a couple things i do to maximize my snus enjoyment

[orangewhip]

-it usually takes me a few days to get through a tin of snus. i keep my tin in the fridge, when i go out i have an extra tin that i put whatever i'm going to use while i'm out. i always throw a couple more in that i think i'll use to be on the safe side. my orders take 5-7 days to show up, so that plus a few days of having the tin in my pocket can really downgrade the product. since i've been doing this, it's so much much better.

-often, when i make that tin transfer i snip off the excess paper from my portions with scissors. no more of those annoying corners bothering me.

[Cap'n SnusBeard]

When using portions (which I increasingly rarely do these days), I tend to just fold the corners over, or push the portion really high up above my teeth, so as not to bother me.

[riff]

Since reading the tips on this forum, I am becoming a much better informed snus user!

But in my early ignorance, I did not put the portions I was using in the fridge. Better late than never, I thought... Now, having taken out a can of Catch white mini licorice portions, they taste, well, weird. Seems to be a very strong, almost bitter, flavor. I end up drooling like a St. Bernard, and have to take it out after a few minutes. ops:

Have they gone bad? How can one tell if they've gone off???

[Craig de Tering]

I think these reports of snus going bad are greatly exaggerated.

I have yet to throw away "bad" snus after a week or two outside of the fridge.
What I have thrown away:
* Opened can of portion snus (Skruf tranbär) that stayed in the fridge (not freezer) for months and months and months on end.
* ..uhm, nothing else I can think of right now.

I think the "bad taste" will be mostly between the ears (maybe because of reading other peoples' stories here?) or changing/developing tastes.

[Zero]

Same here. I find snus will lose flavour slowly over time, but nothing drastic and nothing off-putting - just not quite as fresh and nice as a nice, new tin. I've yet to throw out any "bad" snus.

[Subtilo]

In the beginning I was almost religious about keeping my snus cold. And there is no doubt in my mind that a nicely cooled down hit is far more enjoyable than a pocket warm one ... but these days I just don't care so much about it. Had tins that never went to the fridge after they left the freezer and they where all fine. It's true that the taste gets weaker by time but sometimes it also develops in new and quite interesting directions.

I always tend to keep one, two or three different kinds of snus in this little wooden chest by the old leaking window in front of my 'home office'. As the sun never comes around this corner of the frame, the snus will keep a cool and natural temperature. This - of course - doesn't work in the summer ... but for the most of the year its perfect (at least in this part of the Northern Hemisphere.

[carotevi]

All tobacco goes through a normal aging process. I am not an expert but tobacco has been grown in my family (for personal and small sales) going way back. I am guessing but since aging helps bring out the stronger smell then it would also bring out a stronger taste too. I would also guess that aging would occur faster in a smaller mass of tobacco such as the amount in a portion verses a 50 gram can.

i have never had any loose that i felt was too bad to use. I have had certain brands of portions that were sick sick tasting.

I have used loose and portion snus out of refrigeration that was six months old and was almost as good as the day i got it. But there is a brand or two of portions that change taste within two weeks no matter what. There are certain brands of portions and loose that don't change much even without refrigeration even after 2-4 weeks.

I have used frozen snus that was over a year old and it was fine.

So can snus go bad? I bet I could send you some portion snus that you could not or would not want to use but is it "bad"? ;-)

I should mention that most of my snus use has been flavored snus. Also i think those may be the ones that go "bad" the quickest.

So Zero from what i have read it sounds like you come from a science background... would the tobacco change over time or would it be the flavorings losing strength over time?

Does the tobacco in snus go "bad", change taste, does flavoring change or lose strength, could ten year old snus kill a person or just taste so bad they want to puke or give them cancer faster? or maybe ten year old snus might be better than fresh? Why do they refrigerate it in the first place?


Just throwing something out there to see what i can stir up so don't take me too serious boys ;-)