Yes, it looks disgusting: a blackened wad of dried herbs tucked under the upper lip to suck on. Yet for plenty of Swedes, this nicotine-free alternative is making it easier to kick their cigarette habit.
Building on the centuries-old tradition of ”snus”, a Scandinavian form of moist snuff used by more than a million Swedes seeking a smokeless tobacco, one enterprising woman hopes to cash in on the European wave of public smoking restrictions and health campaigns urging smokers to stub out for good.
”I was looking for nicotine-free alternatives when I was pregnant with my second child in 1997 … but there were only nicotine-based products,” said Anneli Hellstroem.
”So I started experimenting a little on my own,” she says, explaining how she tinkered first with essential oils and then a secret blend of dried herbs to simulate the experience of a packet of traditional snus under the lip.
”Snus is all about the feeling. You want a strong, fresh flavour,” she says, describing the ”tingling” sensation offered by her pepper-flavoured, nicotine-free snus.
Like snus, Hellstroem’s herbs come individually packaged in portion sizes, wrapped in a thin layer of paper which is placed under the upper lip above the front teeth and sucked on for several hours. A pack of 20 packets is sold in a round, plastic pillbox.
Hellstroem (40) started her company in 2002, making each individual packet and labels by hand at her kitchen table and selling them mostly to friends.
A year later, the company had three employees. Now, she has a staff of 13, her Choice brand is sold at more than 1 000 retailers in Sweden, and sales are expected to top 20-million kronor ($2,7-million) this year.
In addition to the two original flavours, pepper and mumma (a porter-flavoured drink popular around Christmas), she is launching a lemon version later this year and an apple one next year.
Hellstroem is convinced she is on to a good thing -‒ and nicotine addicts have every reason to look to her.
Sweden plans to introduce a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars in June 2005, when Hellstroem expects many smokers to make the switch from cigarettes to the well-established snus, or, she hopes, her nicotine-free alternative.
But she has her sights set far beyond Sweden’s borders, and has the European Union working in her favour.
The EU banned the sale of snus in 1992, citing research that said it causes cancer, but granted an exception to Sweden when it joined the bloc in 1995. Earlier this month, the European Court’s advocate general said the export ban was in accordance with EU law.
While Swedish snus manufacturers keen to export their products are frustrated over the ban, Hellstroem, whose product is not encompassed by the law, plans to jump in and take full advantage.
She’s targeting a whopping 10% of the world’s nicotine users.
”Several other countries have other kinds of tobacco traditions, like snuff and chewing tobacco. Those tobacco usages are permitted in Germany and England, so those markets are good places for us,” Hellstroem said.
If the reaction of her home market is anything to go by, Hellstroem’s brand of snus could be a major success abroad.
”One of our oldest customers is 70 years old, and she smoked for more than 50 years. She started using our products, alternating snus packets with cigarettes, but now she only uses our products,” she said.
Yet, for some habitual snusers nothing can replace the real thing.
”It tastes like a good pepper steak, but it’s not the same as real snus,” said one Swede after trying it out. – Sapa-AFP