Copenhagen vs. Grizzly | Dipping Tobacco Brand Comparison

Cuts and varieties

Cut is the size of the tobacco particle, and it is the physical difference between cans that otherwise carry the same variety name. Fine cut (“snuff”) is finely ground tobacco, the original 1822 form of Copenhagen. Long cut is strands, extra long cut longer strands, and wide cut, which only Grizzly sells, wider strands. Grizzly also has a separately blended “Dark” long-cut line. Pouches from either brand are moist tobacco pre-portioned into small permeable bags; they carry the smokeless warnings and are not tobacco-free nicotine pouches, a separate product category that both parent companies also sell (Altria’s on!, American Snuff’s Grizzly Nicotine Pouches). Variety names are as printed on the can and are identifiers only.

Several varieties on both sides (Copenhagen Fine Cut Wintergreen and Pouches Mint; Grizzly Wide Cut, Fine Cut Wintergreen and the Dark pouches) are out of stock at every retailer checked, and neither company has announced discontinuations. Full can listings: Copenhagen and Grizzly.

History

Copenhagen. George Weyman began making the snuff in Pittsburgh in 1822. The company passed through the American Tobacco Company (1905), became Weyman-Bruton when American Tobacco was split into four companies in 1911 and United States Tobacco Company in 1922, and with Skoal dominated moist snuff for most of the twentieth century. Altria bought UST for about $11.7 billion including debt on January 6, 2009. Altria’s own figures show the brand falling from 29.5% of the US oral tobacco category in 2021 to 13.1% in the second quarter of 2026 as nicotine pouches went from 15.4% to 59.9% of the category, with shipments down from 503.6 million to 362.8 million cans a year over 2021 to 2025.

Grizzly. Conwood Company of Memphis, whose lineage runs to 1782 and whose premium brand was Kodiak, launched Grizzly in September 2001 at an “everyday low price” with Long Cut Wintergreen and Fine Cut Natural. It was the No. 3 moist snuff brand by 2006, the year Reynolds American bought Conwood from the Pritzker family for $3.5 billion. Trade press put it at 26.7% of the category in 2011, and Reynolds’ annual reports at 30.9% in 2015 and 30.8% in 2016, the last figures published; BAT, which bought Reynolds in 2017, does not break Grizzly out. Conwood was renamed American Snuff Company in 2010 and built a 787,500 square foot Memphis plant in 2011 and 2012.

Regulation

Both brands are regulated by the FDA under the 2009 Tobacco Control Act, and both carry one of the same four rotating warnings on at least 30% of the two main faces of every can. The one regulatory difference is the modified-risk order: on March 16, 2023 the FDA authorized Copenhagen Classic Snuff, alone among moist snuffs, to carry the statement “IF YOU SMOKE, CONSIDER THIS: Switching completely to this product from cigarettes reduces risk of lung cancer,” for five years, with no other reduced-risk claim permitted and no suggestion of FDA endorsement. No Grizzly product has such an order. That is a fact about one Copenhagen product, reported here because it is on the public record; it does not extend to any other variety of either brand, and the warning that smokeless is not a safe alternative to cigarettes applies to all of them.

State flavor laws treat the two brands the same. Massachusetts restricted flavored tobacco, including mint and wintergreen smokeless, to licensed smoking bars from June 1, 2020. California banned flavored tobacco sales from December 21, 2022, and since January 1, 2025 a smokeless product can be sold there only if it is on the state’s Unflavored Tobacco List, which carries six Grizzly entries. Federal excise on snuff is $1.51 per pound. Texas, where Saucey delivers tobacco, has no flavor restriction on smokeless.

FAQs

Are Copenhagen and Grizzly made by the same company? No. Copenhagen is U.S. Smokeless Tobacco (Altria); Grizzly is American Snuff (Reynolds American, BAT). They are direct competitors.

Which is cheaper? Grizzly, by its maker’s positioning as a price-value brand against premium Copenhagen. What a can costs is set by state and local tobacco taxes and the retailer.

Which sells more? The last comparable figures are a decade old: Reynolds reported Grizzly at about 31% of moist snuff in 2015 and 2016. Altria reports Copenhagen at 13.1% of a broader oral category that now includes nicotine pouches; BAT publishes no Grizzly figure.

Which has more cuts? Grizzly: it adds wide cut and a Dark line to the fine, long, extra long and pouch formats both brands share.

Is either one “FDA approved”? The FDA does not approve tobacco products. It has authorized one modified-risk statement for Copenhagen Classic Snuff, quoted above, and has issued marketing orders for changed products from both companies.

Required warnings

Smokeless tobacco carries four rotating federal warnings. All four apply to every product on this page.

• WARNING: This product can cause mouth cancer.
• WARNING: This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss.
• WARNING: This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
• WARNING: Smokeless tobacco is addictive.

Sources

• Altria, 2026 second-quarter results, July 30, 2026, and 2025 full-year results; Altria press release on completing the UST acquisition, January 6, 2009 (SEC EDGAR)
• Reynolds American Form 10-K for 2016 (SEC EDGAR); American Snuff Company, Brands; CStore Decisions, Grizzly MST brand celebrates 10th anniversary, October 4, 2011; CSP Daily News, Reynolds buys into smokeless, 2006
• FDA, FDA authorizes Copenhagen Classic Snuff to be marketed as a modified risk tobacco product, March 16, 2023; FDA Technical Project Lead review, SE0015250, Grizzly Premium Natural Fine Cut, 2019; FDA, Smokeless tobacco labeling and warning statement requirements
• California Department of Justice, Unflavored Tobacco List; Mass.gov, 2019 Tobacco Control Law; TTB, tax rates; retailer listings (snus.us and grocery chains) for variety names, checked September 11, 2026