Snus Review: General Classic White (Mint)

 General Mint has been around since forever, at least for what it feels like to me. I did some quick research now though and found out that the General Mint that has only been available in the US came out in 2010 as a regular sized white portion. The mini variant came out a little bit before that though - sadly I have no idea when.

Until recently when the product of this review was released, there was not really that many options for mint flavored snuses here in Sweden. If you were lucky you could manage to get some Thunder Frosted after some store hunting, but other than that the only way to get a mint fix was to either order from the internet or to get yourself a can of Catch portions. That is until now, when Swedish Match decided to make their first Mint brand widely available in Sweden, in almost every store.

I did manage to try the US mint variant a long time ago along with some other stuff I could not get in regular Swedish stores, and I really loved it. It was like a sweet piece of mint gum, for real. Absolutely delicious - it made your breath smell great, it delivered a nice amount of nicotine and it tingled pleasantly under the lip the time it was there, leaving a reminder of the taste even when you had taken it out. You could also "marinate" it in a few drops of Bailey´s, making a minty, after-eight kind of flavor that was simply divine.

Having a portion of the Swedish variant under my lip I can't say that these familiar feelings are coming back. This is much less sweet, and to me tastes more like a natural mint, rather than a sweet candy-like one. According to Swedish Matchs' description of this, they state that this should have a background of the regular General flavor, and I would say my experience matches this (even though the bergamot and citrus are not that pronounced).

It tastes like Mint, but more like a salty mint, with a dash of vanilla that comes through more after the forty minutes to an hour mark. It's pretty pleasant, but to me lacks something that stands out. It's a well-known fact that the American palette generally is more focused on sweeter stuff, and comparing the US and the Swedish version of these two snuses confirms this, and it might be that the Swedish snusers would like the less sweet variant than they would the sweeter one, I don't know. I wouldn't fall in this category though in this case, as I much preferred the American variant of this.

Generally for me, my snus usage is black or white, I either go for a crazy flavored snus that does not resemble tobacco at all, or I go for  natural flavored ones. Something in the middle ground, like the General Classic Mint, makes a little bit irritated, since I does not get a fully flavored snus, or a tobacco one. It jumps back and forth and messes with my taste buds.

It is not bad at all though, the portions are pretty well-packed and very comfortable under the lip, like with all Swedish Match products, and is beautifully presented in a star formation, which as I've said in previous white portion reviews really adds to the freshness and style of a white portion.

The nicotine kick I would say is on the weaker side. It should not differ to other regular portions, but for some reason this feels a bit weaker from say, a Grovsnus White Portion. It does the job, but will not make your heart pound or give you a blasting kick start in the morning, but more a mellow, slow kind of satisfactory nicotine hit. Works very well for me, but when drinking I felt I needed two of these to satisfy.

The can is basically a General White can, with the difference being a light blue circled line around the huge catch lid and and on side. I feel like they could have highlighted that this is a mint in the design, perhaps by making the blue line more visible, maybe making the can itself blue or something crazy. Right now it's extremely alike the General White can, and it's not that easy to tell the difference (the "mint" is in extremely small letters as well). I do like the design, but feel more could have been done to make this really stand out.

To summarize, it's a decent snus for me. I have really nothing bad to say about it, but after having tried the US variant, this seems a little bit bland in comparison. I generally dislike sweet snus, but there was something about the sweeter mint that caught me. I will continue buying this one, probably not that often, but when I want to switch things up a bit. I know a lot of people truly hate sweeter mints, and I think they will love this one, pretty much since it basically is a General portion with a dash of mint and vanilla. I feel I want more of the mint flavor though, and since I love vanilla, making that more pronounced would be awesome. Speaking of that, my dream would be a vanilla flavored snus from Swedish Match, and if you increased the flavors of this snus a bit, and added some sweetness to it, this could be absolutely fantastic.

Good product, but nothing that really impressed me.