Lundgrens Skåne

The initial flavor I get out of this is “berry”. Raspberry? Lingonberry? Lundgrens says “forest berry”, and those are both forest berries.

(Side note: if you’re in the US and haven’t tried lingonberries, go to Ikea. Dead serious. I don’t like meatballs, and I think that eating at a furniture store is weird. But, I’ll be damned if I don’t grab the meatballs and lingonberries from their cafeteria, as well as a lingonberry juice box.)

The berry flavor subsides a bit and hits you with a fairly heavy dash of salt. 15 minutes in, the salt fades, and you’re left with a vaguely “herbal” flavor that I’m going to guess is chamomile and tea, with a pepper and berry undertone. Kind of sour, kind of spicy. Beyond 15 minutes, I mostly get tobacco, pepper, and salt. It’s one of the few flavors that makes me actively want to drink water — and when I do, the berries come back for a visit.

Overall consistency is a concern here. Some portions have a really heavy salt hit. Others have a much more pronounced berry flavor. I wish it was more consistent, and less salty.

The overall portion size is somewhat large. the ends (or I’ve been calling them “tails”) are longer than I’ve seen with Skruf, and most of the Swedish Match brands I’ve tried. I find that they make for a plumper portion, and the empty tails make it a little less discreet than other brands. The textured portion material is also less comfortable than Skruf and most Swedish Match brands.

As far as aestethics go, I like the clean design. The catch lid stickers on every Lundgrens product I’ve had has been off center, for some reason. If symmetry is your thing, it may drive you nuts. The catch lid is “hinged”, which I thought was cool initially, but in practice, I find that it’s a little less discreet than the pop-off type.

Although I don’t see myself reaching for this all day, every day, I did take a chance on getting a roll of the slim version of this, which will be in another post.