Why would anyone check out the effort to make their own cigarettes? As i can only answer for myself the reasons are many. 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 as they instructed me in to select many leaves to grasp by their stems while then wrapping another round top to produce a hand of tobacco. My father, being from upstate Brooklyn where propane was useful for many purposes, owned a propane gas company and very afterwards invented the system that inaugurated the move from wood to propane in flue curing bright tobacco. Those many aromas and the bustle of the auction season still lingers with me as Think back on the many sensory delights of fine tobacco just out of your curing barns.
Maybe from that direct exposure I was exposed for appreciation of what tobaccos SHOULD smell like. In fact, I even remember watching once as I became given a lecture on the differences between our fine Carolina brights versus those “other” tobaccos that were left in the fields. the burleys of the up-country. To even further educate me, I was once given a demonstration of how burley was soaked from a solution of sugar, salt and water, wrung out, shaken, and then converted to a twist for dehydrating. Back then chewing tobacco was whether or not similar twist or a plug, not the subtle stuff of today’s highly cased bags.
Years later, when I am grown, I was subjected to many of the “store bought” cigarettes that rarely had filters. Lucky Strikes, Home Run, Camels, Chesterfield, Phillip Morris and individuals. Eventually, the American taste turned to filtered cigarettes and professional compensation of intense toasted flavors and Turkish blends. However, as cigarette tobaccos were more and more enhanced with additives better transportation and communications led into the growth of international blends in pipe tobaccos where Balkan, Turkish, and English blends led to a plethora of pipe shops which includes rapid growth in new blends, cuts, and flavors.
Maybe it is a personal 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 left. With the hundreds of additives the standard, are we smoking cigarettes or some lesser grade tobacco and myriad chemical products?
When I first imagined Roll Your Own cigarettes my thoughts were on the old men I accustomed to see who fascinated me with their dexterity although hand rolled a smoke from one of the numerous over the counter varieties found in many groceries and pharmacies. For myself, this meant something the objective inevitably leave you using a mouth full of bitter shreds and a smoke that was dry, harsh, and packed the subtlety of a mule halt.
However, after a moment of exploration on the online market place I soon found generally there were indeed alternatives. Seeing in RYO Magazine so a quick call to D&R in Smithfield, North Carolina, I was soon eagerly awaiting a shipment associated with the 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 we have since experienced. Now, home no longer has that foul reek of inferior tobaccos, in fact, the 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 much that coughing and congestion that used to accompany each morning’s waking.
Today, we have come a long way, as we now experiment with many of our blending and have studied the many varietals, variations, and characteristics. For general smoking there is a light blend, but sometimes presently there the enjoyment of a superb Turkish blend or obviously any 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 with own custom made cigarettes we now have the ability to enjoy the finest quality in an incredible involving 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, an awful bitter residual, and that all those too familiar stench uphill. As though an interesting spin on an old commercial, we are now smoking far less, but enjoying it so much more!
Smokey Johns Tobacco Company
424 Elmwood Rd, Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 703-8170