Nicotine

35 mg/g on the badge. 17.5 mg in the pouch. People repeat the badge.

By: Snupax editorial
Date: 15 October 2026
Reading time: 7 minutes

Nicotine is a highly addictive compound in the tobacco plant. The FDA says it changes the way the brain works and causes cravings. On a pouch can the large figure is usually milligrams per gram of filling. The bag under the lip holds a smaller figure, the milligrams in that one pouch. Reading the first number as the second treats a slim can as a stronger pouch than the bag is.

Contents

• The compound, from the FDA page
• Snus, the word people actually use
• Where cigarette smoke comes into it
• Half a gram times 35
• Cold mint, six cards
• The film that prints a third unit
• The order I read a tin

The compound, from the FDA page

The page I keep for the compound itself is the FDA's: Nicotine Is Why Tobacco Products Are Addictive. Nicotine, it says, is a highly addictive chemical compound present in the tobacco plant. All tobacco products contain it. Use can lead to addiction because nicotine changes the way the brain works and causes cravings. The same page says the effect on a developing brain is large enough that no tobacco product is safe for youth. This catalogue is for adults aged 18 and over.

Cigarettes are the example it gives of a product built to deliver nicotine to the brain within seconds. The thousands of other chemicals in tobacco and tobacco smoke are what it points to when it explains why that use is so deadly. Combustible products are the most harmful of the ones it compares. That is the account. The tins further down do not improve on it.

Snus, the word people actually use

Someone passes you a round tin and calls it snus. Fair enough: that is how the word travels, even though traditional snus is ground oral tobacco and nasal snuff is powdered tobacco taken through the nose. The product-type line on the cards here says nicotine pouches. The nickname can stay in the conversation. It does not have to rewrite the line.

You put one bag under the upper lip, against the gum. You take it out when you are finished.

Where cigarette smoke comes into it

People still line the bag up against a cigarette, usually to say the bag is the milder cousin. Smoke is burned tobacco. The CDC fact sheet describes damage to the airways and the small air sacs in the lungs. COPD is among the diseases it names. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the two it places inside that name: Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking.

The NHS, on nicotine as a substance rather than on smoke, says nicotine is highly addictive and does not contain the toxic chemicals in cigarettes. Those other chemicals cause almost all the harm from smoking. Nicotine itself, that page says, does not cause cancer, lung disease, heart disease or stroke. It has been used for many years in medicines such as nicotine replacement therapy: Vaping myths and facts. The medicines named alongside that, by the NHS and by the FDA, are patches, gum and lozenges for adults who are stopping. Both send the practical questions to a clinician. A pouch sold here carries a pouch card.

If a doctor has already said no nicotine, an unlit bag is still nicotine.

Half a gram times 35

Half a gram times 35 is 17.5. That sum is Garant Ice Cool. The pouch weighs 0.5 g and the filling is 35 mg/g. The card already prints 17.5 mg as the portion. Call it a 35 mg pouch and you have slid the concentration into the bag, which holds 17.5 mg. How nicotine pouch strength is measured stays with the pair: milligrams per gram for the filling, milligrams per pouch for one bag. The weight of the pouch sits between those two.

Garant Ice Cool Light keeps the slim 0.5 g bag and puts 27 of them in the can. The card prints 11 mg/g and 4.8 mg in the pouch. The catalogue marks the tin LIGHT. Carry the printed 4.8 mg. LIGHT is a word on this card. I would not take it to a clinic and expect anyone to know what grade I meant.

Garant Prime Ice Cool is the white tin, Prime Collection. It is the one that breaks the habit of reading the front. Same Ice Cool flavour as the black slim can, a heavier pouch and a smaller portion: 15.5 mg/g and 10.8 mg in a 0.7 g bag, 22 in the can, marked STRONG. You can heft the white tin and feel more bag than the slim black one. You can still be holding less nicotine per pouch than the 17.5 mg. Read the weight and the concentration together or the heft wins.

The adjective is the line I trust least. Once a second brand is on the table the words stop agreeing with each other. CUBA Cherry is marked STRONG at 16 mg/g. KILLA Cold Mint XXL is marked NORMAL at the same 16 mg/g. If you already know which portion you want, leave the adjective where the printer put it.

A pouch card has no minutes on it. The seconds in the FDA account belong to cigarettes.

Cold mint, six cards

Cold mint is a flavour name. I sorted the table by the figure one pouch holds, because that is the number I would quote back if someone asked what the tin is. Light, Prime and the slim Ice Cool share a flavour and do not share a portion. The other three rows are from the same pass through the catalogue.

On 16 October 2026 the slim Ice Cool was €3.55 or €2.93 from 10 cans. Light was the dearer of the three at €3.97 or €3.29 from 10. Prime sat at €3.61 with no from-10 price on that reading. Annoying if you had assumed every tin on the table carried the same offer. The from-10 line is a separate offer either way. It still does not say how many cans are left.

Three Ice Cool cans. The pouches hold 4.8 mg, 10.8 mg and 17.5 mg.

The film that prints a third unit

Then there is the dry film, which people set beside the tin because the flavour name matches and then treat as a small pouch. GARANT nicotine strips in the Ice Cool line print 7 mg per strip and 66 strips in the pack. On that same 16 October the pack was €3.97 or €3.29 from 10 packs. There are no milligrams per gram on the card, so there is nothing to multiply. The format line says strip.

A thin film can feel sharp on the tongue. That sharpness is a sensation. The figure beside it is 7 mg. Set 7 mg per strip next to 17.5 mg per pouch if you are comparing the two Ice Cool products. Stop at the units. They share a flavour name.

Pouch on the left, strip pack on the right. One prints a portion. The other prints milligrams per strip.

The order I read a tin

If the tin is still in your hand, this is the order.

1. Pouch or strip. They count nicotine in different units.
2. The milligrams in one pouch or in one strip.
3. The weight, when the card bothers to give you one.
4. Flavour after that. Brand last.

Ice Cool is a flavour. It has already come up as three different portions. The list above is the way I tell them apart.

Garant nicotine pouches

The button opens the Garant assortment.