Meet General & Göteborg's Rapé One. 14 August 2017.

Today, Swedish Match has unveiled their new General and Göteborg's Rapé products. I've been following these for quite some time and it's been an interesting process. Back in March 2017 I received some photos and intel that Swedish Match had some test photos out of products in the General and GR range entitled One, Neo, Cloud, Trind, Stroft, and Shift. Then, in June 2017, Swedish Match released General 22 and Göteborg's Rapé 22, which were released in Sweden and served as a test for some new features. When I reviewed them I found the portion and tobacco to be quite soft, much softer in fact than regular General and GR snus!  But at the time this stuff was being tested, I had no idea what it was for until now!

Today, Swedish Match had this to say about the new products: "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. In this case we have chosen to listen a little bit more to one of Sweden's one million snusers. For many, he is most famous from the sports world, but we mostly know Alexander Gustafsson as a sniper (?) and a person who shares our passion for the Swedish snus. The result was three new products in two of our most characteristic flavors - General One White, General One Portion and Göteborg Rapé One White. Developed by Swedish Match together with the sniper (?) Alexander Gustafsson. Strong portions that are soft and tasteful at the same time. More compassionate and softer by a new manufacturing technique. More strength and taste through a new way of refining tobacco to snus. More stuffed portions through a new way of treating the tobacco."

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."

If you aren't familiar with Alexander Gustafsson, here's a photo. He's a UFC fighter more commonly known as Alex The Mauler. He has an MMA record (according to Wikipedia) of 22 wins and 4 losses. 18 of those wins were by knockout.  If you aren't familiar with him, he's a big fan of Swedish Snus. I follow his Instagram page and he frequently posts snus related photos. I'm a big fan of UFC so it's neat to see a combination of my two favorite things: UFC and Swedish Snus.


Here's some info on the process that lead to these products.

"We at Swedish Match have long been known for Alexander Gustafsson's interest in snus. At one of Alexandre's visit to the Swedish Match Store Stureplan, we asked him what qualities he was looking for in a serving snus. According to Alexander, the brand should be General or Gothenburg Rapé. The portion would be traditional in its design, but softer, stronger and at the same time fill out more under the lip."

"To get a snus with the qualities Alexander demanded, we went back to the drawing board. Every single step in the manufacturing process was examined - the choice of tobacco, its origin, the processing of a selected snus mixture and how the portion was finally packaged. The result was a new series of products that hold all the qualities Alexander demanded. Together with our product developer, Alexander gives his suggestions on how the new snus will be experienced."

"General and Göteborg Rapé One represent our latest manufacturing technology that gives the snus new features. The tastes are recognized in our new portion, which distinguishes itself primarily by how the portion is experienced under the lip. And because Alexander has been involved in the development of the snus, he has also had his name on the doses. After months of development, Alexander finally writes his name before printing on the doses."

General One - Original Portion

Description:  "General One represents our latest manufacturing technology that gives the snus new features, developed by Swedish Match together with the sniper (?) Alexander Gustafsson. A strong flavor, which at the same time is soft and tasty. The flavor is the same that has always characterized General Portion - dark and spicy tobacco character with elements of bergamot and citrus, as well as tea and leather.  More strength and taste through a new way of refining tobacco to snus. More compassionate and softer by a new manufacturing technique. More stuffed portions through a new way of treating the tobacco."  This product comes in a 17.6 gram can with 20 portions for 0.88 gram portions.  The nicotine content is 1.5% (15mg/g) which breaks down to 13.20mg/portion.

General One - White Portion

Description: "General One represents our latest manufacturing technology that gives the snus new features, developed by Swedish Match together with the sniper (?) Alexander Gustafsson. A strong flavor, which at the same time is soft and tasty. The taste is the same that has always characterized General White - light and spicy tobacco character with distinctive elements of bergamot and citrus, as well as some tea.  More strength and taste through a new way of refining tobacco to snus. More compassionate and softer by a new manufacturing technique. More stuffed portions through a new way of treating the tobacco."  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.

Göteborg's Rapé One - White Portion

Description:  "Göteborg Rapé One represents our latest manufacturing technology that gives the snus new features, developed by Swedish Match together with the sniper (?) 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. More strength and taste through a new way of refining tobacco to snus. More compassionate and softer by a new manufacturing technique. More stuffed portions through a new way of treating the tobacco."  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.

As of right now, I've only seen these products on SnusBolaget and Swedish Match's webstore, but I'm hoping they'll be available for us in the US eventually.