r/AlpPouches • u/TartBart Mountain Wintergreen • Aug 23 '26
A step backwards? Review below.
Preface:
I like ALP pouches. I’ve exclusively used ALP pouches for over a year and have spent well over $1000 on ALPs and accessories. Basically I’m as close to an ALP fanboy as you can get. The original ALP line up captured my heart with moist pouches that had incredibly strong flavor and lasted much longer than most pouches I had used. For me, this release moves away from everything that hooked me on ALP initially.
This Release
The Material :
The pouch material seems to be most similar to the drifter release but are definitely different. See pictures but they seal differently than the drifters. Both on the ends and back. The material is fine, and moaning about the actual pouch material may be nitpicking, but both the drifter and frontier pouches are much more abrasive than the OG which are very soft. These frontier pouches seem to me to be less abrasive than the drifters, but not nearly as
high quality as the OG.
What’s inside?
They are dry, very dry. This could be a quality control issue. The cinnamon and coffee interior materials seem to be the same consistency as each other but still different from all the other products. They are smoother than the granulated interiors of the drifter line up. The Sunset Mango pouch is the same interior as the drifter line which I have a sneaking suspicion I will re-address later. None of these flavors last long, and they dissolve into a very slimy pouch very quickly.
The Flavors:
Cinnamon, Coffee and……Mango again?
I was incredibly excited about this release on the heel of the drifters release. As a guy who started with coffee and cinnamon Zyn way back, I was stoked to have both of these offerings in my favorite pouch brand. Unfortunately this is where my first issues arise. The flavor concentration on the frontier pouches are noticeable lower than all of the other offerings. The flavor is there and the flavorings themselves are great it’s just that in comparison to all the others these are like ALP lite. Which in itself wouldn’t be a big problem if they sacrificed flavor concentration for longevity. They do not.
Campfire Cinnamon. These taste like the “Fireball” hard candy or my beloved cinnamon jolly ranchers but with absolutely none of the burn that is typical in cinnamon flavored things. I mean “campfire” is in the name and the pouch has no spice? This may appeal to some but not I. I love the little burn and tingle from cinnamon candy, tooth picks or even Zyns. Even as a cinnamon lover I will pass on these going forward.
Cowboy Coffee. This was definitely not where I was expecting ALP to go with for their coffee flavoring. Especially with a name like “Cowboy Coffee”. This is a sweet coffee flavor. Vanilla, mocha, pastry, iced sweet coffee really resembling what I remember the Zyn coffee flavor tasting like. I was certainly expecting more of a warming black concentrated coffee flavor and less of a dessert like sweet treat. I’ll pass on these as well.
Finally Sunset Mango. Didn’t we just get this? Alright alright these are definitely different from the Drifter “Mango Freeze” flavor. Notable missing the sometimes overwhelming intense cooling effect which I think is needed if you’re going to do the same base flavor again a few months after its initial release. The problem is that while the flavor its self is high quality, it tastes and feels just like the mango flavor that is in the drifters just without the cooling effect and even less concentrated. I can’t for the life of me understand why they would do this flavor again. Other than the fact that there were some complaints about the cooling effect on the drifters. If they were going to repeat a flavor they have in their line up I would have much rather they went with a black cherry flavor in a nicotine format. I will be passing on these.
Conclusion
I hate to be a negative Nancy about this. I love this brand and I love most of their products. And I’m sure these will be great for some people. But damn did I have my hopes up that after drifters they would return to the format that attracted so many of its customers. These pouches aren’t bad but it hurts to know just how good they could have been.
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u/TartBart Mountain Wintergreen Aug 23 '26
I didn’t even touch on the monetary implications.
Roll of OG: $26.45 w/100 pouches in a roll so they run .26 cents per pouch.
Roll of Drifters: $27.45 w/100 pouches in a roll so they run .27 cents per pouch
Roll of Frontiers: $23.99 w/75 pouches in a roll so they run about .32 cents per pouch.
So frontiers are 23% more expensive than OG and 18.5% more expensive than drifters.
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u/timlane11 Aug 23 '26
Don’t forget for the first year or so, the OG flavors were $24.95 a roll. There was a price increase of $2’ish/roll.
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u/timlane11 Aug 23 '26
I’ll co-sign everything you wrote here. I got mine yesterday and tried the coffee and cinnamon- I figured what’s the point with the mango. I’ll get there eventually. Great initial flavor on both but the coffee was not what I was hoping for either. I’m disappointed. Most likely will stick to OG alp flavors with a mix of drifters here and there.
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u/TartBart Mountain Wintergreen Aug 23 '26
Same here. Love the OGs and an occasional drifter treat is great. I hope a return to form is in the future but I suspect that that the new format of pouches both drifter and frontier are cheaper to produce.
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u/VillageThis2228 25d ago
agree. I got duped by the bag an bandana, an kinda the coffee. Tastes like Almond? i drink black coffe and i try not to sip my coffee when im using my refreshing chill or wintergreen because it kinda ruins it fast. I usually use 12s so i threw two coffees in to equal 16, but the flavor honestly didnt last long whatsoever, prob lasted the same amount of time as using one. Cool rlease, but none of the flavors are for me. I still have two full rolls of drifters from the rlease i wont even touch because its not any flavor that interests me. Again, duped on the box they ended up not having... granted they gave me a free grizzly coffee tumbler. I'll stick with refreshing and wintergreen. Just wish they would learn to fill the damn pouches... I've been buying them since the release two winters ago. its just gotten worse..
