Epok All White Mini: No12 Frosty Green S2 & No17 Royal Bloom S2 - Reviews. 18 October 2021.

With how popular nicotine pouches are these days, I realized that a lot of folks may not be familiar with Epok, which is the true originator of the "all white" category.  Epok originally launched back in 2015 with white tobacco, but would eventually devolve into Lyft as nicotine pouches became more popular.  However, you can still find it in a small number of countries such as Poland, Switzerland (though they're changing over to Lyft), and Norway.  Today, we're talking about two Epok Mini products from Norway:  Epok No12 Frosty Green S2 and Epok No17 Royal Bloom S2!  I have a new friend in Norway who was able to grab these for me from Snus365.no (a store with a huge Epok selection), so thanks to him for that!  In terms of what these have in common, their contents and nicotine strength are identical.

Product Details

Can Contents (Both):  10 grams, 20 portions, 0.5 grams each

Nicotine Strength (Both):    6mg/g (0.6%) / 3mg/portion

Product Similarities

So I don't repeat myself in the reviews, they do have a few things in common:  mouthfeel, nicotine strength, and flavor longevity.  The portions are the mini size, so they feel smaller in the lip than a regular portion.  They are pretty soft though, and semi-moist.  In terms of strength, they both feel about the same, about half the regular strength level.  In terms of flavor longevity, both of these tend to kick around for about the 40-45 minute mark.

These may sound familiar, because I've had these flavors in other formats.  For the mint one, it's similar to the Epok Easy Mint Mini I had out of Switzerland in December of 2020.  It's also similar to the Lyft Easy Mint Mini I had back in January of 2021.  The Royal Bloom one is similar to Lyft Royal Purple, which I reviewed about a year ago!

Here's a look at an Epok pouch cut open, and the material inside.  It looks like regular brown snus, except it's completely white.  This is how the production of white tobacco is described:  "Before the treatment, the carefully selected brown tobacco is prepared.  In the next step tobacco is treated through a washing process in order to obtain white tobacco.  This process lasts until the brown tobacco is completely cleaned into white tobacco.  When the tobacco has its all white color, it’s refined with different and fresh flavors."  So, while it may look similar to a nicotine pouch, it's different, as nicotine pouches contain plant fiber instead of tobacco, and Epok contains actual white tobacco

Epok No12 Frosty Green S2

Flavor Description:  "A taste of peppermint and menthol."

Review:  When you open the can, a smooth, sweet aroma of spearmint comes through.  Being a mint product, you'll also encounter a nice cooling sensation in the lip!  In the flavor, it's spearmint, and a little on the sweeter side.  The spearmint taste is smooth in nature, and mellow.  It's pretty refreshing!

Epok No17 Royal Bloom S2

Flavor Description:  "A taste of red grapes."

Review:  There's not a lot of grape flavored products out there, honestly, so this one is pretty unique!  In the aroma, yes, you guessed it:  it smells like grape.  It's definitely a red grape smell, not tart like a green grape.  It also has a light amount of sweetness to it.  In the flavor, it's pretty mellow.  The sweetness is there, but not overly sweet.  And yes, it does taste like red grapes.  I wish there was a full sized products with this flavor, honestly, because it's a pretty tasty and unique flavor.

Rating and Final Thoughts

In terms of rating, I actually rated the mint one a little higher, and I usually don't do that, but I found a more enjoyable flavor presence with that one.  Frosty Green came in at 3.17/5, and Royal Purple came in at 3.08/5.  I'm not a big mini snus user, so products like these wouldn't be for me.  However, I know the selection of mini products is very small for people who like that sort of thing, so it is good to see new mini products coming on to the market.  Well, for those in Norway.  

For my non-Norway audience, there's a nicotine pouch version of the Easy Mint Mini sold at SnusExpress.com.  Here's a link:  https://www.snusexpress.com/us/en/brands/velo/velo-easy-mint-mini-10g-7965.