What is the easiest way to spot a Swede abroad? More often than not, it is not the color of their hair, nor their accent or the clothes they wear that will tell you if they are from the land of the midnight sun. And Swedes do not travel abroad in longships any longer, and they have never worn horned helmets.
No, the easiest way to recognize a Swede is that he will be acting weird due to the abstinence caused by having forgotten to bring his generalen snus.

His what?

Don’t worry, we will explain it all. Snus is a Scandinavian form of dipping tobacco. Today, the most popular form is called portionssnus and is packed in small bags, quite similar to teabags (only smaller).
Well, if a Swede abroad craves snus so much, why can’t he go to IKEA? They sell all sorts of strange Swedish stuff, like rose hip soup and sour herring. The answer is that snus is not sold abroad, it is forbidden in the European Union. So when in Rome, don’t snus. Swedish politicians are working for a change in EU policy, but they are not very successful. Everybody agrees that snus is less harmful than cigarettes, but opinions and findings diverge on exactly how harmful.