Every term you will meet on a can, in a shop or in a forum thread, defined plainly. The vocabulary in this category is a mess because marketing departments have borrowed each other’s words for twenty years. This page is the reference the rest of the site links back to.
Product types
Snus. Moist, pasteurised tobacco from Sweden, placed under the upper lip. Contains tobacco leaf. Loose or portioned.
Nicotine pouch. A white bag containing nicotine, plant fibre, sweetener and flavour, with no tobacco leaf. ZYN, VELO, on! and the rest.
All-white. Marketing term for a tobacco-free pouch whose contents and bag are both white. Functionally the same thing as a nicotine pouch.
Dip / moist snuff. American, fermented, loose tobacco. Spat rather than swallowed.
Chewing tobacco. Loose leaf that is actually chewed.
Snuff. In British English, dry powdered tobacco taken through the nose.
Chew bag. A portioned tobacco product designed to be chewed rather than parked, sold in markets where snus itself is banned.
Caffeine pouch. Same format, caffeine instead of nicotine. Usually 20–100 mg per pouch.
Functional pouch. Pouches carrying something other than nicotine or caffeine — L-theanine, vitamins, melatonin, adaptogens.
Formats
Loose. Snus sold as a mass, rolled into a portion by hand or with a dispenser.
Original portion. A pre-moistened portion bag. Fast flavour, fast nicotine, more drip.
White portion. Moistened only on the inside. Slower, steadier, far less drip.
White dry. Drier still. Minimal drip, very slow release, holds its shape.
Slim. Long and narrow. The most common pouch shape.
Mini. Roughly half size. Discreet, shorter sessions.
Large. The traditional chunky portion.
Fleece. The non-woven material the bag is made from. Soft fleece is comfortable; rough fleece irritates within the hour.
Strength and chemistry
mg per pouch. Nicotine content of one pouch. The standard pouch label.
mg/g. Milligrams of nicotine per gram of product. The standard snus label. Concentration, not dose.
Freebase nicotine. The unprotonated form, which crosses the lining of the mouth readily. Higher pH means more freebase.
Nicotine salt. Nicotine bound to an acid. Lower pH, gentler, absorbed more slowly.
pH regulator. Usually sodium carbonate. Raises pH so more nicotine is available as freebase.
Humectant. Glycerol or propylene glycol, added to stop the product drying out.
Cooling agent. WS-3, WS-23 or menthol. Produces the cold sensation in anything called ice, freeze or frost. It is a sensation, not strength.
TSNAs. Tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Formed during fermentation, which is why pasteurised snus has far lower levels and tobacco-free pouches have none.
Synthetic nicotine. Nicotine made in a laboratory rather than extracted from tobacco. Chemically the same molecule.
Using it
Prilla. Swedish slang for a portion of snus.
Drip. The saliva and flavour that runs from the pouch. Some is pleasant; too much is not.
The sting / the burn. The tingling or burning under the lip. Partly nicotine, partly pH, partly cooling agent.
Parking. Leaving a pouch in place under the lip.
Catch lid. The compartment in the top of a can for used pouches.
Gum recession. The gum pulling back from the tooth at the placement site. The main reason to rotate where you put it.
Nic sick. Too much nicotine at once: racing heart, sweating, nausea, dizziness. Remove the pouch and drink water.
Regulation
PMTA. Premarket Tobacco Product Application. The FDA process a product must pass before it can legally be sold in the US.
MRTP. Modified Risk Tobacco Product. An FDA authorisation to make a specific comparative risk claim. ZYN products received one in June 2026.
TPD. The EU Tobacco Products Directive. Nicotine pouches currently fall outside it, which is why national rules differ so much.
TPD3. The revision now under way, expected to harmonise pouch rules around 2028.
GOTHIATEK. Swedish Match’s voluntary quality standard, setting maximum limits for undesirable compounds in snus.
Generational ban. The UK rule making it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
T21. The US federal minimum age of 21 for tobacco and nicotine products.