The Demise of Nord66 snus - What Skruf Can't Tell You
Nord66° Snus was a strong portion snus brand designed for the Norwegian and internet snus market by Skruf AB in early 2013.
I, Moe Unz, feel Nord66° was Skruf's response to Swedish Match's The LAB brand which is selling extremely well both in Norway and via internet snus stores.
Less than two years later, nord66 degrees no longer appears as a brand on the official Skruf website. Aside from an old news article, it isn't mentioned anywhere on the Skruf AB website.
There was no official announcement from Skruf; I even checked my junk mail folder. For the last six months reorder requests for Nord66° products have gone unanswered and unfilled.
From an original line of 6 snuses, the SnusCentral.com Snus Store is down to only nord66 Nordic Breeze Strong Portion Snus. When we run out of Nordic Breeze or the expirations dates approach, that will apparently be the end of the Nord66° brand.
If you do find Nord66° snuses available today, be very careful to check the expiration dates as again, no new product has apparently been distributed for six months as of this writing.
Sales of Nord66° were not spectacular. No one was particularly surprised when the classically flavored portion and X-Strong portions disappeared. The remaining Nord66° snuses, while in very attractive cans, were also slow sellers.
In the business world of snus, it would therefore be completely understandable if Skruf AB were to shut down the brand.
What is not typical is to do so with no public announcement and just remove it from their website's list of brands. It is almost as though Skruf was trying to make it appear Nord66° never existed. Were the all-powerful Swedish Snus Lords involved?
After reading through the legendary Unz family history, I may have stumbled upon the explanation.
A 100 year old secret regarding Nord66°
Skruf said that the name 'nord 66 degrees' refers to the coldest of latitudes and reflects the cold flavor profile the Nord66° snuses featured.
In light of early 20th century snus history, I find this too coincidental. More likely a slip of the tongue had planted the Nord66° name the mind of someone at Skruf marketing and brand development.
Very important: it was not me, Moe Unz! I didn't even know the following story until I decided to figure out why the Skruf Nord66° faded away with such a whimper.
The story of Nord66° goes back over 100 years to the early 20th century.
As treaty entanglements prepared to plunge the world into a World War and whispers of Sweden declaring another government monopoly on all tobacco products, Sweden's Snus Lords feared the future existence of Swedish snus itself could well be in danger.
As the story goes, under the guise of a large Christmas gathering at Unz Castle in December of 1913, Erik Unz, then Patriarch of the Unz family snus dynasty, proposed an audacious plan. He proposed building a huge secret underground vault to house tobacco seeds, recipes, and ingredients of all the snuses in production at the time.
A two day heated debate began but in the end the Unz plan was agreed to. A site was chosen in the far north, both for security and to preserve the samples in sub-zero temperatures.
Various shell corporations and front companies were developed and construction of the Swedish Snus Survival Vault began in the spring of 2014...none too soon.
On 28 Jun 1914, Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated and within 2 months World War I had begun.
Erik Unz slaved day and night to complete the Swedish snus survival vault and stock it with everything necessary in the event Swedish snus was destroyed by the so-called 'war to end all wars'.
Meanwhile, Sweden decided it needed a lucrative funding mechanism to fund its war machine and a pension plan they had instituted. In 1915, the Swedish Government nationalized the entire Swedish tobacco industry into the government-owned AB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet (Swedish Tobacco Monopoly Corporation).
Unz and the other Snus Lords intensified their efforts, shipping tobacco and recipes by secret nighttime transport, bribing guards and officials whenever necessary.
By September 2015, the Swedish Snus Survival Facility was complete and sealed. It was never spoken of or revealed publicly until now by me, Moe Unz. Among the Snus Lords of the time and later their heirs, the facility was only known as Nord66°.
66 degrees represented the latitude where the Swedish Snus Survival Facility was located. The longitude was known only to Unz while the exact coordinates of the facility were locked away in a Swiss bank vault. Signatures of three of living leaders of the families responsible for this endevor were required to access the Swiss bank vault.
Europe was in chaos after World War I ended and already the clouds of World War II were on the horizon. The Snus Lords decided to maintain the secrecy of the Swedish Snus Survival Facility. This proved to be a very wise decision.
as Sweden maintained the state-owned monopoly on Swedish snus until 1968.
In 1970, the Swedish National Food Agency began regulating Swedish snus as a food product. In many cases this caused significant changes to the ingredients and manufacturing methods of today's modern Swedish Snus.
Sweden's Snus Lords again met in 1971 to discuss the fate of the Swedish Snus Survival Facility. It was decided that for historical reasons alone, keeping the location and contents of the Facility a secret was in the best interests of Swedish Snus.
If Skruf (who wasn't a party to the original agreement as they didn't even exist until the early 21st century) hadn't inadvertently brought public scrutiny of the old legends surrounding the 66 degree latitude to light, this story would still be untold.
As to the location of the original Swedish Snus Survival Facility, additional precautions and changes in protocol will ensure it remains hidden and secure until after the Zombie Apocalypse when it will finally fulfill its function of repopulating the world with classic Swedish Snus.
Skruf AB has since confirmed that they have indeed delisted all the Nord66° products except Nordic Breeze. As to why I, Moe Unz, was not notified, they did not have an answer for that.
From the Unz family snus historical library, I remain yours in snus,
MOE UNZ
Snus Legend and Manager
The Snus Shop at SnusCentral.com
