Epok vs Lyft - What Are The Differences? 27 November 2018.

When Epok launched back in 2014, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a fad or not. It turns out, a lot of people enjoyed white tobacco and the Epok line has become more and more popular since the first Epok products broke onto the scene back in 2014. The market has continued to grow and evolve over the years, and now we are seeing a completely different category - products that look like snus, but contain no tobacco. These "nicotine pouches", as they've come to be called, contain some form of plant fiber and nicotine extracted from tobacco, but no tobacco inside the actual pouch. Now we have a new product from BAT/Winnington called Lyft. It looks a lot like Epok, but it doesn't actually contain any tobacco. In this article, we're going to look at the new Lyft line and compare it to the existing Epok line and see what the differences are. I do want to clarify this, as some have falsely reported that Lyft is replacing the Epok line. I have spoken to BAT and was told directly that Lyft is not replacing Epok - both Epok and Lyft will continue to be produced.

Design and Contents

Looking at the cans, there isn't much of a difference other than the name.  The main difference I notice is that the Epok product contains a warning label along the side, like most snus products do.  The Lyft product, however, does not have a warning label on the side.  Both products contain 24 portions at 0.7 grams each in a 16.8 gram can.  The nicotine content of Epok and Lyft regular strength is 8.5mg/g (0.85%), and the nicotine content of Epok and Lyft Strong is 14mg/g (1.4%).  So the can design is similar, but the portion weight, count, and nicotine strength is the same on Epok and Lyft, both the strong and regular strength variants.

Product, Appearance and Flavor

Looking at the products themselves, they also don't look that different.  The pouches are of a similar color, size, and feel.  The material inside the pouch, while different, looks similar.  Epok, to the left, contains white tobacco - which is a tobacco that has gone through a type of cleansing.  Lyft, to the right, does not contain tobacco, rather, it contains a material made of a mix of eucalyptus and pine fiber.  The tobacco inside Epok and the plant fiber inside Lyft are pretty similar looking - both moist, ground, looking a lot like each other.  The flavor of these products is also very similar, which was quite surprising for me.  I've compared various Epok products to their Lyft counterparts and haven't noticed much of a difference in that area.

So, after comparing these two products, I was surprised by how similar they are.  The cans have different names on them and one has tobacco while one doesn't, but outside of that, they're very similar.  Honestly, if you gave me a Lyft pouch and an Epok pouch and asked me to tell the difference, I'm not sure I could do it 100% of the time.  They're that similar.