Summer means music and we have already written a couple of guides about using nicotine pouches at festivals, so despite the Proms still being on, and Sam Ryder making his West End Debut, we are going to have a broader look at different types of music that I can convolutedly link to some of the amazing products that we stock!
From huge outdoor stadium shows and weekend festivals to smaller gigs, garden parties and playlists accompanying long evenings in the sun, this is the time of year when music seems to be everywhere, so we thought we'd try something a little different at Snus Vikings.
Instead of choosing your nicotine pouches purely by flavour, brand or strength, why not coordinate your pouch with whatever happens to be coming through the speakers?
Over the summer, we're going to dig through the boxes of dusty records that obviously litter the Snus Vikings office to find nicotine pouches with names, flavours and brands that can be connected entirely naturally... (don't look at me like that) with different musical genres and eras.
And rather than following the trends and doing stuff about the 90s and 2000s coming back, we're starting with one of the most distinctive (and currently hugely popular) periods in rock history: the 1970s and the age of prog rock.
It was the decade of sprawling concept albums, enormous guitar solos, strange time signatures, increasingly ambitious synthesizers and songs that occasionally required an entire side of vinyl to finish.
So grab your bellbottom flares and kipper tie, put on your favourite 70s record and join us as we search the Snus Vikings collection for some appropriately progressive pouches.
RUSH: The Obvious Prog Rock Pouch
There could really only be one place to begin.
Our RUSH Nordic Frost shares its name with one of the great progressive rock bands: Rush.
The Canadian trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart became one of the most recognisable names in prog during the 1970s, combining hard rock with increasingly complex compositions and famously ambitious lyrics.
Their 1970s run included 2112 in 1976, A Farewell to Kings in 1977 and Hemispheres in 1978. By the end of the decade, Rush had established a sound that was unmistakably their own.
There's no connection between the RUSH nicotine pouch brand and the Canadian band, of course. It's simply a wonderfully convenient coincidence for our musical experiment.
And you don't have to stop at Nordic Frost.
The RUSH range at Snus Vikings includes Nordic Frost, Mango Freeze, Icy Grape, Ice Cool, Green Mint, Grape Ice Extreme, Cherry Chill Extreme, Boost Mint Extreme and Berry Ice.
That's practically enough for a concept album of its own.
If you're putting 2112 on the turntable this summer, RUSH has to be the obvious pouch to accompany it.
Going Deep Purple
Prog rock didn't exist in isolation.
Throughout the 1970s, the boundaries between progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock and the emerging sound of heavy metal were constantly being crossed.
Which brings us to Deep Purple.
The classic line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice produced some of the defining British rock records of the early 1970s, including Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball and Machine Head.
And "purple" turns out to be a very useful word when we start digging through the Snus Vikings catalogue.
SKRUF Purple Cassice is our first candidate, combining blackcurrant with mint.
There's also SKRUF Purple Cassice Strong for those who already use stronger nicotine pouches.
So if Highway Star, Child in Time or Smoke on the Water is blasting from the speakers, Purple Cassice gives you an appropriately coloured accompaniment.
It's not quite Deep Purple but it is definitely purple.
VELO Purple Grape Gets Groovy
We can continue the Deep Purple theme with another family of pouches.
VELO Purple Grape gives us another suitably purple candidate, with grape providing the dominant flavour and there's also VELO Purple Grape 8mg if that strength better suits your usual choice.
But there's another reason we particularly like Purple Grape for our 1970s collection, the flavour was previously known as Groovy Grape and if there's one adjective that feels as though it belongs on a 1970s playlist, "groovy" surely has to be somewhere near the top.
The smaller-format VELO Purple Grape Mini also carries that bit of history, having previously been known as VELO Groovy Grape Mini so we've got two connections for the price of one.
This might be the only time when you can mention groovy and purple and "smoke on the water" is entirely inappropriate. If only Deep Purple also made a song called "smoke free nicotine pouches near the water"!
Either way, its time to put on your flares accordingly.
Another Purple Pouch for the Playlist
We're not finished with purple yet, and we can squeeze another drop of juice out of the Purple Grape theme!
KURWA Blackcurrant Purple Grape gives us another combination of blackcurrant and grape flavours and, admittedly, we're stretching our musical connections a little further by this point, but that's part of the fun.
We're not suggesting these products were inspired by Deep Purple, and we're certainly not claiming any official association between nicotine pouches and 1970s rock bands.
We're simply looking through the collection and finding products whose names happen to work particularly well with the music we're listening to.
And when the playlist reaches Deep Purple, a pouch called Purple Grape seems considerably more appropriate than one called Watermelon.
77: A Number with Serious Rock Credentials
Our final connection doesn't come from a band name or a colour, it comes from a number.
The 77 nicotine pouch range gives us the perfect excuse to travel back to 1977, not just the year that Star Wars was released but also an extraordinary year for music.
Some of the most brilliant and innovative bands and artists were working on some of the most legendary albums and songs and were in their prime which has lead to several music publications to ask whether 1977 was the best year of all time for music. Some of the albums you might have heard of include
- Pink Floyd - Animals.
- Fleetwood Mac - Rumours.
- David Bowie - Low and "Heroes".
- Queen - News of the World.
- Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue.
- Supertramp - Even in the Quietest Moments....
- Rush - A Farewell to Kings.
Meanwhile, punk was exploding into the mainstream through bands including the Sex Pistols and The Clash and Prog itself was evolving too. Emerson, Lake & Palmer released Works Volume 1, complete with their famous interpretation of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
So a tin carrying the number 77 can accompany a surprisingly large section of your record collection. You could even pair a 77 pouch with A Farewell to Kings and complete our musical circle: 77 for the year, Rush on the stereo.
Build Your Own 1970s Pouch Playlist
So what belongs in our first Snus Vikings musical selection?
RUSH is unquestionably the headliner. With an entire range sharing a name with one of prog's defining bands, it's about as good a match as we're ever likely to find.
Then we have SKRUF Purple Cassice, VELO Purple Grape and KURWA Blackcurrant Purple Grape providing our Deep Purple-inspired section.
VELO earns bonus points thanks to Purple Grape's former Groovy Grape name.
Finally, flavours like 77 Pink Punch open the door to 1977 and one of the most remarkable years of the decade.
None of these connections are meant to be taken too seriously. The brands aren't affiliated with the musicians, and the musicians certainly didn't create the pouches.
It's simply a different way of exploring the Snus Vikings collection during a summer filled with music.
So whether your speakers are currently playing Rush, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer or something completely different, have a look through your pouch collection.
You might discover that your playlist and your nicopods have more in common than you thought and with several decades and countless musical genres still to explore, Prog Rock Pouches is only Side One.
Nicotine pouches contain nicotine, which is an addictive substance. They are intended for adult nicotine users only.
