How long has Swedish snus been available in America?

[Langdell]

Just wondering, does anyone know about what year Swedish snus first became available for people to order to the U.S.?

I first discovered Swedish snus in 2007 after being exposed to Camel. Since then, I have often thought how I wished I'd known about snus years and years earlier. Just makes me wonder how long ago I even could have started on snus.

[GoVegan]

Snus actually has a fascinating history in America and it has been here since the mid 1800's. Here is a short article for you to read.

http://www.swedsnus.com/site/988688/page/630395

Sometimes I even found old American snus cans for sale on ebay. What is interesting about the article is the fact that we have never made a "decent" snus. I guess history really does repeat itself!

http://www.snuson.com/forum/showthre...ight=snus+ebay

This is a thread about an old snus tin I found for sale. It is for American made snus. The thread got derailed about 10 times but there is some good information in it.

[EricHill78]

I think he means like ordering online or through catalogues..

[GoVegan]

I think he means like ordering online or through catalogues..

Yes I saw that but cannot really answer that question. Snus has been in America for a long time. If it helps, here is a link showing the history of Northerner. I am not sure when the other companies came out.

http://www.northerner.com/northerner/about_us_en.php

Hopefully lxskllr or Chad will be able to add to this thread.

[Experimental Monkey]

It's probably been available since the invention of the internet. God bless Al Gore.

[Langdell]

I think he means like ordering online or through catalogues..

Yes, that is what I meant. Like, could I have gotten snus in the 90s if I had known about it?

The history links are interesting though. So thanks for those GoVegan. I did already know that there is some history of snus in America, for example, that snus is the ancestor of American dip, hence Scandanavian names like Copenhagen.

P.S. I see that Northerner offered it since 1999, so that's at least a partial answer to my question. Wish I'd known about it that far back. Wonder if it was available by catalogue pre-Internet?

[GoVegan]

Yes, that is what I meant. Like, could I have gotten snus in the 90s if I had known about it?

The history links are interesting though. So thanks for those GoVegan. I did already know that there is some history of snus in America, for example, that snus is the ancestor of American dip, hence Scandanavian names like Copenhagen.

You could have gotten snus in the 90's by mail if you would have known about it. It looks like Swedish immigrants initially created the demand here and we benefited from it. I hear you though. I really wish I would have found snus 10 or even 20 years ago.

[Langdell]

You could have gotten snus in the 90's by mail if you would have known about it. It looks like Swedish immigrants initially created the demand here and we benefited from it. I hear you though. I really wish I would have found snus 10 or even 20 years ago.

The more you know . . .

[Jwalker]

I'd be interested if they used to do special orders at some stores I can picture for example Iwan Ries in chicago or F.W. Kirsten at the fishermans wharf doing orders or something. I know it was available in England in specialty shops until the ban.

[Ansel]

If i had had known more about snus sooner i would have saved myself from a hell of a lot of smoking.

[lxskllr]

I found snus in 2007. Northerner's birthday is probably a reliable benchmark for snus availability. Remember though, they started as a general Swedish item shop. Snus was only a part of the operation, but it really took off, and became their primary concern. Snus took off with the internet. Before that, I imagine it was only Swedish expats that made special orders from the homeland.

[chainsnuser]

I guess most of the early adopters of Swedish snus in America either had connections to Sweden or discovered snus through the idea of tobaccoharmreduction, especially the website www.tobaccoharmreduction.org.

Some discovered snus via the former SMPOST-forum that really had some knowledgeable members.

It really started in 2005/2006, I think, but with very few people. The ongoing rush of American members here in the forum came with Camel SNUS at the end of 2007.

Let's hope we can write a book once about the success story of snus around the world. It would surely be fun to dig a little deeper into the history of international snus-sales.

Cheers!