Anno 1852: Violet Lakrits (Original Portion) - Review (Discontinued). 17 January 2016.

NOTE:  This product has been discontinued and is no longer for sale.

When I first saw this product listed on TopSnus.com, I was quite excited. The premise is promising! A snus with licorice and violet - sounds delicious, right? The product description says, "With a robust taste of tobacco and hints of flowers (violets) and licorice - slightly sweet. Regular portion type for ease of use and handling. Made for Topsnus."

TopSnus doesn't ship to the US so I had a friend of mine in Europe order some stuff I wanted to try and ship it over here to the US for me.  And this is the product I was most excited to try.

The can design is quite simple and contains no catch lid. The portions are original portions with a good amount of moisture and a soft pouch. One thing I noticed that was rather interesting was that the portions were a little "fuzzy". I've never noticed that in a portion before so it took me by surprise. Now, going into this snus, what I was really hoping for was a snus with a strong licorice flavor and a hint of violet. Sadly, the flavor didn't meet my expectations.  That's not saying it's bad, it was just different than what I hoped for.

When you open the can, the aroma that comes through is an earthy tobacco smell with a light hint of violet.  I didn't detect any licorice in the aroma.  The flavor starts off as a mild violet taste and a raw, earthy tobacco flavor.  The longer you have the portion in the more the tobacco flavor matures. The violet flavor also hangs around quite a while, and grows more the longer you keep the pouch in your lip.  The snus is a little saltier than average, which I think may be due to salmiak.  I'm not sure if that's in the recipe or not, just my guess.

But, the main bummer for me with this snus was that I couldn't smell or taste licorice.  I'm not saying this snus is bad by any means, it's a pretty interesting tasting snus.  But the fact that I couldn't detect any licorice in the flavor was a major bummer for me. I look forward to reviewing the los and seeing what it's all about, and if I can taste any licorice in that one.