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A brief history of snus Introduction In Sweden we have a long tradition of manufacturing and using snus. In 1822, Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf started the production of the precursor to today's modern snus. He introduced newer and industrialized manufacturing methods, which contributed to better quality and made it possible for him to spread his snus more widely. His care and quality awareness lives on today in the Swedish production. As well as having a brand named after him, (Ljunglöf's Ettan), his sprit lives on in the aspiration to constantly improve the manufacturing process. Tobacco         Columbus Christopher Columbus discovered tobacco on his first expedition to America. On a West Indian island, he met people that chewed or smoked the leaves of a plant, which they called tabago. This new stimulant soon became popular in Europe, but first as a medicine. Jean Nicot (who later has given his name to nicotine), introduced the nasal snuff as a medicine at the French court. The popularity of the tobacco increased enormously when the French queen, Catarina de´Medici, declared that the nasal snuff had cured her headache. The custom to take a pinch of tobacco, "tabac à priser" now arose, and influences the latter Swedish name for a portion of snus: "En pris snus" The custom spread to Sweden. Jonas Alströmer, who is most known to Swedes for introducing the potato to our country, also introduced the tobacco plant. During Sweden's days of glory during the 16th century, the spirit of the Swedish soldiers was kept up by locally produced spirits and tobacco. The agriculture and the preparation of the tobacco was one of Sweden's most important industries, and continued to be so all the way into the 19th century. The Swedes invent snus The custom of using nasal snuff practically vanished in Europe at the time of the French revolution. Instead the usage of pipe and cigarettes increased. It was though impractical to have ones hands occupied with smoking in manual work, and chewing tobacco was preferred by the working people. But the spinning and twining process of chewing tobacco manufacture was difficult and therefore costly. A new way of using tobacco was invented instead, that was more suitable for hardworking people with an empty purse - the moist snus. All that was needed to produce it was the millstone, which was normally used to grind the corn for bread. It could just as easily be used to grind tobacco. This new tobacco custom became immensely popular. In the hundred years of the 18th century, the use of snus increased from zero to one kilogram per person and year. During the 19th century, the Swedes developed the dry nasal snuff into a moist and aromatic snus. This type of snus probably didn't taste anything like our modern type of snus since the raw material was made up by the domestically grown poor quality tobacco plants and the production technique was to allow the snus to 'cure' or 'sweat' in one big lump. To ensure that the snus did not get 'burnt', the mixture was kept at a low temperature. This made the sweating process slow, taking up to half a year before it was ready for sale. Bacteria flourished. This was a simple process and there were a lot of snus manufactures that wanted to make a profit. To hide the doubtless musty taste, the different snus types were flavoured with all sorts of things. Some examples of flavourisers were: clove, pimpernel, figs, malt, juniper berry, wine and syrup. But there was one person that was very strict about the quality of the snus and who strived to give it back its pure flavour of tobacco, salt and water. His name was Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf (1796-1860). Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf At the age of 17, the young Jakob Fredrik moved to Stockholm and started working at the combined pub and tobacco factory "Clas på hörnet" - Clas on the corner. The young lad soon got such a good reputation for both understanding tobacco and keeping the books in order, that he after 7 years was recruited to the Lundgren-Anderssonska tobacco factory at Drottninggatan 81. This was one of the oldest tobacco factories in the country, with a history going back to the 17th century. Ljunglöf wanted a brand of his own though, and in 1822 he was given the required town privilege that allowed him to produce tobacco products in his own name. The old factory owner died a couple of years later and Ljunglöf took over the factory in return for a promissory note for 110 000 riksdaler (about 6 million Swedish crowns or 600 000 USD in today's money) to the widow. A new manufacturing process Ljunglöf was obsessed by the thought of improving the quality of snus. A key factor to success was to find a way to vastly shorten the production time. One of Ljunglöf's friends was the world famous chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius. It is not known if Berzelius helped his friend, but Ljunglöf was able to shorten the curing time for the tobacco to one week! He didn't use any flavourisers and thus gave Ettan the taste of pure tobacco, salt