What Is XQS? A Snus Primer For Italy

XQS is tobacco free snus sold as nicotine pouches, with 11 products on our Italy shelf running from 6mg to 17mg per pouch and 20 pouches in every can. XQS snus now belongs to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which bought the brand in 2023, and the table below puts every nicotine level in Italy on one page before the detail begins.

What does an XQS can actually hold?

An XQS can holds 20 tobacco free nicotine pouches, each a small white portion that sits under the upper lip. The nicotine comes from a separate filling rather than from tobacco leaf, and that is the line between a pouch of this kind and traditional tobacco snus. In Italy the shop word is snus, while nicotine pouches describes the format more exactly, and both words point to the same cans on the XQS shelf.

The brand name holds the range together, but it does not give every can the same specification. A flavour name sets the direction of the taste, the mg per pouch figure states the nicotine in one portion, and the weight of the pouch describes the size of that portion. Think of a train timetable between Milan and Rome: the service name is the same on every departure, yet the departure time is what decides which train you actually board. Cans work the same way, so the exact name and the exact figure matter more than the logo.

The brand is Swedish by heritage. The maker says it was born in Jämtland in 2005, and the company that owns it today completed its purchase of the brand on 31 May 2023. The pouches are all white, and the fruit cans list a plain set of ingredients: bulking agent, water, nicotine, flavourings, salt, a humectant, an acidity adjuster and a sweetener.

Keeping nicotine apart from flavour is the tidiest way to read the shelf, and What strengths does XQS come in? takes that question on its own. A familiar fruit name can appear beside a different figure from the one you expect, and a familiar figure can appear beside several flavours, which is why the table above is grouped by nicotine rather than by taste.

How long does an XQS pouch stay in?

A pouch is kept in for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the user's preference. That range describes one session, and it says nothing about how long a whole can will last, because the number of pouches used in a day belongs to the person and not to the can.

For an Italian comparison, a standing espresso at a Roman counter is over before the cup has cooled, whereas a pouch session sits closer to a slow lunch at the table. Each can supplies 20 sessions at most, and how they are spread across a week is a personal rhythm. Perhaps the most useful habit is to treat the time under the lip and the labelled mg per pouch as two separate pieces of information, since a longer session does not change the figure printed on the lid.

The timing question has a page of its own in How Long Does a XQS Last for Snus Users in Italy?, which is the place to go when planning around a working day in Turin or a long Sunday in Naples.

Where does an XQS pouch sit?

An XQS pouch sits between the upper lip and the gum, with the filling kept inside its pouch material. You take one pouch from the can, place it beneath the upper lip, and remove it when the session ends. The pouch is the unit of use, which is exactly why nicotine per pouch is the figure worth comparing, while the can is simply the supply.

Moisture helps release flavour and nicotine from the contents as the session goes on. Pouch composition shapes the texture too, so the feel under the lip depends on the format as well as the flavour name. Weight is a measure of the portion, not another way of stating nicotine, and a heavier pouch does not automatically carry more of it.

The practical order of placement, first time and every day, is set out in How to Use XQS Snus in Italy. Understanding placement before comparing flavours makes the difference between a pouch and a can easy to hold in mind: one goes under the lip, the other keeps the remaining portions.

How do you choose between XQS flavours?

Settle the nicotine per pouch first, then compare flavour names among the cans that share that figure. The Italy shelf includes fruit, mint and menthol descriptions, and several flavours sit at the same level, which leaves room to change the taste without changing the stated nicotine.

The 8mg group is made of fruit names, the 10mg group mixes fruit with peppermint, and the menthol appears at two different figures. A preference for something cooling therefore has to be matched to a particular can and not treated as a strength category. Choosing at a market stall in Florence is a fair comparison: the fruit you fancy is one decision, and how much of it to take home is another.

For the flavours in a considered order, with who each suits, XQS Flavours Ranked for Italy: Which Snus Suits You? brings the subject together. The ranking concerns taste, and the mg per pouch figure still belongs beside whichever name is chosen.

How are the XQS lines organised?

Two things sort the XQS shelf: the style of the flavour name and the weight of the pouch. Cans whose flavour name begins with The, covering spearmint, peppermint and menthol, carry a heavier pouch than the fruit cans at 8mg, and the exact weights appear in the cans section further down.

The menthol name is also the one that appears twice, once at 11mg and once at 17mg, so the full product name carries information that the flavour alone does not. Anyone who has asked for a coffee in Bologna and been asked which kind will recognise the pattern: the first word opens the choice, and the second word settles it.

