Have you ever noticed that Snus from different brands can feel stronger or milder, even if they have the same Nicotine content? That’s because there are other important factors that significantly influence what’s known as the “perceived strength.” To really judge the strength of Snus, it’s important to understand which additional factors play a key role here.
What does Snus strength actually mean?
People often associate the strength of Snus only with the Nicotine content. While that seems logical, the Nicotine content alone isn’t enough to assess the so-called perceived strength. In this context, perceived strength refers to the degree of pharmacodynamic effects of nicotine when using Snus/Nicotine Pouches—and that’s exactly what most people mean when they talk about the strength of a Snus.
While the extent of these pharmacodynamic effects is linked to the amount of nicotine, it’s not determined by this alone. So you could say: the perceived strength of a Snus is largely influenced by the Nicotine content (the actual nicotine content), but this factor alone isn’t enough to judge or determine the strength.
To avoid any confusion, when we talk about Snus strength below, we mean this perceived strength and not just the nicotine content/the Nicotine content. We’ll look at which factors influence the strength of Snus effect and why.
Four essential factors for the strength of Snus
In essence, there are four factors that significantly influence the strength of Snus:
- The Nicotine content
- The pouch moisture
- The type of nicotine used in the pouch formula
- The pH value of the pouch content
If you want to accurately assess the strength before buying a Snus, you should keep these four points in mind.
The Nicotine content as a basic factor for Snus strength
It seems obvious that the Snus Nicotine content plays a major role in the strength—because it makes sense: the more nicotine a Portion contains, the stronger (in most cases) the nicotine effect will be. This is especially true when different products have similar pouch formulas (moisture, pH value & nicotine type), but differ in nicotine content.
The mg/Pouch nicotine indication on each Snus can gives you exactly this key figure. There’s also the mg/g value, which is the industry standard for strength labeling on cans. For assessing strength, however, the mg/Pouch value is more accurate—because it shows exactly how much nicotine is in each Portion.
Difference between mg/g and mg/Pouch indication
For the former, there are different legal limits depending on the country. But since the same limit doesn’t apply to the mg/Pouch value, it’s possible that The mg/Pouch-Nicotine content of a Snus can also be higher than the mg/g content, without conflicting with any legal requirements. For example, with a legal limit of 16.6 mg/g, a Nicotine Pouches with a fill weight of 1.3 grams could result in a Nicotine content of 21.6 mg/Pouch (16.6 x 1.3 = 21.6).
Why the mg/g indication definitely makes sense
Looking back at the development of (tobacco-containing) Snus products, there’s one important fact about the mg/g indication that shouldn’t be overlooked. Historically, so-called portion snus was developed after the “loose” variant, where with traditional loose Snus tobacco, users would portion out each serving themselves. To estimate the strength of a single Portion, the mg/g nicotine content has always been used as a reference.
The fact that the mg/g indication is still the industry standard for showing the strength on portion snus cans today most likely comes from this development history of Snus products.
How moisture affects the Snus strength
Another key factor influencing the effect strength is the moisture of the Pouches. This is mainly because the moisture determines how quickly and for how long the nicotine is released from the pouches. Here’s a simple rule of thumb: the moister a Snus/Nicotine Pouches is, the faster the nicotine is usually released from the pouches. In extreme cases, up to 70% of the total nicotine in a Pouches can be released in the first 5 minutes.
If you compare a moist and a dry Pouches, you’ll find that with the moist one, more dissolved nicotine accumulates in your mouth and on your mucous membranes in a shorter time. This can lead to (if another factor, which we’ll mention in a moment, also plays a role) larger amounts of nicotine being absorbed through the mucous membranes and entering your bloodstream more quickly. The result is a steep initial peak in the so-called effect profile – meaning you feel the nicotine effect much faster. The drier a Pouches is, the more steadily and for a longer time it will release its nicotine.
How the type of nicotine affects the Snus strength
Besides Nicotine content and pouch moisture, the type of nicotine used in the pouch formula also plays an important role – because nicotine can be present in different forms, which can speed up or slow down absorption through the mucous membranes. To explain the absorption speed, we can roughly distinguish the following nicotine types in Snus:
- Nicotine Polacrilex – slow absorption rate
- Nicotine salt – moderate absorption rate
- Freebase nicotine – fast absorption rate
Nicotine Polacrilex, in particular, enables especially controlled and slow absorption through the mucous membranes ensure, whereas nicotine as a free base—in its uncharged form—passes through the biomembrane of the oral mucosa particularly easily and quickly.
So, for the strength of Snus, it also matters which type of nicotine is used in the pouch recipe. And to give you an even more nuanced picture: The proportion of so-called freebase nicotine is specifically controlled by manufacturers—especially when mainly nicotine salts are used in the pouch recipe—via the pH value, which also explains why pH regulators are listed as ingredients in nicotine pouches/Snus.
How pH value affects Snus strength
The following statement applies to Nicotine Pouches/Snus, which mainly contain nicotine salts: The higher the pH value of the pouch recipe, the higher the amount of freebase nicotine in the pouches. This is a key reason why two products with the same Nicotine content (mg/g) can feel completely different—a pH difference of just one unit can already significantly change the freebase proportion.
For Nicotine Pouches/Snus containing only Nicotine Polacrilex, however, this statement does not apply in the same way. Here, the nicotine is bound to what’s called an ion-exchange resin, so the following applies:
- Step 1 – Release from the resin: The release rate depends primarily on the ion concentration of your saliva, not the pH value. The pH value alone does not make the nicotine release faster from the resin.
- Step 2 – After release: Once the nicotine has left the resin, it behaves like nicotine salts—now the pH effect fully kicks in again. A higher pH value would increase the freebase proportion of the already released nicotine.
For hybrid Snus variants—when both Nicotine Polacrilex and nicotine salts are included—increasing the pH value of the pouch recipe can therefore raise that portion of freebase nicotine derived from the nicotine salt in the Pouches, and also the portion that results in a second step, once the nicotine has been released from the ion-exchange resin and thus increases the free base proportion in the nicotine dissolved in your saliva.
Note: An elevated pH value in Snus can often be recognized by a noticeable tingling or burning sensation during use, as is the case with the popular Velo Snus for example.
The noticeable Snus strength is regulated by the pouch recipe
As complex as all this may sound, the background of different pouch recipes from various manufacturers is just as complex. In any case, manufacturers can fine-tune the effect profile of a product by adjusting the pH value of the pouch recipe in combination with the type of nicotine and pouch moisture used.
This also explains why the Nicotine content alone doesn’t say enough about the Snus strength and why it’s worth taking a closer look at the ingredients of Snus. To help you better assess the strength of Snus, you’ll find in the The respective Snuzone collection/product descriptions include not only the Nicotine content, but also references to moisture, nicotine form, and pH value—which all influence the actual effect strength of a Snus/nicotine pouch product.
> Read more: How to find the right nicotine pouch and Snus?
