Snus without tobacco

Three terms get used for the same shelf and they mean three different things. Snus contains tobacco. Tobacco free pouches do not. Nicotine free pouches contain neither. Most of the confusion in this category comes from mixing up the last two, and it decides whether the tin you ordered does anything at all.

Tobacco free is not nicotine free

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the category, because the two get searched for interchangeably and sold side by side.

Removing the tobacco leaf removes the plant material. It does not remove the nicotine. A tobacco free pouch can be as strong as anything with tobacco in it, and ALP tins run to 18mg per pouch.

Nicotine free pouches are a separate product. They carry flavour, sometimes caffeine, and no nicotine at all. ALP does not make them, so if that is what you are looking for, this is not the right shelf.

	Snus	Tobacco free	Nicotine free
Tobacco leaf	Yes	No	No
Nicotine	Yes, from the tobacco	Yes, added	None
Colour	Brown	White	White
Taste from	Tobacco and flavouring	Flavouring	Flavouring
Staining	Pronounced	Low	Low
In the ALP range	No	Yes	No

Tobacco free snus: how to spot it

Three checks, in the order that actually works in a shop.

• Colour. Tobacco pouches are brownish. Tobacco free pouches are bright white, which is where the name All White comes from.
• The front of the tin. Manufacturers label tobacco free products clearly, because it sells. An ALP tin says Nicotine Pouches.
• The ingredient list. The decider. Tobacco appears there under its own name, and there is no alternative wording for it.

If the tin promises tobacco free but the ingredient list mentions tobacco, trust the list.

What changes in daily use

Three differences show up within the first tin.

• Staining. Tobacco pouches discolour the gum and the pouch material over time. Tobacco free ones do so noticeably less.
• Taste. Without the earthy base note underneath, mint tastes of mint and fruit tastes of fruit. A weak flavour also has nowhere left to hide.
• Format. Tobacco free pouches are usually slimmer, because the filling needs less volume. They sit less visibly under the lip.

The real problem is dryness, not the missing tobacco

People switching across usually trip over something other than the leaf. They trip over dry pouches.

Plenty of All White products are filled very dry, because dry stores longer and ships more easily. The cost is a pouch that feels rough going in, takes minutes to release any flavour and goes flat early. If your first tobacco free tin was like that, the category was not the problem. That tin was.

ALP fills deliberately moist, so flavour arrives sooner and holds while the pouch is in. More on how moisture changes the experience is on our page about nicotine pouches.

Is tobacco free snus weaker

No. Strength depends on how much nicotine goes into the pouch, not on what carries it. Tobacco free tins run from very mild to very strong.

At ALP the choice is 6mg, 12mg or 18mg per pouch. 6mg is the entry point, 12mg the everyday figure for most people, 18mg the strongest in the range and not a starting point.

Buying tobacco free pouches in Switzerland

Switzerland is one of the few places in Europe where real tobacco snus is on sale, so both categories sit in the same aisle and the label does the work. That is unusual: in most EU countries oral tobacco is not sold at all, which is why so much European shelf space is tobacco free by default.

For a neutral overview outside the trade, Wikipedia keeps an article on tobacco free nicotine pouches. Where the word snus comes from in the first place is covered on what is snus.

For adults 18 and over

Tobacco free pouches contain nicotine, and nicotine is highly addictive. They are intended for adults who already use nicotine. If you do not use nicotine today, this is not a good place to start.