You may have heard of both of these things mentioned in the title and might not fully understand not only what each of them are, but what the difference is between the two because to the naked and uneducated eye, they both look the same. Plus, the fact Nicotine Pouches were inspired by Snus pouches as well, so they really are similar! Although Snus doesn’t come flavoured where as you can buy Nicotine Pouch flavours in a variety of options as well as varying nicotine strengths also.
But there is quite the difference between the two, with one being considerably safer and healthier to use, as well as being legal to purchase in the EU compared to the other which is only available in specific countries. But which one is it?
In this blog, I’m going to take a look at both Nicotine Pouches as well as Snus pouches and detail exactly what each of them are, and the properties of each. And explain why you can only buy Snus in certain countries, whereas you can buy Nicotine Pouches in near enough all countries in the EU. Let’s get into it!
History Of Snus And What It Is
Let’s start this off with taking a good deep dive into what Snus is! Snus originates from Sweden, and the first inception of these pouches stems right back to the 1700s, where a simplistic version of them were made by getting tobacco leaves and stuffing into a fibrous pouch and these were used by the aristocratic society in Sweden, with an even mix of men and women choosing to use this new way to consume Tobacco and get Nicotine. The cans were small in size and normally made of gold or silver to really make it upper class and appeal to the higher society of Sweden.
Fast forward several hundred years to modern day, and Snus is still widely used and distributed in the country of Sweden, but it’s used by pretty much all classes of people rather than it only being marketed to the upper class like it was back in the 1700s.
Snus pouches are small pouches that contain a moist tobacco mix and falls under the “smokeless tobacco” category for Nicotine. They’re used in the same way as Nicotine Pouches, where they are placed in the mouth between the upper gum and lip and the nicotine from the tobacco leaf is absorbed through the gum.
Due to the fact that these contain actual tobacco, they were banned from sale in all countries within the European Union back in the early 1990’s, and remain banned from sale including in the United Kingdom as well. This is because there was significant fears of the risk involved with using oral tobacco products, coupled with aggressive marketing techniques used by Snus manufacturers back then also.
So this left a gap in the market for Oral Nicotine products, that did not contain tobacco and carried a minimal risk factor with them…I wonder what came long next?
Along Comes Nicotine Pouches!
It was a considerable gap in time before somebody came up with the clever idea of taking the concept of Snus, but offering a much safer and healthier alternative for Oral Nicotine products, and this is how the idea of Nicotine Pouches came about!
Nicotine Pouches are very similar in design to Snus, as they were inspired by the design of Snus, but instead of moist tobacco mixture, they actually contain a moist powder form of Nicotine, as well as flavourings and other essential ingredients needed to make the pouches.
These are available to buy in most countries in the EU, excluding Netherlands who have recently banned them from sale, and they are also hugely popular in the USA also!
Are Nicotine Pouches Safer Than Snus?
Simple answer is yes, they are safer than Snus! This is because Tobacco contains carcinogens and other chemicals which will be ingested via the mouth, where as Nicotine Pouches only contain Nicotine which is an addictive chemical, but it is not harmful and there has not been any scientific fact based evidence published that shows a person has come to harm from ingesting Nicotine.
Hopefully this has helped you understand the difference between the two things, and you’ll make the right decision to buy a can of Nicotine Pouches and try it for yourself!
