Why would anyone pay a visit to the effort to make their own cigarettes? As i can only answer for myself the reasons are different. Coming from a low-country town in Carolina, I can still very well remember the sweet and pungent aromas of the tobacco auction season and the myriad sights and sounds that accompanied the auctioneer and buyers as they walked among the beautiful rows of golden leaves.
Due to my age, I can also recall sitting in the company of many others after they instructed me in just how many leaves to grasp by their stems while then wrapping another upon the top to produce a hand of tobacco. My father, being from upstate New york where propane was employed by many purposes, owned a propane gas company and very quickly afterwards invented the system that inaugurated the move from wood to propane in flue curing bright tobacco. Those many aromas and the bustle belonging to the auction season still lingers with me as I’m sure back on the many sensory delights of fine tobacco just out for this curing barns.
Maybe from that subjection I was exposed a good appreciation of what tobaccos SHOULD smell like. In fact, I even remember watching once as Applied to be given a lecture for a differences between our fine Carolina brights versus those “other” tobaccos that were left in the land. the burleys of the up-country. To even further educate me, I was once given a demonstration of how burley was soaked within a solution of sugar, salt and water, wrung out, shaken, and then changed to a twist for drying. Back then chewing tobacco was either a similar twist or a plug, not the subtle stuff of today’s highly cased bags.
Years later, when Employed grown, I was already familiar with many of the “store bought” cigarettes that rarely had filters. Lucky Strikes, Home Run, Camels, Chesterfield, Phillip Morris and others. Eventually, the American taste turned to filtered cigarettes and the decline of intense toasted flavors and Turkish blends. However, as cigarette tobaccos were more and more enhanced with additives better transportation and communications led towards the growth of international blends in pipe tobaccos where Balkan, Turkish, and English blends led to a wide variety of pipe shops which includes rapid growth in new blends, cuts, and flavours.
Maybe it is an individual recollection as many of the older ways seem better, but it seems that in now having so many options among cigarettes today, much of the flavor and aroma has history. With the hundreds of additives now the standard, are we smoking cigarettes or some lesser grade tobacco and myriad additives and preservatives?
When I first deemed Roll Your Own cigarettes my thoughts were belonging to the old men I which are used to see who fascinated me with their dexterity though they hand rolled a smoke from one of the numerous over the counter varieties found in many groceries and pharmacies. For myself, this meant something made use of inevitably leave you with a mouth full of bitter shreds and a smoke that was dry, harsh, and packed the subtlety of a mule kick.
However, after a moment of exploration on the net I soon found generally there were indeed alternatives. After looking at in RYO Magazine in addition to quick call to D&R in Smithfield, North Carolina, I was soon eagerly awaiting a shipment of injector, some filter tubes and a wide choice of blends. Upon their arrival, my wife and I spent a few days sampling and experimenting.
I am now glad to say that i was both thrilled with our purchases and what has actually since experienced. Now, home no longer has that foul reek of inferior tobaccos, in fact, the actual blends actually are more a fragrance than what previously was more that foul stench of stale cheap tobaccos. Too, has got both rediscovered the overwhelmingly pleasant taste and aroma of great tobaccos. However one totally unanticipated side benefit is that supermarket smoke far fewer cigarettes as the wonderful D&R and other blends are infinitely more satisfying. Even more, there is lengthier that coughing and congestion that used to accompany each morning’s waking.
Today, we have come a long way, as we now experiment with some of our blending and have studied the many varietals, variations, and characteristics. For general smoking there is a lightweight blend, but sometimes an extremely the enjoyment of a solid Turkish blend or a good dessert blend with a bit of Latakia. Sometimes a sweet smoke and solutions on times more of an English blend. The fun part is that along with own custom made cigarettes we now have likelihood to enjoy the highest quality in an incredible range of styles. Sometimes a thin, rolled smoke, other times a thicker injected smoke, with NO additives.
When we once tried the premium brand of pre-made commercial cigarettes, both of us looked at one another with a grin. No taste, no flavor, a terrible bitter residual, and it sounds too familiar stench up. As though an interesting spin on an old commercial, we are now smoking far less, but enjoying it so more!
Smokey Johns Tobacco Company
424 Elmwood Rd, Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 703-8170