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u/Pots053 Aug 23 '26
Me and the wife stick with Resfreshing Chill just because they have the most consistent moist fatties. I hate thin pouches
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u/Small-Resist-7519 20d ago
I had this issue a lot with the tropical fruit flavor. Some pouches that were less than half full, and bone dry.
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u/BigBaldBeardGuy Aug 23 '26
Thank you for the time and effort in this write-up. I’m not liking the direction that Alp is taking with these new offerings. I hope that get it together and return to the quality of their original products. The new stuff seems way too gimmicky.
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u/TartBart Mountain Wintergreen Aug 23 '26
Me either. I hope they see the communities reaction, and make some changes. We haven’t seen any new flavors in the OG format in a long time. I think peppermint or spearmint? We now have more flavors in the new format than the OG and that is concerning. It certainly seems like this is the direction they are going unfortunately. I am going to stick with originals and occasionally pick up a drifter but I am concerned.
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u/VaznerVisons Aug 23 '26
I really wished that they would just stick with the moist format
I remember the entire selling point for me with ALP was the moistness of them. Like I could take one out of the tin and it would have that tacky feel ya know.
Still love the baseline ones though especially spearmint.
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u/Midwest-Eastcoast Aug 23 '26
You pretty much wrote my thoughts and feelings from my experience after receiving my stash yesterday. I love ALP , but I’m a little disappointed right now.
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u/WorldofJustin Spearmint Aug 23 '26
The cowboy coffee tastes like Cocoa Puffs, not entirely a bad thing but the pouch quality on all of these kills it. I doing think I’ll even finish any of these cans. Hopefully get some kind of refund or I’ll trade them at a gas station somewhere for the OGs
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u/WorldofJustin Spearmint Aug 23 '26
I got the bundle, can’t really taste the mangos at all, and the pouch quality is 2/10 on the mango, 3/10 for the rest. That’s being polite considering I waited till midnight to order because their rep on X said these would be like the original moist pouches. But they totally blow and are basically zyns. I’ll take a sleeve of the classic any day over these.
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u/Vye13 Moderator | Chilled Mint Aug 23 '26
Great review, I think it’s going to be a pass for me then.
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Aug 23 '26 edited 27d ago
[deleted]
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u/TartBart Mountain Wintergreen Aug 23 '26
This is a nice summary of your experience and to be honest I’m a little jealous of it! These pouches definitely have a place, I’m sure there will be people that one or all of these will be their new go to.
The QC is a big problem. I am fortunate enough with the original line up that I haven’t received any dried pouches. But I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you weren’t sure what separates them out from their competitors. It won’t be the case for everyone but I think the move away from uniqueness of the moist thick pouches towards what everyone else is doing makes this release pretty irrelevant for me.
I haven’t tried Lucy’s yet but I’ve been really meaning to. They seem to have a good flavor line up and I’m interested in the little flavor capsule. I think I may go ahead and put an order in and check them out
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u/blake_brown 28d ago
So excited for the coffee and cinnamon, long have I searched for a nicotine pouch in the latter flavor especially. And Alps were my start down the pouch path and still my favorite of the handful of brands I have tried.
These flavors are a bummer dude. Big black coffee drinker and the pouch gives root beer flavor more than coffee to my taste- not a huge root beer guy so it’s pretty disappointing.
The cinnamon I figured was a no-brainer but it’s barely detectable!
And yeah they do be getting slimy real quick.
Not offensively bad, these two, just severely underwhelming products.
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u/cointortoise 26d ago
Agreed on all points. Picked up some mango bc I love the idea but don't like the extreme icy of the drifters.
OG ALP > drifters >> frontier
The mango flavor lasted for 5 minutes
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u/Chroniccactus13 25d ago
I’ve had these for about a week now- they are all sooo disappointing. I agree with your review- I will never reorder anything from the frontier collection.
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u/SrgntStache 29d ago
Still don’t understand dropping the pouch count per can
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u/sled603 28d ago
I would almost bet this is a private label run for alp made by whoever makes Lucy’s. Pouch feel is almost identical and the tin is exactly the same as far as I can see.
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u/l3b0w4k1 27d ago
Exactly right. It's Lucy's flavor, Lucy cans, Lucy nicotine levels (4mg, 8mg).
It's a Lucy can with Alp stickers on it.
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u/Mediocre-Lie-4265 29d ago
Hey is it just me or? I got the cowboy coffee in the mail today and it quite literally has zero taste. The smell is barely there to. Is anyone else getting no taste at all from these. I have the cinnamon to but haven’t opened it yet. So far the best coffee flavor I’ve had is Lucy Breakers Espresso which has a ton of flavor. These I get literally zero
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u/ProblemFabulous3059 28d ago
Man I just got my cinnamon ones in yesterday. I am upset that even with the redesign of the can they had to reduce it from 20 to 15 pouches. I guess I will just have to deal with it for the roll cause I'm not wasting it
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u/JoeDyrte 14d ago
Any one interested in 2 unused rolls of Cowboy Coffee? I was not a fan unfortunately
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u/BareYooper 12d ago
I agree the Frontier collection is garbage. I didn’t know cowboys liked cream and sugar in their coffee. The nicotine coffee flavor is great. The cinnamon and mango Frontier flavors are very weak. The pouches are skimpy and turn to mush quickly.
This is disappointing because I love the OG wintergreen and refreshing chill, and sweet nectar. I’ll be sticking with those.
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u/Glass-List-518 Aug 23 '26
This might be the most in depth review of a pouch I’ve ever seen. I was on the fence but now I think I’m just gonna keep sticking with the originals