Snus Storage Questions

[heppycat]

I'm in Mississippi. The humidity is pretty extreme here. This is my first summer snusing and I don't expect any problems. As I noted earlier, I think the most danger from drying is in a frost-free fridge. My unopened cans live in my chest type deep freezer in freezer bags. I've been trying to keep my total number of open cans below six. The only time I've had a can dry out on me it was a V2 can and I had had it open for over a week.

[Roo]

Lucky Striker: interstingly, after posting about Skruf in particular getting funky on me, I found the can of it I lost on friday night. Popped one in, and it was more enjoyable than out of the fridge. Of course, the conditions here are far removed from Hawaii or SC -- the air in Seattle is bone dry in the summer. But I have noticed that Skruf in particular gets too dry in the fridge, and only softens up a few minutes after I flop a lip over it. Maybe I'll start keeping it out.

As for ziplock bags, I use them for two reasons: one for freshness, but mostly because I tend to keep a rotation going of 5 portion 5 los open in the fridge, each 5-pack in a little ziplock bag. It not only keeps them fresh, but it's convenient to grab my whole portion stash in the morning and toss it in my backback without having to pick and choose what's on deck for work that day. When I get home, I may or may not return them to the fridge. Depends on what exactly I begin doing upon returning home.

@ Lucky Striker again: my travel experience in the US is fairly limited. Is it as humid where you live as the tropics/sub-tropics? I know some places state-side get some mean humidity... I guess the worst I've experienced here is Kentucky, and even DC in the summer isn't pleasant. The west coast does not understand true humidity. I've been to Miami and Key West but it wasn't too bad. Your snus holds up in extreme humidity? Good to know. I'm going to China again in september and plan on bringing lots of snus. Some of the worst humidity I've experienced was over there, but I haven't been back since using snus.

[Badfish74]

I'm more concerned with snus drying out faster in the fridge. The whole refrigeration process does remove humidity from the air.

I keep my opened cans in the crisper with the humidity set on high. My unopened cans go in the freezer. All are in ziplocs. I haven't had any probs so far.


I'm probably going overboard, but I live in South Carolina, so I worry about the heat and humidity.

We don't get Charleston weather here in the Pee Dee! 8)

[heppycat]

I'm more concerned with snus drying out faster in the fridge. The whole refrigeration process does remove humidity from the air. Of course a ziploc back takes care of that problem.

[DriverFound]

Go ahead and call me an idiot (I hate making posts like this!), but is it possible to just add a drop or two of water into a can and maybe the snus will soak that up to make it almost like new?

I have wondered the same thing...I've even tried it a couple times on cans that had started to dry out sitting on my desk at work (it's VERY dry in here). It seems to work just fine. 8)

[tical00]

Go ahead and call me an idiot (I hate making posts like this!), but is it possible to just add a drop or two of water into a can and maybe the snus will soak that up to make it almost like new?

[sandman1911]

I've never freezed snus, I keep all mine in the fridge when I'm not using. I've got a roll of Ettan and Roda past the expiration date, I just opened one up, and it's still fine and moist. I think as long as you put them in zip lock bags you will be fine.

[Lucky Striker]

I live in South Carolina. I can tell you all about humidity. :P

Me personally? I think the whole refrigeration thing is overblown. If it's something I don't honestly see myself using within 30 days, it goes in the freezer. I have about ten or fifteen open cans in the fridge. If it's been awhile since I've used them, I throw them in the freezer. In the house I have about ten cans just strewn about.

I've left snus inside the car for a week of 80 degree weather, I've left snus on the front porch for a couple of days, I've found snus under furniture that had been there for months... do you think I threw all that stuff away? Other than maybe being warmer than I'm used to, nothing significantly different at all about it. Maybe there was an increase in TSNA's, I don't know, nor do I really care. I used to dip Skoal, and a can of six month old Ettan doesn't come close to the TSNA's present in a fresh can of Skoal.

Another thing I wanted to throw in- some snus is even better when it has been out of the fridge for a few days. Goteborgs Rape is one that I find tastes much less tart after it has been exposed to a few days of 100 degree sun. 8)

[Roo]

So you don't refrigerate your snus then? Just freeze your surplus? Just curious. I've only had cans get funky on me in Hawaii, when left in the car for a few days, and only really the Skruf portions. I've heard others report problems with hot Skruf. If you have room in your fridge, and frequent access to it, refrigeration is at least preferable. If you don't, I wouldn't worry at all unless you notice undesirable effects or live in excessively hot climates.

Edit: please share your experience if you are serving in Afghanistan or Iraq or some other arrid hot climate. I'm also curious about high humidity for those of you in certain parts of the US and beyond. How does humidity or desert heat affect your snus? Thanks.

[justintempler]

Think about it for a minute. If snus is over 200 years old what did they do in the old days...

Refrigeration after cooking is used to stop the fermentation process.
After that is accomplished it's mostly to keep the flavor from changing so 6 month old snus tastes the same as 1 month old snus.

[tom502]

I think it's less important than we might want to think. The getsnus paper say can be left unrefridgerated for 2 weeks. And many here have said they just leave them out. Now I wouldn't leave it outside in blisteing heat, but an airconditioned home, it would probably be fine for a long while. Of course if you use maybe 6 portions a day, you should empty a can in 4 days. But, I am sure many of us have many opened cans at one time. But if I just didn't have any fridge at all, I just wouldn't horde too many cans, and I'd think it'd be fine. Maybe different for los. But whites seem they'd hold up best, being dry.

One thing I recently did, pertaining to storage, not time out of refridgidation, but because I didn't have a good place to store my cans in the fridge, I was trying to think of somewhere to put them in the fridge, that would be neat and out of the way, and I noticed my coffee creamer plastic container was tall and long, and wide enough that cans would slide right in stacked up. So I poured the creamer into another thing, and cut the top off the creamer container, and the cans stacked right in, maybe 6 or 7, I didn't count, but I stuck it in the fridge door, did the same thing with a 2 liter cola bottle. Now I have compacted containers on the botton shelf of the fridge door. Works good for me.

[Kwik]

Thanks all. Didn't think that it would be needed, this fridge seems to be keeping them plenty cold. It's only one of those little mini-things intended to keep a 6-pack cold (Coca-cola branded too, why not?), and it's having no problems at all with 7 cans.

[doomood]

I keep everything in the fridge, opened, unopened, white, original, whatever. So far I never had a can go bad. I always try to use all of my snus before the expiration date and I order new cans only when I need to, i.e. when I'm down to two or three cans since I use only about 7 portions a day. I feel no need to stockpile snus, so my stash never exceeds 10 cans.

[Jason]

My unofficial and simple rules of thumb regarding refrigeration:

White portions: not super important

Regular portions: moderately important

Los: very important

Also, I refrigerate anything close to or past the exp. dates. Keep in mind that some brands/flavors keep better than others.

My .02, of course... :wink:

[ShaulWolf]

My barracks doesn't allow personal fridges for whatever reason, and I don't have a cooler for the ice machine, so all my tins are sitting in my drawer at room temperature. Right now it isn't too big of a deal since the room temperature is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but that won't be the case in a few weeks when Charleston weather hits.

But while it's been relatively cool for Charleston springtime weather (65*F-75*F in my room), I haven't had a problem with keeping my tins out for three weeks. No noticeable change in flavor, mold, or anything going bad. By the time warmer weather kicks in I'll have a cooler and keep everything iced so that shouldn't become and issue either.