will see the light of day.

After a certain amount is placed in the package, the tobacco is pressed. The tobacco cannot be too loose because too much air causes the snus to age faster. But it cannot be too tight either because cut snus needs air.

Kardus’s shelf life is at least the same as that of ordinary snus. Provided that the conditions are right, a certain amount of aging can actually heighten its flavor.

In anticipation of delivery, Kardus is stored in the factory’s cooler. The temperature is about 4° C. Only one person is responsible for transporting Kardus, under perfect conditions in a specially-designed portable cooler, from Göteborg to tobacconists and gourmet restaurants. On site at the tobacconist or restaurant, this person is responsible for making sure that Kardus is immediately refrigerated. Swedish Match must approve the refrigeration capabilities of everyone who orders Kardus.

And so – finally – Kardus is ready to be served.

© 2006 Swedish Match North America Inc.

[StarWing]

Very good - I have seen that article.

BTW, there is an 11-Page Nordic Reach Article PDF (in English) from the Swedish Match site, which discusses Snus, Health Issues, the Harm-Reduction Debates, shows pics and bylines of folks (nice chicks!) of Snus users, and so on. Lots of good info and reading.

You can access the PDF file from it's home page (I can't get the full URL for the PDF file to stay in this message for some reason) if you have your ad/pop-up blocker turned off, or cfg to allow all URLS from swedishsnus.com.

http://www.swedishsnus.com/SMNA_US/

Here's the other half of the URL
ads/nordicreach/snus_thebumpNR17.pdf

Snus On!

[Joe]

Do you think they will ever come out with a Kardis portions?

[Zero]

I doubt it. Seems rather like putting a nice Pinor Noir in a Tetra-Pak, or finding Montecristo cigarettes...not quite what it was meant for.

[Joe]

Well, OK, but I don't see why not.

I really enjoy the snus white minis and they come in a lot of different flavors and quality levels.

I hope they do someday come out with a Kardis portions.

[Zero]

Maybe try a tin of loose - you might find it nice to keep in the fridge and just enjoy at home. I quite like kardus after the evening meal and with a small coffee. You'll see why they would be reluctant to putting it in a teabag - all the subtlety of blended flavour, the months of hard work getting the taste just right would be moderately messed up inside a pouch, I think.