Camel Robust and Winterchill have arrived in my area

[TheOneandOnly]

I'm awaiting a Swedish order to get to me, so for the last week, I've been living off these new Camels... and I cant stand them anymore...

[lxskllr]

I'm awaiting a Swedish order to get to me, so for the last week, I've been living off these new Camels... and I cant stand them anymore...

The problem with Camel is it tastes good at first, but the sweetness gets irritating really fast. That crap sticks to your lip like glue, and even ruins your subsequent real snus, cause you still taste the sweet :^S

[spirit72]

The problem with Camel is it tastes good at first, but the sweetness gets irritating really fast. That crap sticks to your lip like glue, and even ruins your subsequent real snus, cause you still taste the sweet :^S

Yeah, I can corroborate. I had a few of each the first day I got them, but they've mostly sat on my desk since. And the other thing is, the portions actually are too big. Pretty irritating in fact...

[WickedKitchen]

They are available in MA. I found them in a Mobil On the Run somewhere around Foxborough. I drive all over the place so I can't remember exactly. I bought a can of 15. If you can't find them I'll happily send you the remaining 14 portions, Getter.

I can't for the life of me understand why they won't produce a snus that actually tastes like tobacco.

[Darwin]

American corporations focus group things to death so it is surprising that the Robust portions are so big considering the non-snus user is likely going to be intolerant of such an oversized version. Robust must therefore be aimed at existing snus users at least to some degree. RJR doesn't know about or refuses to implement on cost grounds the methods that scandinavian snus companies use to vary nicotine contents so they simply use more of the same tobacco employed in their smaller portions. Or they could be scared of anti-tobacco zealot charges that using higher nic tobacco is a craven attempt at addicting users more strongly. Either way they have chosen to not follow the lead of the established firms in the market so low nic candy is what we get. One wonders why they bother at all. Product planners at Altria on the other hand could just use a good horse whipping.

[Bigblue1]

^^^^^^^^aint all that the em effin truth^^^^^^^^^^^^

[snusgetter]

They are available in MA. I found them in a Mobil On the Run somewhere around Foxborough. I drive all over the place so I can't remember exactly. I bought a can of 15. If you can't find them I'll happily send you the remaining 14 portions, Getter.
I can't for the life of me understand why they won't produce a snus that actually tastes like tobacco.

Thanks for the offer, Wicked, but I found them at Cumby's ($4.79 total/each).

The roBUST feels like a syrup-drenched wad of cotton/gauze when lipped; kinda like the gauze a dentist packs in your mouth after an extraction (and almost as big) but laced with a medicinal syrup!!

Using them up very slowwww!!




Oh, I almost forgot.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!



Now you can really forget the Camels with these mouth pleasures!!

[tom502]

I still think the Robust was not too bad, though I did give it to my buddy, but compared with their others, I did not think the taste was bad, though it was sweet, but not exremely swet, and I'm not sure I got a tobacco taste out of it, but I do think it would have been way way better if they copied the standard Swedish snus portion size and shape. I did not like their large pouch size. But it kinda reminded me of Triumph Original in taste.

[Darwin]

Seems to me that American manufacturers could shut down some of the "aimed at children" media criticism by offering product that actually tastes of tobacco, salt, and grown-up flavors like bergamot and anise instead of candy. My guess is that non-snus using focus groupers are driving these product decisions and not the "mature" crowd represented on this forum (mature in snus usage I hasten to add). I"d be willing to bet that not one of hundred original test subjects had ever even heard of snus let alone was familiar with the real deal and I can only assume that the same applies to the product that RJR is calling "reformulated".

[Steez]

Tried Camel roBUST for the first time.. Tasted like a stale Christmas tree... NASTY! 14 portions going in the garbage.

[myuserid]

Picked up a can of Winterchill this morning. Like most everybody has said, it started off not too bad, but the sweetness is really overpowering after a bit.

It doesn't seem like it would be too bad if they would tone down the sweetness and allow the tobacco flavor to come through at least some.

I'll probably give the Robust a try when I finish the Winterchill.

[snusgetter]

Picked up a can of Winterchill this morning. Like most everybody has said, it started off not too bad, but the sweetness is really overpowering after a bit.

It doesn't seem like it would be too bad if they would tone down the sweetness and allow the tobacco flavor to come through at least some.

I'll probably give the Robust a try when I finish the Winterchill.

Curious to what your take on the roBUST will be.

Of the two, I found the Winterchill to be less objectionable -- not as sweet (but still too syrupy sweet) with a slightly more noticeable tingle in the beginning.

Camels are, if anything, a once-in-a-great-while snus --- I don't know how you can stomach 15 portions in a short amount of time.

[lxskllr]

I'd be a lot cooler with Camel if the sweet disappeared with the portion. I could see using it as a dessert snus, but the sweet sticks to your lip, and ruins subsequent snus. Unacceptable imo.

[Langdell]

Seems to me that American manufacturers could shut down some of the "aimed at children" media criticism by offering product that actually tastes of tobacco, salt, and grown-up flavors like bergamot and anise instead of candy. My guess is that non-snus using focus groupers are driving these product decisions and not the "mature" crowd represented on this forum (mature in snus usage I hasten to add).

I think you hit the nail on the head. The average American focus group participant, who is not going to have an acquired taste for Swedish snus, is almost always going to say he prefers a sweet, candylike flavor over unsweetened tobacco. E.g., you take 50 Americans who never heard of Swedish snus but most of whom like mint flavor in some form, give them a portion of General and a portion of Camel Frost and ask their first impression, and which flavor do you think is going to win?

I also agree that the sweetness of American "snus" products has given a lot of ammunition to the anti-tobacco hysterics who now equate snus with "tobacco candy for children." They'd have a tougher time selling that argument if every snus tasted lik General or Grov.

What I'd like to see is Camel or somebody introduce an unsweetened flavor (Robust without the sweetener would do nicely) and allow it time to develop a market following. I don't have high hopes that this will happen, but maybe there's a chance. In my opinion, Robust is the closest Camel has come to Swedish-style snus (I said "closest" not "close!), and it is basically the same flavor Camel originally test marketed as "Original." It obviously didn't do well in the test marketing because it was dropped until reintroduced as Robust. Maybe the reintroduction of this flavor shows that Camel might be willing to introduce a more Swedish-like flavor and give it time to develop a following.

[indalcecio]

Hey I'm new here and I registered just to talk about this. Personally I really like the camel snus simply because I haven't been exposed to "real" snus. The mellow was too strong and too sweet, and the "robust" seems ironic because there's a lot less flavoring than the mellow IMO, or it could be just because I'm comparing the NEW robust to the OLD mellow.

I saw a lot of people who said that they sort of liked camel snus, but it had too much extra flavoring, almost like candy. if that's the case i think you'd like robust, it tastes a bit like mellow but with less sweetness and extra flavoring, maybe a BIT more spicy tasting. but the best part is you can taste the tobacco a lot more.

One more thing, it's definitely a lot stronger with the bigger portions, I really like it. My tolerance is lower right now but I can still tell that doesn't account for all of it, it's definitely stronger with the bigger and FLATTER portions. I think flatter portions give you more surface area so it hits you faster.

as for the tins, I still have a couple mellow tins, so I'm just going to keep it and put any of the new stuff I get in there, cause I really hate that ugly black label.

EDIT: wow it really seems like I'm a Camel representative or something. I'm not, I just like snus and from what I've been hearing the robust is what people have been looking for in american snus.