Swedish Match Kardus Snus Blend released for 2010..

October 4, 2010 - For the sixth consecutive year, Swedish Match is launching an exclusive snus in a limited edition. Kardus is described as the snus for connoisseurs: ‘[p]robably the world’s most exclusive – and expensive – snus’, according to a note posted on the company’s website.

Since 2005 Swedish Match has produced a highly exclusive snus for the true connoisseur:
Swedish Match Kardus Snus Blend released for 2009..
Kardus – new vintage snus for aficionados - 2009
Christmas gift of the year? Kardus - new edition of the world’s finest snus - 2008


The tobacco for this year’s limited edition called Kardus 2010 Ostindiefararen ('East Indiaman' or 'East India Voyager') has been picked in Java and flavored with the finest arrack. Arrack has its origins in Asian trade routes; so this year’s Kardus provides something of a history lesson. ‘The “East Indiaman” theme reflects the origin of both the tobacco and the flavour,’ said the company note.

Lars Öberg, the product developer behind the recipe, said that because the tobacco for Kardus was cut, it produced a surface that enhanced the flavors and elements in a way that simple snus, which was normally ground, could rarely achieve. The only additives were salt and – this year – arrack, he added.

The Kardus manufacturing process takes place in eight stages: cultivation, curing, gradation, refinement, selection, cutting, preparation and storing.

Kardus is sold in an oak box and a piece of china inside each box is a legacy from the final voyage of the East Indiaman, the Götheborg, in 1745, which was salvaged from the wreck in 1905. The china has been made available through a collaboration with the East India Company.

Kardus Superior Blend 2010, which is limited to 500 boxes that are being released just in time for Father’s Day, is priced at about SEK 600 per box. (In Sweden Father's Day is celebrated on second Sunday of November.)

Historically, the word Kardus (from the French “cartouche,” in German “karduse”) has been used in Sweden to mean “pack snus in kardus,” meaning to package the snus wrapped in cardboard.

References: East Indian theme for this year’s Kardus, Swedish Match, 9/30/2010; What Is Kardus Snus?, Snusify.com.