Göteborg's Rapé One - Review (Discontinued). 31 August 2017.

NOTE:  This product has been discontinued and replaced with One Blå (Blue) - check out that review, here!
Today we are talking about Swedish Match's latest release - Göteborg's Rapé One Original Portion! When I heard about the new product series I was rather excited to hear that it was two new General products and one Göteborg's Rapé product. These are my two favorite snuses, so it's pretty exciting when there's new variants of my favorite snus products. These products were made in partnership with Alexander "The Mauler" Gustafsson, a MMA fighter in the UFC and massive snus fan!  These products came with a new can design and  different attributes than regular General and GR snus products.  Even if you know and love General and GR, you may find yourself surprised with how much better these little changes made these products!

Swedish Match describes these products by saying, “STRONG, SOFT AND TASTY: For centuries, Swedish Match has been synonymous with the Swedish snus. When we develop a new snus, we build both our long experience and our curiosity for the future. But above all, we look forward to listening to our world. For us, always the goal is to create snus with just the features that snusers demand.” Patrick Hildingsson of Swedish Match said that 14 different tobaccos were used for the One products, and a new portion material was also used. They're calling One the "Modern Premium" format, which is between their premium products and their value priced products, such as Kaliber.  Patrik Hildingsson said Swedish Match wants "to raise quality and taste for price-conscious snusers, and I think that we will achieve with General and Göteborg's Rapé One."

To develop these products, they Swedish Match turned to Alexander Gustafsson. They knew about his interest in snus and during a visit to the Swedish Match store they asked him what he wanted in a snus. He said the products should be General or Göteborg’s Rapé, should have a traditional design, but be softer, stronger, and more filling under the lip. Swedish Match went back to the drawing board and looked at every step in manufacturing such as the choice of tobacco, where it came from, how it was processed, and how it was packaged. In the end, this new series had all the products Alexander was looking for in a snus. These new products have three defining characteristics: softer tobacco through a new manufacturing technique, more strength and taste through a new way of refining tobacco to snus, and fuller portions through a new way of treating the tobacco.  It's interesting to note that on the white portion versions of General One and Göteborg's Rapé One, Swedish Match released some "test products" known as General 22 White Portion and Göteborg's Rapé 22 White Portion. These were only released in Sweden, but they were to gauge consumers feedback about some new product features. I tried them several months ago and did reviews of them. They were presumably released to see what people thought of the new features that would be coming in these products.

The product description for this one says, "Göteborg Rapé One represents our latest manufacturing technology that gives the snus new features, developed by Swedish Match together with the snuser Alexander Gustafsson. A strong flavor, which at the same time is soft and tasty. The flavor is the same that has always characterized Gothenburg Rapé White - light and spicy tobacco character with clear elements of lavender and juniper, as well as some wood and citrus." This product comes in a 17.6 gram can with 22 portions for 0.8 gram portions.  The nicotine content is 1.4% (14mg/g) which breaks down to 11.20mg/portion.

When it came to reviewing this one, my main point of curiosity would be rather or not this one was the same as the GR 22 I reviewed a few months ago. From what I can tell, it appears to be the same product. When you open the aroma, the familiar smell of Göteborg's Rapé greets you: a present smell of juniper accompanied by light floral notes and a mild herbal presence. The juniper aroma is quite present, with the floral/herbal mixture in the background. The portions are incredibly soft, as is the tobacco inside the pouch. These portions hardly need any fluffing, which is very interesting! Usually, the star formation causes portions to be wedged with the tobacco clumped towards the end, however with these you don't have as much clumping as usually white portion/star formation products. Though the portions are lighter, weighing in at 0.8 grams each, but they still feel very full and plump in the lip. When it comes to the flavor, it's still the traditional GR flavor: a present flavor of juniper, a mild hint of citrus, and light herbal/floral notes in the background. As with GR 22, I notice more tobacco peeking out of the flavor, which I didn't pick up as much of in the regular GR. Also, the juniper taste seems to be more bold with this one than regular GR. When it comes to the nicotine, it is a bit stronger than your average snus, but it isn't too strong. I notice a little extra kick, but it's not too overbearing. The flavor also lasts a long amount of time; I've found I can enjoy this snus for an hour to an hour and a half!  The entire ONE series is good, I really enjoy this one, and General One Svart (Original Portion).  (2023 Update:  That one also relaunched, now called One Svart.)

So, if you're a fan of regular GR, this is a must try. The portions feel great, the flavor seems more enhanced, and it has a neat looking can. A special thank you to Michael Kristensen, a friend of Snubie.com, and Bengt Wiberg, of Sting Free Snus, who helped get these products to us for review!