Discreet Snus review - will be on going

[jcarlson]

Tom, I believe the owner of American Smokeless Tobacco Co. LLC, was kind enough to send me samples of his Discreet Snus.

I am going to add to the thread as I go through the flavors and review each.

Let me start off by saying a few things in general about this product. The packaging....not a big fan of the logo or layout of the graphics, but I'm a web designer, so I'm picky as hell. To me it looks like a tea package, and the colors add to that. BUT....function wise, it works well.

I was VERY happy to see that they did not go the American Camel route with the pouches. These look exactly like swedish snus mini portions, and are very comfortable under your lip.

I wonder what impact the FDA bill will have on the flavorings though...?

Anyhoo...first up...

STRAWBERRY:

I opened the bag and BAM...a very good strawberry sent hit me in the face. I am usually not into flavored snus, but they nailed this flavor on the head. If you leave it alone once you have it in, the flavor is not at all over powering. However, if you mess with it with your tongue to get more strawberry, you will be hurting from how strong it is. I do not recommend fiddling with the portion.

I kept the portion in for about 30 minutes, and while I could tell that the flavor would last a lot longer, I was getting very....not sick....more like just tired of the strawberry.

I could never do this snus more than once a day, but it would make a GREAT dessert snus after a very large meal.

For those like me, who mainly use sterk/stark, I don't think I would recommend doubling this up. Ya, you might get more nicotine, but you would also get more strawberry. Trust me, and more and this snus would be pure candy. As it is, it is a very nicely flavored, mello snus. Just not something I use very frequently.

Good job Tom on making a nicely flavored American snus. Kicks Camel's ass by a LONG shot. I actually can't wait to try the others!


I will post about the other flavors as I go....I believe I will try peach next.


EDIT:
I lied...I tried...

COOL MINT

Nothing wrong with this flavor either. If someone replaced all the portions in a General Mini Mint tin with these, I wouldn't even notice. Again, nothing over powering. This is what surprises me. I would expect it to just knock me down...which the smell does, but NOT the taste.

Very subtle flavor. I sometimes like CatchDry Mint Vanilla as an after dinner snus, and I can easily see this one doing the same. Again Tom, you are on the right track.

I wonder though, while these flavored snus are actually pretty good, how well they would do just with a more traditional tobacco taste.

I have to reiterate (sp??), while I really like the flavors of these, the nic content is way too low, and after about 30 minutes...I'm done with it. Can only take so much. Huh...the bag actually says can last up to 30 minutes. I think flavor wise it could last for hours, but I seriously can only have that in for a short while. Then I need my Skruf Stark los or a Grov Svart.

[tom502]

Now, I don't wanna be negative, and I am sure the maker is a great guy. But really, these are mini candy snus. And if one likes that, that's great. I gave my buddy these, and he likes them. I personally don't like candy snus. I wish an American company would make a standard size real snus based on the Swedish style, and it seems no one wants to do that. Best I have found so far, is the American company Tourney/Grand Prix, but they are made in Sweden, and a medium size.

[jcarlson]

I would agree. This is pure candy snus. Nothing I could do more than 1 a day.

I just think Tom did a great job at what he was trying to accomplish. He obviously wasn't going for the traditional Swedish snus. He put his own spin on it, and it works well. He did send me a package of Full Flavor, which I believe is his normal tobacco flavor, so maybe that will be different. I'll find out.

For what it is though, he did well. I don't think we will see a type that most of us here are looking for come from an American company.

[zmanzero]

i also have received some samples of discreet from tom, and i gotta say i like 'em. discreet, in it's present form, really couldn't be my "go to" daytime snus, it doesn't have the nic kick i personally need to be that. where i really like discreet is in the late evening when i'm winding down and getting ready to sleep. they are tasty and small and really have a lot of flavor, and that flavor lasts a loooong time. i fall asleep with one and it still has flavor in the morning. as far as for flavors, there isn't one flavor i received that i didn't like, but the peach flavor has gotta be my fave. it smells like peaches, it tastes like peaches, and man 'o man, the flavor lasts a loooooong time.

i really wanted my neighbor to like these, and he loves the cool mint flavor, but it did not have enough nicotine for him. he's a cig smoker and he's seen how i quit using snus, so he wants to do that also. i gave him my general mini-mints and that was the perfect nic hit for him, maybe tom could up the nicotine level a little in the current product.

i also would love for discreet to come out with a more traditional swedish style snus in the one gram portion size with an average nic hit, hey, maybe down the road we'll be able to get a product like that from discreet. they could call it the "swedish style" snus, americans like the "swedish style" label. :wink:

getsnus is gonna be carrying discreet and that's going to make it easy to order, and that's a good thing. i like these little suckers at night and to get a break every once in a while from the daytime diet of los and es portions.

they're like little "treat" tidbits to change it up.

[MasterGuns]

I've tried the Emerald Ice, Cool Mint, and Peach.
First off though, I have to say I'm glad to see an American Company really give it a go at snus from the ground up. I wouldn't go so far as to call this "traditional" in any way. What I will say is that it tastes like what Americanized snus probably should taste like. It's not repackaged dip tobacco that you happen to put in your upper lip and that may/may not be pasteurized. As far as that goes, this stuff is the real deal: it's pasteurized, you can tell a real difference between the tobacco here and the tobacco in say Camel, and the flavors taste more "real" to me.
That being said, I can't see myself using more than just when I'm in a situation where I want a snus but can't because say I'm at a family dinner party or something where I don't want everyone eyeballing my lip. I will keep it around for just such occasions, though, as it's PERFECT for them.
I like the Ice and Mint flavors very much. Ice a little bit more so. It really tastes like what I would imagine green ice would taste like. It's refreshing, sweet enough, and doesn't make me gag like Camel.
The Cool Mint is pretty good too. I double-barreled that today and enjoyed it, though when it started to run the sugar got to be a bit much for me.
Peach is definitely not for me. I think I'll still use what's left in the sample I was sent because I can see it going well with sweet tea. But honestly, this is the only flavor so far that reminds me of Camel in a bad way.
I look forward to trying the Strawberry.
I hope Tom keeps at it and develops a full range of products. From what I've read this seems to have taken off a bit better than other American Snus brands. I think that once it has a chance to grow, we will see more and more "traditional" type products start hitting the market.

[badlands]

Camel frost got me off cigarettes. have to keep a portion in my mouth pretty much constantly though. i smoked a pack and a half a day for over 20 years as well as dipped Copenhagen off and on all of my life..so I am a straight nicotine head.

Discreet full flavor is the only type I have tried. I don't really enjoy flavored tobacco. At first I was disappointed by the lack of nicotine in the portion. The straight tobacco flavor is actually pretty good though. I decided to double up the portions and lemme tell ya..that did the trick.

After an hour with a couple of portions in, my nicotine level was cool for an hour or two as opposed to having a constant mouthful of air freshener with Camel Frost.

I have yet to try any Swedish brands (have ordered general onyx and claq qui) so the Camel types are all I have to compare this with. I won't be buying anymore Camel. Discreet is cheaper and tastes MUCH better.

[jcarlson]

PEACH:

See what I said about strawberry, only change it to peach. Mello and good. For about 1/2 an hour. Then I am done with it.

FULL FLAVOR:

Ok...met one I didn't like. Take a regular tobacco taste and add sugar. Blah. Couldn't even keep this one in for 10 mintues.


To the above poster, you are in for a treat if all you have had so far is Camel and Discreet. Onyx is very, very good. You will be shocked by the difference. You also chose the Cadillac of General. Me like Onyx a LOT.