Kardus snus - It's totally unique.

The most expensive, exclusive vintage snus on the planet. It's a vintage snus for the connoisseur. A new, unique and refined reserve is released every year. We could go on and on using words like first-class, premium and the very, very, very best. But we won't bore you with it. Let's just say that it's a Swedish snus without compromises. Absolutely none. At all.

It doesn't have a long history. But it's vintage

It doesn't have a long history. But it's vintage. Every year since 2005, Swedish Match, the world champions of Swedish snus, have been releasing a vintage snus for the true connoisseurs. There's only one option: Perfection. This comprises every stage – from planting to packaging. These days, the tobacco that is the main ingredient in simpler snus, is usually crushed as a whole plant; stem and all. Kardus is all-lamina, which means that only the leaf of the plant is used. The cutting is not a mere step in the production, but a craft, done by hand. The result: You will experience nuances of flavor like never before. The tobacco is then stored to allow the subtle armor to develop. Apart from water, only salt is added and then of course the special ingredience that will give this year's special reserve its unique flavor.

The tobacco is then "sweated", a process which pasteurises the snus and adds mildness. Oh, yes… it brings out even more flavor as well. As a final step, the boxes are hand-packed. Not too tightly and not too loosely. Kardus is then stored and transported in an unbroken cold chain until it reaches your hand. So is it the perfect snus? You'll be the judge. But as far as we know, Tommy Willskytt, Tobacco Master at Swedish Match, and his team would never settle for anything less.

There is no brand. The product IS the brand.

Marketing executives at Swedish Match or elsewhere may get mad or sue us, but in our opinion Kardus is not about brand positioning, nor is it about clever advertising stunts or serving a certain target group. It's all about the love of snus and the quest for making the finest snus in the world. Not even the package design is done to maximize sales. Kardus is supplied in a hand-made, polished oak box. Cabinet-maker Ulf Mellström, who trained at the Carl Malmsten Center for Wood Technology and Design, manufactures the packaging.

Previous Kardus Superior Blend vintages:

2005: A blend of premium quality tobacco from Vietnam, Hungary, Spain and India.
2006: A blend of the finest tobacco from South Africa and the organically produced Criollo Salteño from Argentina.
2007: The main ingredient this year was Criollo Misionero, a dark, air-cured tobacco from Argentina along with special qualities from India, Brazil and South Africa.
2008: Indian sun-cured Kurnool tobacco meets Hungarian air-cured tobacco, which is flavoured with Highland Single Malt Whisky.
2009: Tobacco from the Argentinian Salta province is blended with special qualities from south-west Guatemala – flavoured with a 23-year old rum.
2010: Javanese sun-cured Pakpie Karang Jati tobacco, cut with the Ranjangan method. Then flavoured with Batavia Arrack.

Just a final note about the name Kardus: For more than a century, the word Kardus (from the French "cartouche," in German "karduse") has been used in Sweden when describing how to package the snus wrapped in cardboard.

Honestly, you should prepare to be seducted.

Rigorous control – from plant to pouch.

It starts in the soil. Before someone even puts a seed in it, soil samples are taken to a laboratory in Sweden for analysis. Swedish Match experiments with cultivation in different countries to achieve the best possible raw tobacco. If declared a good soil for tobacco, seeds are planted and every step in the development and the cultivation of the plant is carefully monitored. The tobacco is selected on the basis of seed type, location, climate, leaf position on the plant and curing conditions. When cultivation have started, representatives from Swedish Match will visit the plantations regularly to ensure that the crops will meet the requirements. There's a simple purpose for all this care: To ensure that the tobacco that ends up being selected for the various snus blends from Swedish Match contains the lowest levels of undesirable components possible. This quality control continues through the entire chain of production; when the leaves are harvested and air-cured; when transported and later sorted in a gianormous, perfectly climatized storehouse. Then, finally, the tobacco will find its way to the factory.

When hi-tech meets a 200 year-old tradition.

In step one, the tobacco leaves are crushed and ground to fine grains; the size of the particles varies with the brand. The tobacco is then carefully mixed into a blend. A blend could contain anything between 10 and 30 different grades of tobacco depending on the recipe. In step two, the tobacco is mixed with the other main snus ingredients; water and salt. It's then time for it to undergo heat treatment, (pasteurization). After being chilled the tobacco meets the different ingredients – spices, natural oils or even bourbon whiskey – that will give the snus that extra flavor and special character. And then, finally, it's time for packaging. Loose snus goes straight into the can. For portions the correct amount of snus is first wrapped in a little pouch. In the Swedish Match factories, there is a zero tolerance for errors. Everything – which means everything – is completely focused on delivering top quality. Sophisticated instruments measure and control the process along with watchful and well trained eyes. The tradition of manufacturing snus is 200 years old in Sweden, but there's nothing traditional or old about the Swedish Match production plant. If your nose wouldn't detect the pleasant scent of tobacco here and there in the manufacturing facility, you could easily picture that parts for a fighter jet were being produced instead of snus. They even invented their own quality standard [link]. And that certainly did not happen because they wanted to make life easy for themselves. It's very much the other way around. Yes, those Swedes are a tough bunch.