and water. Ljunglöf also took great interest in what type of tobacco was used. Only tobacco of the best quality was used. As time went by, the sales of Ljunglöf snus increased, and import became easier, Ljunglöf was able to get hold of even better quality on his tobacco. Ettan - the leading brand- uses mainly Virginian tobacco. Better transport At this time, transport was slow and the snus packing far from watertight. Ljunglöf, who put the quality of his snus above all, only permitted his snus to be sold where it could be transported without loosing it's quality. As the construction of railway developed, Ljunglöf's snus could reach a larger number of consumers. Ljunglöf gained a reputation all over Sweden. New snus factories Since the sales of snus had increased many times over, the snus factory on Drottninggatan was moved to a whole block on Badstugatan (later on Sveavägen 40-44). By 1839 production had increased even more, and this time the snus factory was moved to Luntmakargatan 19. The snus factory overtook the premises of a former brewery, and it was equipped with the best possible technology. The quality of the snus was still supervised by Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf himself. Snus names The name N:o 1 was common at this time and designated that this was the snus manufacture's best snus type. The names N:o 2 and N:o 3 also existed, to mark the lower quality snus types. As time went by Ljunglöf's N:o 1 became so popular, that when people spoke of "Ettan" ("The number one"), it was Ljunglöf's snus they meant and no other. Another standard snus brand name in the trade was Generalssnus that indicated a general type of snus, i.e. a snus without its own brand. A recipe for a generalsnus was adapted to what type of tobacco and other ingredients the manufacture had available at the time. Other old brands with a wide distribution were Röda Lacket from Norrköping, Friskens Norrlandssnus from Hudiksvall, Prestsnus from Gothenburg and Stockholmssnus from Kockums in Malmö (!). Knut Ljunglöf takes over When Jacob Fredrik died in 1860, his son Knut Ljunglöf (1833-1920) took over the business. The son had inherited his father's passion for snus and the quality of the snus. Everyday he ordered a sample of that day's production, for nasal inspection, before he allowed it to be sold. Wider snus market Another great invention saw the light of the day - tinfoil. Wrapped in tinfoil (a metal foil made of zinc or lead), Ljunglöf's snus could be distributed even further from Stockholm. One of Ljunglöf's most prominent customers was Pope Leo XIII. Another group that was happy were the Swedish emigrants. During the famine years, one fourth of the Swedish population emigrated to America. Inventive emigrants soon started to produce snus, but according to the commonly known method with the longer curing process. The different producers gave their snus names that reminded of the old homeland, but none of these tasted like the Swedish type, and definitely not like Ljunglöf's snus. Of the emigrants distress bear the following words from the newspaper "Göteborgs-Posten" in year 1869, some testimony: " The real trouble for the Swedes is that tolerable snus can't be bought for love or money." Monopoly The sales of Ljunglöf's snus continued to increase. In the beginning of the 20th century, there was only one snus producer in the US that was larger than Ljunglöf. Ettan was number two in the world, with constantly growing sales. The death-blow for Knut Ljunglöf came shortly after that the snus factory at Badstugatan had been enlarged. The threat of a state tobacco monopoly became, with the outbreak of the First World War, reality. The profit from the tobacco industry was going to be used to build the Swedish pension fund. This came as a death-blow for Knut Ljunglöf. When the Swedish tobacco monopoly became a fact, Knut let his son, Robert, handle the redemption of the snus production. In 1915 Ettan was thus nationalized, together with all other tobacco factories. The government's representative who evaluated the company was astounded to see such vast quantities of Virginia tobacco in a snus producers stock. But Robert Ljunglöf answered with the obvious: Otherwise it wouldn't be Ettan! The government monopoly took over more than a hundred different snus brands, but Ljunglöf's N:o 1 was the only one that was sold all over Sweden. Production at Luntmakargatan continued until the 1920's. It was then moved to the tobacco monopoly's other premises at Rosenlundsgatan in Stockholm. In 1967, the Swedish tobacco monopoly was dissolved and Svenska Tobaks AB overtook the snus production. Svenska Tobak's production of snus finally ended up at Hultmans Holme in Gothenburg, beside the Göta River. A number of new Swedish snus manufacturers and brands have started since 2003. Skruf is manufactured in Småland while Gustavus and LD are made near Gothenburg. Mocca and Granit come from Malmö. Freely rendered from: "Snus kungen - Ljunglöfs Ettan och det svenska snuset" (The King of Snus - Ljunglöf's Ettan and the Swedish snus), Tobaksmuseet Gubbhyllan (The tobacco museum Gubbhyllan), Skansen. Stockholm 1999.