Nordic Spirit Forest Berries Nicotine Pouches

Blackcurrant first, and by some distance. JTI describes it as wild berries and blackcurrant, and having chewed through a few cans, the order of those words is misleading; blackcurrant is the spine and the wild berries are the flesh around it. The first thirty seconds are sweet and jammy, close to a Ribena that has been left in the fridge. Then the tartness creeps in from the sides of the tongue and stays there for the rest of the session.

Behind the blackcurrant you get a soft raspberry note and something a little rounder that reads as blueberry. Nobody would pick out a strawberry in a blind test, whatever the marketing copy says. What you do notice is the absence of anything artificial: no candyfloss sweetness, no perfume, no sharp chemical edge on the back of the throat.

The freshness is worth explaining, because the word trips people up. Forest Berries is described as fresh, and it is, in the way a cold glass of cordial is fresh. It is not cool. There is no menthol, no eucalyptus, no cooling agent of any kind. If you want berries with a chill on the end, that is a different can (more on that below).

Session length runs 30 to 45 minutes before the flavour tails off into a faint fruity background. The moist format front-loads it, so minute one is stronger than you might expect from the older dry pouches, and minute thirty is a touch weaker. Most people find that trade worth making.

Two strengths, one flavour. Both share the same purple can; the dot row on the lid is the quickest way to tell them apart at a glance.

Regular at 6mg is the one to start on if you have never used a pouch before. The nicotine arrives gently, the fruit does most of the talking, and you will not get the head-swim that puts first-timers off. It is also the sensible landing spot if you are coming off pouches at 9mg or above and want to taper without changing flavour.

Strong at 9mg is the one we sell the most of, and the one that suits an ex-smoker or somebody used to a 20mg disposable. The extra nicotine tightens the flavour slightly; the blackcurrant reads more tart, less jammy, and the tingle under the lip is more noticeable for the first five minutes. Satisfying without being harsh, which is roughly the whole point of a three-dot pouch.

There is no Extra Strong or Max. Forest Berries stops at 9mg. If you are settled at 11mg or 17mg and want a berry, the Frosty Berry Max at 17mg is the closest cousin, with the caveat that it adds cooling. That gap in the range is the single most common reason somebody picks a different Nordic Spirit.

It changes a fair bit. In 2025 JTI redesigned the whole Nordic Spirit line: slimmer cans, softer pouch material and a higher moisture content in the pouch itself. The older Nordic Spirit pouches were noticeably drier and took a couple of minutes to wake up. The moist version releases flavour and nicotine almost immediately, sits softer against the gum, and does not give you that papery feel on the inside of the lip.

The flip side is that a moist pouch is less forgiving of a can that has been open for weeks. Once the seal is broken, the pouches slowly dry out and the flavour flattens. Keep the lid clicked shut, do not leave a can on a sunny dashboard, and aim to finish it inside a fortnight. Buying a sleeve of five is fine; opening all five at once is not.

Each pouch weighs 0.7g and is the slim size, which is the standard across the Nordic Spirit range. Slim means it sits flat under the upper lip and is invisible from the outside. You can hold a conversation, take a call or sit in a meeting without anybody knowing. No dark liquid, no staining, no need to spit.

Same brand, both berries, both purple-ish cans. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake we see in returns queries.

Rule of thumb: if you moved onto pouches from an iced disposable and you miss that cold hit, go for Frosty Berry. If you find cooling agents distracting or numbing, or you simply want a fruit that tastes like fruit, Forest Berries is yours. Frosty Berry also carries on up to 17mg, so heavier users tend to drift that way regardless of taste.

The fruit side of the Nordic Spirit range has grown to five, and they overlap less than the names suggest.

Raspberry is the closest relative: warm, uncooled, 6mg and 9mg. It is a single, clean, tart note where Forest Berries is a chord. People who find Raspberry one-dimensional after a few cans usually step across to Forest Berries and stay there. The reverse move happens too, from people who decide the blackcurrant is a bit much.

Blueberry is the mildest fruit in the line, gentle and almost creamy. It suits people who want the lightest possible flavour. Forest Berries is bolder in every direction. Tropical Mix goes the other way entirely, mango and pineapple, sweeter and warmer, nothing dark about it.

Then there is Dark Fizz, the newest arrival: a cola-style flavour built from cinnamon, vanilla and citrus with a sherbety fizz. It is the only Nordic Spirit that is not a fruit or a mint, and the one Forest Berries fans most often try next when they want a change without moving to mint.

If none of those land, the mint side of the range starts with Nordic Spirit Mint, which is the brand's bestseller and the reference point most people compare everything else to.

Nothing to learn beyond where to put it and when to take it out. The moist format means it starts working faster than older pouches, so do not panic at the tingle.

Yes, if you want fruit without mint. It is the most convincing dark-fruit pouch on the shelf at this price, the moist format has fixed the slow-start problem the old Nordic Spirits had, and both strengths taste like the same flavour rather than a strong version and a watered-down one.

Where it falls short is range. Two strengths, topping out at 9mg, will not do for somebody who has settled at 11mg or higher. Blackcurrant is also a flavour with opinions; if you never liked it as a squash, you will not like it here. And the moist format asks you to look after an open can, which the drier pouches never did.

Do not buy it if you are after a cooling pouch, a very sweet pouch, or a strength above 9mg. Do buy it if your last three cans were all mint and you are bored of them. It also sits well in a mixed sleeve; plenty of customers run Forest Berries in the afternoon and a mint in the morning.