The wider structure of the range, and how its parts relate, is covered in XQS Lines Explained: How Does the Snus Range Fit Together in Italy?, which is useful when a name on a lid looks unfamiliar.

Where can you find XQS in Italy?

XQS sits on our Italy shelf as a collection of its own, and we deliver to Italy. Readers in Milan, Rome or Turin see the same shelf, with the same cans and the same labelled figures, so the choice depends on flavour and nicotine per pouch and not on where you are browsing from.

The step from choosing to ordering is covered in Where can you buy XQS in Italy?. Our shop is 18+ only, and the product page of any can lists its flavour and its mg per pouch, which makes it simple to confirm the figure before anything else.

Which named XQS cans are worth comparing first?

The cans below show how XQS matches each flavour direction to a particular nicotine quantity, and the pouch weights sharpen that picture. Each can holds 20 pouches.

Which cans sit at 6mg and 8mg?

XQS The Spearmint 6mg contains 6mg per pouch and is the lowest figure on this shelf. Its pouch weighs 0.75g, with 15g of contents in the can. XQS Berrynana Twist 8mg, XQS Black Cherry 8mg and XQS Tropical 8mg each contain 8mg per pouch. The first two have a pouch of 0.5g, with 10g in the can, and Tropical adds a third flavour at the same 8mg.

The weights explain a physical difference without ranking either format. The Spearmint has the heavier pouch yet the smaller figure, which shows that weight and nicotine are separate details. A 0.75g pouch at 6mg holds less nicotine than a 0.5g pouch at 8mg.

Which cans sit at 10mg?

XQS Blueberry Mint 10mg brings blueberry and mint together at 10mg per pouch. XQS Citrus Cooling 10mg, XQS Raspberry Blackcurrant 10mg and XQS Strawberry Kiwi 10mg complete the fruit choices at the same figure. XQS The Peppermint 10mg adds a peppermint can at that level, with a 0.75g pouch and 15g of contents in the can.

Five flavours at one figure make this the group where taste does most of the deciding. Because the nicotine is the same, the comparison reduces to citrus against berries against mint, and that is a pleasant problem to have.

Which cans sit at 11mg and 17mg?

XQS The Menthol 11mg contains 11mg per pouch, with a 0.75g pouch and 15g in the can. XQS The Menthol 17mg contains 17mg per pouch and is the highest figure on the Italy shelf. The two menthol cans make the point of this whole page quite neatly: recognising a flavour is only half of identifying the can, because the nicotine changes between the two versions.

How do you compare the figures on an XQS can?

Compare mg per pouch with mg per pouch, and use pouch weight to convert any figure given as mg/g. The first number states the nicotine in a single portion, while the second states nicotine per gram of contents, and multiplying mg/g by the pouch weight in grams gives mg per pouch.

For XQS Berrynana Twist 8mg and XQS Black Cherry 8mg, 16mg/g multiplied by a 0.5g pouch gives 8mg per pouch. For XQS The Spearmint 6mg, 8mg/g multiplied by 0.75g gives 6mg. The Peppermint and The Menthol cans use the same 0.75g pouch, so the same sum applies to them and lands on the 10mg and 11mg printed on their lids. A larger mg/g figure beside a smaller mg per pouch figure is therefore not a contradiction, because the two numbers measure nicotine on different bases, and a heavier pouch simply needs a lower mg/g figure to reach the same total.

The lid carries a row of six small bars, some filled to show strength, with the mg figure printed beside them. The pictured XQS The Spearmint 6mg design has three filled bars out of six, and the pictured XQS The Menthol 11mg design has five filled bars out of six. The bars give a quick visual impression, while the printed mg per pouch figure remains the exact quantity to read.

Where should you keep an XQS can between uses?

Keep an XQS can at room temperature with the lid tightly closed between uses. The pouches do not need to be kept refrigerated, so a shelf, a desk drawer or a jacket pocket on the way from Milan to Bologna will do. Closing the lid after taking a pouch is the one habit worth forming, and keeping the full product name in mind makes a repeat order match the can you meant.

When the flavour and the nicotine per pouch are settled, we deliver to Italy. You can buy snus from the wider collection to set XQS beside other options, or browse the full snus range from the homepage. Carry the complete flavour name and the mg per pouch through to the final choice, particularly where two cans share a name.