Artisan Espresso (Original Portion) Review - 19 August 2022.

To say this is an exciting release for me is an understatement.  Today, we are talking about my latest collaboration!  This is Artisan Signature Blend, a snus I made with The Snus Factory in Sweden.  Today we're checking out the world's first premium, full time produced coffee snus - Artisan Espresso Original Portion!  Artisan is my first full time, continuously produced snus line, and launches with this flavor, as well as Dark Vanilla (Original Portion) and Signature Blend (White and Original Portion).  This line was developed, top to bottom, with the snus community.  Snusers helped me select the product name, flavors, strengths, portion formats, and can designs that would make up this snus line!  Also, the design was done by a Snubie friend, Leon Bellenger, because I wanted the snus community involved with this every step of the way.  He helped bring my rough sketch to life, and I think it looks great!

Coffee snus isn't very common, but when I asked people what snus they wanted me to make, coffee kept coming up to the top.  Currently, Olde Ving 99 is the only one produced full time, so coffee lovers have not had much selection.  And honestly, there haven't been that many.  Since I started reviewing snus, there's only 6 I can recall (actual tobacco snus):  Mocca Machiatto Mini (2009), Offroad Coffee Vanilla (2010), Thunder Chrome Coffee (2011), Offroad Coffee Supreme (2012), Olde Ving 99 (2013), and Kapten Cafe Mini (2017).  Oh, and Swedish Match made a coffee flavored snus in the Small Batch series in 2018 that was pretty good. 

From top to bottom, Artisan is focused on quality.  As you can see on the side of the can, we add a craft seal with my signature that I signed off personally on the batch.  In an industry first, we list the tobaccos that go into each product we make.  Artisan Snus uses the best, hand-selected tobaccos from around the world.  For Signature Blend, we used only dark, air cured tobacco sourced from Guatemala, India, and the United States.  Artisan clocks in at the Stark, or Strong, level, a nicotine strength selected by the snus community for this product.  Signature Blend is our flagship brand, so it comes in original portion, and white portion!  The portions have a unique, breathable fiber that allows for quick flavor release and long lasting flavor.  I tested multiple portion materials before we picked the perfect one for Artisan Snus.

Now, let's talk product details.  The flavor description says, "Artisan Espresso Original Portion has a rich, dark coffee flavor with hints of chocolate and a slight nuttiness.  The coffee taste sits atop a carefully curated blend of premium, dark, air-cured tobaccos from Guatemala, India, and the USA to provide the perfect mix of flavor and tobacco taste.  Artisan Espresso (Original Portion) has a specially designed portion material and optimized moisture amount to release a bold, present flavor".  Each can weighs 18g and has 20 portions for 0.9g portions.  The nicotine content is 12mg/g (1.2%), or 10.8mg/portion.

Opening the can, you'll immediately encounter the rich smell of black coffee.  Behind it, I notice tones of nuttiness, and some dark chocolate.  The portions are nice and plump, with a good moisture amount, and a soft portion material.  Under the lip, they have a great fit, and plump up quite nicely.  Now, on the flavor - I do want to say this.  I don't drink coffee.  I'm not a big coffee fan.  But, this is what people asked for, so this is what I made.  When we started on it, I said even though I don't drink coffee, I want to make the best coffee snus you can get.  And, I think we hit the mark on it.  The flavor is quite good.  The coffee taste is front and center.  It has a delicate creaminess to it, but it's more black coffee than anything.  I notice a subtle tone of dark chocolate, along with some nutty tones.  The tobacco character comes out to play after you've had the portion in for a bit, and has the token Artisan Snus base:  a rich, dark tobacco character.  It's quite the flavor!  In the strength, this one delivers a little over regular strength, but it's not going to knock you out or anything.  It has a pretty steady delivery of nicotine.  The flavor also lasts quite a while.  For an original portion, I can squeeze out about an hour of flavor, which is pretty impressive.

Wrap-Up / Final Thoughts

No, I won't be doing a rating on this one.  People asked me why I review my own products and I remind them that I'm basically the only snus reviewer left.  Everyone else has faded away over the years.  But, I can say this - it's a good snus.  I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I think we hit our goal of making a dang good coffee snus.  The tobacco blend and the flavorings mix well to provide an experience that coffee lovers are really going to enjoy.

If you haven't tried Artisan Snus yet, you definitely should!  I'm very proud of this line.  The snus industry has been moving away from snus for so long and focusing on nicotine pouches, that Artisan is my love letter to the snus community, a way to show them that they weren't forgotten.  Artisan is YOUR line.  We made it together, and I'm so proud of it.  While this isn't a snus for me, I made it for coffee lovers because they've been forgotten and they deserve a good, high quality, premium coffee snus.  And, there are many more products to come!  I also want to give a massive thanks to The Snus Factory, for believing in my vision, and our production manager Amy, and the team involved that helped bring this product line to life.  It could not have happened without the folks involved who helped make Artisan Snus happen.

Artisan is now available!  If you want to know where to get it, hit the link below!

Here are all the stores you can buy Artisan Snus from!