Caffeine pouches vs nicotine pouches: what is the difference?

The same format

Both products are used the same way. You take a pouch from the can, place it under your upper lip, keep it there for a while and then remove it. Nothing is chewed, swallowed, lit or inhaled.

Both are built on the same base. The pouch material is plant fibre, microcrystalline cellulose, listed as E460 on the panel. Into that goes water, salt, flavourings, sweeteners, a humectant to keep the pouch moist and a pH regulator. The active ingredient is added to that base. Swap the active ingredient and you have the other product.

In the 24Nico range, every caffeine pouch is a Slim pouch of 0.6 to 0.75 g, white, with 18 or 20 pouches per can. Nicotine pouches come in the same Slim format, and Slim is the common one there too, alongside Mini and other sizes.

Different active ingredient

The two mg figures are not comparable with each other. Caffeine and nicotine are different substances, and 100 mg of one says nothing about 10 mg of the other. Read each number against its own product type only. For caffeine, the public reference figures are set out in the guide on what the facts say about caffeine pouches. For nicotine, the what are nicotine pouches? article in our Nic-Guide explains strengths and formats.

What each one contains

The ingredient lists for the 16 caffeine pouches on 24Nico and the typical list for a nicotine pouch line up almost completely. Only the active row differs, plus a handful of additions some caffeine brands make.

The LEWA additions are the one place the caffeine side has something the nicotine side does not. LEWA FOCUS lists magtein and vitamin B12. LEWA GLOW lists vitamin B12, vitamin B5, zinc, magnesium and dracobelle. The four LEWA POWER flavours list taurine, magnesium, zinc and selenium. LEWA BURN lists magnesium, vitamins B1 and B2 and metabolaid. CAFERO, CAMO and Hicaff list caffeine as the only active ingredient.

The nicotine column is covered line by line, with every E-number explained, in our nicotine pouch ingredients article.

How each one is labelled

Both cans print a figure in mg per pouch. On a caffeine pouch the figure is caffeine, and the label is an ingredients list with the caffeine content stated per pouch. On a nicotine pouch the figure is nicotine, and the can carries a nicotine warning and the hazard labelling that UK chemical classification rules attach to nicotine.

Both will say "tobacco-free", and both are telling the truth. Only one can say "nicotine-free".

The labels also differ in who writes them. In the 24Nico range the caffeine pouches come from LEWA Of Sweden, LUNA Corporate, UAB Global Snus and Microzero. Nicotine pouches come from the brands in the nicotine pouch range, each with its own can and its own strength scale.

Where the format came from

Both products are Swedish by origin. Sweden has a long tradition of snus, a moist tobacco product kept under the upper lip. The white, tobacco-free nicotine pouch was developed in Sweden as a version of that format without the tobacco leaf: plant fibre instead of tobacco, with nicotine added to it. Nicotine-free and caffeine pouches took the next step and swapped the active ingredient again, or left it out. Our snus vs nicotine pouches article covers the first half of that story.

The Swedish link is visible in the 24Nico range. LEWA's caffeine and zero-nicotine lines come from LEWA Of Sweden. LEO Zero comes from Swedish Pouches. Onico Pure White comes from Swedish Match. Zeronito and Hicaff come from Microzero AB. The format, the can, the Slim pouch and the mg-per-pouch label all travel together from the same place.

Where to find each one on 24Nico

24Nico sells both sides in the UK, in separate ranges that are never mixed.

The nicotine-free side is 50 products in the nicotine-free category, all of them nicotine-free and tobacco-free: 34 zero-nicotine pouches with no caffeine either, and the 16 caffeine pouches described above. ZERONITO has 14 of the zero-nicotine products, from Icy Mint and Cola to Jalapeno and Blueberry Chilli, in Slim and Large. LEO Zero, Après Zero, VELO Zero, LEWA CLASSIC No Nico, Onico Pure White, LOOP Zero and XQS Zero make up the rest. The caffeine pouches are LEWA, CAFERO, CAMO and Hicaff, from 20 mg to 100 mg per pouch.

The nicotine side is the nicotine pouch range, with its own guide, the Nic-Guide.

Prices include VAT, with nothing extra on delivery. The delivery page has the details.

Nicotine-free and tobacco-free are not the same word

A nicotine pouch is tobacco-free. It contains no tobacco leaf; the nicotine is added to plant fibre. It is not nicotine-free.

A caffeine pouch is tobacco-free and nicotine-free. It contains no tobacco leaf and 0 mg nicotine. It does contain caffeine.

A zero-nicotine pouch is tobacco-free, nicotine-free and caffeine-free. It is the base pouch with flavour and nothing else active.

So "tobacco-free" on a can tells you only that there is no tobacco leaf in it. "Nicotine-free" tells you there is no nicotine. If what you want to know is which active ingredient is in the pouch, read the mg line and the ingredients list, not the front of the can. The ingredients panel on each can is the source of truth.

For how nicotine pouches compare with vaping, read nicotine pouches vs vaping.