Swedish Match NA held a super secret conference last Thursday in Chicago. A very select group of American bloggers attended. We were there to meet the newest Generals on the front lines of the snus war.

These are not the old stodgy round Generals that have been languishing behind the lines hoping that old tactics would save the day through some miracle. These are young, sleek and quick responding Generals who have a good chance of breaking through the allied wall of Camel, Marlboro and Skoal dominance.  They are being turned loose in 3 test markets,  Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia, on Monday June 20th.

The new General Classic Blend Snus and General Nordic Mint Snus, are new flavors in new cans. The tins are slightly oval with square edges with a used portion tray on the bottom. One of the guests caused a bit of a stir when he mentioned the similarities to the old Nick & Johnny East/West “coffin cans”.

An unfortunate term but a fairly accurate comparison, the new cans seal tighter and are smaller in every dimension. My biggest complaint about the new cans is the side label peels off when you open the tin, which leaves bare black plastic. It also peels off the ingredients list. With a few tweaks I feel it will be an excellent choice for the company’s direction for this product. The Trial packs hold 10 portions, the regular packs will hold 15. There is enough room to go to 20 portions in a can, which seems to not be in the plans.

Read more: General Classic Blend and Nordic Mint Snus

As many of you know I was invited to spend some time in Sweden, courtesy of our friends at Swedish Match.  Two friends, Julls and Feck, were invited also.  Tim/Snusify was a virtual unknown to me but quickly fit into the group.  Our first evening together set the tone for the whole visit.

Before going I thought Julls would have to be the grown-up, but that hope was quickly dashed. We all were like kids on Christmas morning, or maybe a better analogy would be kids the night before going to Disneyland. For us this was the chance of a lifetime, and we were determined to make the most of it.

Our first meeting of our host, Markus Ersmark, was not what I expected. I had seen pictures of him, but they were mostly company promo shots, staged for image and professionalism. I kind of expected a stuffed shirt type, full of salesman’s bravado. What we found was a person.

He was real and much like us (in the good ways). Actually after a while he reminded me a bit of James Bond:  sophisticated and smooth, well spoken and rarely at a loss for words. We did succeed in making him speechless a couple of times in 3 days, but it wasn't easy.  It usually involved things we weren't allowed to discuss.

This brings us to the main topic of this column.  When we first arrived at the Gothenburg factory we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. Nothing personal mind you; just so we would not be tempted to blab about things we saw that we maybe shouldn’t have seen.

Read more: The Most Exclusive Snus in the World

The European Union Sucks.  No, not the people who live there.  Some of my favorite people and products come from the EU.

I’m complaining about the controlling group that has decided to enforce a stupid law that bans sales of Swedish snus to EU member states; Sweden excepted.  Protecting the tax base on cigarettes is more important than protecting the health of an estimated 100 million EU smokers to the elite in Brussels. Many of these EU cigarette smokers would now be EU ex-smokers had the Tobacco Products Directive been written differently in 1992.

Several EU states are losing billions in tax revenues already due to cigarette smuggling. Goodness only knows what is contained in these Chinese, Russian, who knows where, manufactured cigarettes. At the very least we know what is in Swedish snus. We know the ingredients, we know the additives, we know the quality of the tobacco, i.e. not floor sweepings pressed together to make a sheet and then shredded into ribbons resembling tobacco. (On a side note, my long suffering wife cannot stand the smell of low end machine made cigars for exactly this reason. The glue used to hold together the binding makes her throat tighten and gives her difficulty breathing. A quality hand rolled cigar does not give her the same symptoms, even though she sometimes complains that it smells awful.)

Read more: The EU Snus Ban Government Response “let them smoke cigarettes”

First off I have to apologize for the long absence from this column. Being an internationally famous author and magazine publishing magnet has been consuming more of my time than I originally intended. The fan mail responses, fancy dinners with important people in the world of smokeless tobacco, hobnobbing with the beautiful people and trying to keep the mail room clerks out of the Executive Washroom is beginning to feel like a part time job. I may have to hire an assistant to keep my Icetools and pipes loaded, just to save time.

As one of the seemingly few fans of Tre Ankare snus when I read the early reports of Click snus as having a similar herbal flavor I was immediately intrigued.  Unfortunately in my circle of acquaintances, none of them with access to Click used Tre Ankare, or had used it recently enough to offer a comparison.   Fortunately, Snus Lord Larry Waters kindly supplied me with two cans of each to do my own research.

Read more: Swedish Match White Portion Snus Throw-down: Click Snus vs Tre Ankare