Amy Calistri Loses Her Snus-ginity to Discreet Strawberry

The Discreet Snus story is pretty neat. A tobacco vet, Tom O’Connell, has the foresight to see that the U.S. needs more and better snus. From scratch, he builds and designs a snus machine in South Boston, Virginia, and proceeds to burn through thousands of pounds of tobacco before he gets it right. And I think he just may have…

Through countless focus groups and research, O’Connell designed his snus for the American smoker, and nothing about discreet is an accident. It’s strength is enough to quell the nicotine cravings of smokers, but not enough to make them sick. It’s size is designed to be concealable by anyone, not just 6′ tall guys with giant faces. It’s smell is designed to be widely appealing, not fishy. And it’s flavor is meant to be appreciated by anyone who gives it a try.

With the better part of a decade of snus use under my belt, this product was not targeted at riffraff like me. But for my smoker friends, it’s absolutely perfect.

That’s why I took Discreet to financial guru, poker journalist and my friend Amy Calistri. Here’s what she had to say about her first attempt at snusing:

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Diary of a New Snus User: Losing My Snus-ginity

I had been tempted to start driving down the snus highway. I don’t know what held me back. After all, I’m the perfect candidate.

- I smoke cigarettes. While I like nicotine, the health issues, stink, mess, and total inconvenience of smoking have been leaving me cold lately.

- I play poker. You can smoke almost anywhere in a casino except a poker room. Poker rooms have been non-smoking for years now. In tournaments they have a short break every couple of hours – which means most people have to flip a coin to decide whether they’re going to pee or smoke. I’ve learned to do both very quickly. (And yes, I do wash my hands). In cash games, there are no breaks. If you leave the room to smoke, you’re dealt out of a few hands. And you just know that’s when you’re being dealt pocket aces.

Lucky for me, I got to know the good Dr. Snus. The more I read, the more I realized that snus was the perfect solution for me. So I finally gave it a go.

My first snus experiment was conducted with Discreet Strawberry, an American Smokeless Tobacco product.

I nearly freaked out when I opened the resealable pouch. I was bombarded with a strong strawberry blast – harkening me back to a childhood addicted to Strawberry Quick. But as an adult, I’m not a very fruity person. I don’t even smoke methols.

I tried the first one at work. After three minutes I picked up the phone and called Dr. Snus.

“Something’s happening,” I said. “I like it. But it’s a little freaky. It’s sort of buzzy and warm.”

“It’s the tingle,” he responded, clinically. “That will eventually fade.”

I was initially worried that the nicotine rush would overwhelm me, but it provided a very gentle ramp up. And the fruity taste was also much milder than I expected; present but not overwhelming.

I hung in with my first one for about an hour. Even after taking it out, I was left with a satisfying, but fading, glow for almost another hour.

They say you always remember your first. And I suspect I will. But they also say the second time is better. I can’t wait to find out if that’s true.

Amy Calistri is from Austin, Texas.  She currently blogs at AimlesslyChasingAmy and is a co-author of the recently released book Check-Raising the Devil about the tumultuous life of professional poker player Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.