Today we'll be talking about:
Thunder Chewing Bags: Frosted and Original
Thunder Chewing Tobacco: Original, Lemon, Melon, Caramel Vanilla, Wintergreen, Apple, Raspberry and Frosted.
Before we jump into the reviews, let's look at Thunder Chew compared to Thunder Snus.
Looking at the two products above, they aren't too different. Thunder Chew Bags look to be similar to white portion snus, whereas Thunder Snus Portions are original snus portions. As far as the feel of the portions, the tobacco in the chew bags feels to be a little more solid, so you have to break it up and roll it around in your fingers a little bit. The tobacco in the Thunder Snus Portions is a little softer and doesn't require too much fluffing or rolling before you put it into your lip.
The difference between these two is much more different. Looking at Thunder Los Snus vs Thunder Chewing Tobacco, the grind is completely different. Thunder Los is more finely ground, but Thunder Chewing Tobacco is in a big clump and looks a lot like a ball of mud or clay. But I will say this, I absolutely LOVE the grind of this stuff. It is so easy to handbook and stays together so well in the lip. I wish more tobacco products were available with this grind, because it is absolutely perfect.
I know a few people who use Thunder Chewing Tobacco and they use it as a springboard to make their own snus portions with things like the X-Tool Portion Maker, and X-Tool Portion Bags. My personal preference for making your own snus pouches is to use Prillan, from Snusory.com. We did a review and how to video if you're interested in learning more about the process.
Now, let's talk about each product.
Still Produced:
Check out our new review of this product, here!
As far as the Thunder Frosted Chew Bags go, they're pretty close in flavor and nicotine strength to Thunder Frosted Extra Strong White Portion Snus. The aroma is a mellow and slightly sweet spearmint smell. The snus has a little tingle/burn when you put it in your lip and the flavor is a fresh, clean spearmint taste. The nicotine content is much like regular Thunder Snus, it feels like it's around 17mg/g of nicotine.
Check out our new review of this product, here!
I expected this one to be close in flavor to Thunder Original Extra Strong Portion Snus, but it was a little different. The aroma is a light tobacco smell. The flavor, on the other hand, reminds me more of Phantom Classic White than Thunder Original. It's a very light tobacco taste with a very mild hint of citrus and a slight dash of pepper flavor in the background. The nicotine content feels to be around the 17mg/g mark, as well.
Check out our new review of this product, here!
Thunder Frosted is easily V2 Tobacco's flagship product. It comes in 10 different formats (12, now, including Frosted Chewing Tobacco and Frosted Chew Bags). Thunder Frosted Extra Strong was one of the first products I fell in love with in 2009 when I started snusing. The aroma is a slightly sweet spearmint smell, and the flavor isn't too different form other varieties of Thunder Frosted. When you put the tobacco in your lip, there is a slight burn/tingle. The flavor is a slightly sweet and refreshing spearmint flavor.
Check out our new review of this product, here!
When talking about Thunder Original Chew Bags, I mentioned that they taste closer to Phantom than Thunder. When it comes to this one, it's actually closer to Thunder Snus than the chew bags are. The aroma is a strong smell of tobacco with a slight hint of citrus in the background. As far as the flavor goes, it's a very present, earthy tobacco flavor with a very mild hint of citrus in the background. This one is pretty close to Thunder Los Snus when it comes to the flavor profile.
Check out our new review of this product, here!
I'm not the biggest fan of wintergreen, but Snubie.com has a lot of readers who enjoy the taste of wintergreen, so I write about it and try to remain as partial as I can and approach the flavor objectively. When you open a can, the aroma that comes through is very close to what American dip/moist snuff wintergreen smells like. The smell and the taste are very straightforward wintergreen and remind me of and reminds me of Grizzly Wintergreen. It has a very slight touch of sweetness to it, but it's a pretty self explanatory flavor. If you've ever had American dip/moist snuff, particularly the Grizzly brand, this flavor reminds me a lot of that.
No Longer Produced:
NOTE: This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.
Raspberry is a relatively new flavor when it comes to V2 Tobacco. This flavor (in snus format) was launched in 2013 after V2 had a contest on their Facebook page to see what flavors their fans wanted. Raspberry was one of the two that won. The aroma of this one is a natural and mellow smell of fresh raspberry. The taste is a very clear and fruity flavor of raspberry. It's not overbearingly sweet, and comes through in a very natural way, much like raspberry preserves.
NOTE: This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.
When I reviewed this stuff in June of 2014, Thunder Apple Snus was one of my favorites of the 2014 Thunder Limited Edition. I love this stuff in the los/chewing tobacco format. When you open the can, a fresh and natural smell of apples comes through. The flavor is a very refreshing apple taste with a slight nuttiness to it. I've said it before, but V2 has truly mastered how to make an apple flavored snus.
NOTE: This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.
This one ranked very highly for me, as well, when the Thunder 2014 Limited Edition was released. When you open the can, a mellow and slightly sweet aroma of caramel comes through with a very slight hint of vanilla in the background. The caramel flavor is in the front and the more dominant flavor, with the vanilla mixing in gradually in the back. The two blend together to form a great flavor. It's not too sweet, but has a nice dessert type flavor to it.
NOTE: This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.
This was another one that was part of the Thunder Limited 2014 Edition. There aren't many lemon flavored snus/tobacco products out there, so it was neat to see someone take a stab at it. The aroma is a mellow aroma of lemon. The flavor is much the same, straightforward but tart flavor of lemon with a very mild salt balance. If you're into citrus or bergamot tastes, this is a product I'd recommend trying.
NOTE: This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.
This was another product released for the Thunder Limited 2014 Edition. There really aren't many melon flavored snus products out there - there's Jakobsson's Melon and Olde Ving Melon - but that's about it. When you open the can, a fresh aroma of melon comes through, but it isn't too overbearingly sweet or anything. The taste is a natural and mild flavor of melon, much like watermelon. It isn't too sweet, and is actually a pretty mellow and balanced flavor.
Lundgrens-snus, up and coming in Norway, 2 new launches this february :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fiedlerlundgren.se/#!/produkter/lundgrens-norge/lundgrens-forbakad-norsk
very happy you did this review. I was putting together a list of snus/snuff I want to buy and saw they had different flavors in non portion/chew bags. I now really want to try them all.
ReplyDeleteClassic raspberry is my absolute favourite.. It's taste is great even tho it's ultrastrong(for me this is the only ultra strong tobacco i can chew for a long time withouth getting tired of the taste).. Compared to other ultrastrongs(frosted, which has REALLY pushy flavour you'll learn to hate after a while and wintergreen, which is.. well.. what i imagine pine scented urinal refresher tastes like) it's just that much more pleasant..
ReplyDeleteI'm an american who is living in the UK. The only chew I can get my hands on here is Thunder Chewing Tobacco. I just tried it for the first time and I'm a bit confused by it to be honest. I'm used to Skoal/Grizzly/Copenhagen etc. but Thunder is like a paste as you said. I have it in my lip and I'm not really enjoying its consistency. I purchased 4 tins of it. I think I'm going to purchase some empty pouches and make my own.
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