General Kardus Selection 2023 (Wine Mechanics Edition) - Review. 1 November 2023.

The time has come, and Swedish Match has released another Kardus Selection!  It's crazy, but I just realized today they haven't done this since 2019 (with Göteborgs Rapé Kardus Selection 2019).  This year's release is a General Kardus Selection, and made in collaboration with Wine Mechanics, a wine producer in Sweden.  It comes in a tall box, the size of a wine bottle.  This is what the press release says:  "General Kardus Selection 2023 is Swedish Match's most luxurious and sophisticated snus. This year's edition of Kardus is based on a collaboration with Sweden's only urban winery, Wine Mechanics, and the snus is produced in a numbered edition of 800 pieces with 150 g loose snus each. Here at swedishmatch.se there are 500 pieces for sale. Max 2 Kardus per customer".  I have to give a special thanks to my friends at Snus24.com who went and got one for me so that I could do a review of it.  It otherwise isn't available to folks in the US (as of right now).

The Box

When you open the box, you'll see that it looks like a wine bottle inside.  It's not, but it does look neat.  It has a vessel inside which contains the Kardus tobacco.  The vessel is glass, and it has a wood/cork type of lid on top of it that seals the tobacco inside quite nicely.

The Product

This is how Swedish Match describes this year's release:  "General Kardus Selection 2023 is the result of our snus creators' work to produce a snus with specially developed properties regarding taste and aroma. The 2023 General Kardus has a dark tobacco character with hints of rosemary, cedar, thyme and smoky licorice".  I found a different description on Livetsgoda.se that goes a bit further and adds on that this flavor is "is well complemented by the powerful Syrah grape", but more on that later.

The Tobacco

Now for the important part, let's talk about the tobacco.  That's why we're here after all, that's what makes this release so special!  More from the Swedish Match press release:  "And just like previous years' Kardus, the tobacco is cut into 0.72 mm strips according to the single cut method, which gives it a completely different type of taste experience and feeling under the lip compared to ordinary loose snus. The tobacco blend consists of tobaccos from plantations in Spain, the Philippines and India, all grown in different ways to produce varying characteristics.

The Tobaccos Used:

• The Spanish tobacco is air-dried and acts as a base in the mixture. It has a strong taste character with hints of cocoa and dried fruit.

• The tobacco from the Philippines is a heat-dried light Virginia tobacco that has been refined into a semi-cavendish, that is, a really dark tobacco with an intense taste and aroma and a sense of umami.

• The Indian tobacco is sun-dried, has a peppery taste and some bitterness."

There is 150 grams of tobacco inside the vessel.  On Swedish Match's website, this one is priced at 999 SEK (or $89.04 USD).  That's a price of $0.59 per gram.  Comparatively, a can of General Loose is $0.13 per gram for 42 grams.  Obviously not a fair comparison because this is such a special release, but that's a breakdown on the prices.

Also, the Swedish Match website notes the nicotine content to be 14mg/g (1.4%).

Let's talk wine!

I've never had a Syrah before.  So I went to my local liquor store to try to buy one.  I searched online, and didn't find any Wine Mechanics wine sold anywhere near here, so I had to think outside the box.  My local shop didn't have any Syrah, but they did have a Shiraz.  I found a few websites (here, here, and here) that note that it's the same grapes, same style.  So, I bought this one:  The Stump Jump Shiraz (2017).  I'm usually a Cabernet or Pinot Noir guy, but I like trying new things.  I found this wine to be pretty tasty, and a good pairing.  This wine has a nice aroma of cherry, blackberry, pepper, and smoke.  The taste is quite good.  The aroma is slightly sweet, but the taste isn't as sweet.  The blackberry/cherry flavor is kinda mild, and the notes of smoke, flowers, and pepper pair quite well together.  It's a pretty good wine, and went well with this snus!  I've never had a Syrah (or Shiraz) before, but was pleasantly surprised!

The Review

I know, it took us a while to get here.  But this is almost $100 box of snus, so it deserves a longer review.  Holding the tobacco in my hand, you can tell it's more of a longer cut than your standard snus.  It's moist, and soft.  You can bake it, it's just not as easy as with regular loose snus.  You can also just grab a pinch and throw it in, so either way, it's pretty easy to get into your lip.  Opening up the can, the aroma that comes through is quite beautiful.  I notice a rich, dark, present aroma of tobacco.  It is slightly smoky in nature, and has subtle notes of wood, along with a faint rosemary hint.  The snus feels nice under the lip, and has a pretty solid flavor release to it.  The flavor is really top notch.  I notice tobacco and herbs first.  The tobacco is dark, rich, and present.  The rosemary and thyme are there, but not too incredibly bold.  The wood notes add a nice background to the snus.  It's slightly smoky, and almost seems to have a subdued dried fruit note in the background.  There is a very light licorice presence to this one, but it's in the back, and it comes in after you've had the snus in for a bit.  It's not a lot though.   The nicotine strength is satisfactory, but depends on how big you bake your prilla.  I'm usually at 1-2 grams on average and found a nice release of nicotine.  With one gram, it felt to be about the strong level.  The flavor lasts quite a while, I was able to enjoy prillas of this for 45-50 minutes, on average.  

Rating and Final Thoughts

This was a really good snus, and definitely worth the cost.  I mean it, this is a super tasty snus.  I rated it at 4.75/5.  I rarely rate snus products this high, but it's well earned!  The grind is great, and yields a different snus experience than most products.  I like the flavor, and how it matures over time.  The tobacco base is top notch.  It's a really good snus.  But it's a Kardus release.  This is top of the line stuff.  If you're in Sweden and can get it, it's definitely worth the money.  As of now, I'm not sure if it'll be available to the US but keep your eye on the e-stores social media accounts, they have (in the past) got a small amount of it to sell, so perhaps they will this year!

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