Probe snus – adding pleasure to pleasure

There's a different love affair going on. Besides snus, the Swedes are getting stoked on... whisky. In fact, these quiet Norsemen are known to consume more single malt whisky per capita than any other nationality. Why we are telling you this? Because there's a snus that combines both these ways of enjoying life.

A product going the opposite way

Probe was launched in 1994 as a pouch snus and soon attracted a quite impressive following among those who like a little whiskey aroma along with their nicotine kick. Since 2001 it is also available as a medium-ground loose snus. This is a notable exception in the snus world, as most products have been launched as loose snus and then, after the invention of the snus pouch in 1973, having taken the leap over to portion.

Venture into a new territory

It uses Kentucky bourbon as its main flavoring and it has a name that connotes exploring and investigating, so it's rather safe to say that the Probe snuser is not the average snuser. It's a little bit like jazz. When you heard the classics and the standards you will soon want to venture into unknown territory. Not that the taste is extreme; on the contrary Probe delivers a rather soft and mild taste of tobacco, topped with that whiskey aroma and a slight smokiness. Our guess is that it will appeal a lot to the snuser who wants to explore new tastes. Also, if you love the taste of a good cigar, you will probably find Probe a nice alternative.

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.

If you like bourbon, you will definitely love this!