Richmond cigarette tasting.
All the cigarettes of this brand are produced in cooperation with and under the control of the British company Richmond Tobacco Co. Funny enough, but in the CIS they are positioned as “super premium”, but in Britain they occupy the lower price segment. Anyway, let’s try the four main varieties today.
Richmond Klan. This variety is positioned by the manufacturer as unflavored. Cigarettes are packaged in a spectacular, yellow pack with metallic embossing. A solid 5 for the design!
The pack contains twenty king size cigarettes. The design of the cigarettes is just as spectacular as the packaging. White pearl filter paper with the name of the brand and a wide separation ribbon “in silver”. Getting ahead of the curve, I will say that the differences of the brand varieties are indicated just by the external design and varieties are difficult to confuse with each other.
Klan’s filter is a double, acetate-carbon filter. The charcoal half is medium-saturated with crumbs. Both filters are dense.
The inside of the cigarette is quite a contrasting bag with colors ranging from light yellow to dark brown. The aroma from the pack and the cigarette reminded me of Halfzware tobaccos, kind of average. And not as dense.
The cut is “wild”: the usual ribbons are almost absent, the bulk of it is quite large flakes of both tobacco leaf and surrogate. And there is a lot of surrogate leaf. The tobacco leaf is not much of a surrogate, but there’s plenty of it.
The smoke flavor is the same as the aroma and it tastes like cigarette tobacco, not prunes. But Halfzware suggests the presence of Kentucky (a natural carrier of prune flavor) and a slightly above average strength in the bag, and all of this is not present here. So it seems that the cigarettes are still flavored, but not with the usual flavoring – tobacco and not typical of factory cigarettes. In general, I would not call them bad, maybe only the price of 4.9 USD overpriced, with the quality of that bag. Among the cigarette “classmates” look unusual, both in taste and “poncey”.
Richmond Gentleman. These cigarettes are so positioned by the manufacturer as unflavored. Let’s see further. The pack is no less spectacular, made in white and blue colors with an abundance of volumetric details.
The cigarettes are still twenty, in king size format. The design of the cigarettes is very similar to the previous variety, but in a different color scheme – the dominant color is blue-gray, and the decorative stripes are “in gold”.
The bag of cigarettes is faintly contrasting, mostly dark yellow. In this variety, the slicing is more familiar and cigarette-like – both narrow strips and pieces of tobacco leaf of various sizes are present. Surrogate leaf present here as well, in moderate quantities. TTX: 6 mg resin, 0.7 mg nicotine, 8 mg CO.
The taste of the smoke is also quite unusual for unflavored cigarettes. Tobacco flavor is weak, but notes of prunes are felt, especially with the first cigarettes. Later flavor is washed out and almost no longer felt, but there are weak notes of cherries. Rather ambivalent impressions remained after this variety. On the one hand I understand that they are exactly flavored, on the other hand – the feeling that somehow not full-fledged… In general it is not clear, I hope for your help in comments.
Richmond Black Edition. Here we get to the “classic” from Richmond – cherry flavored cigarettes, so beloved by the brand. The pack is spectacular and elegant, although in some places it is a bit too measured. On the packet is a proud statement: “100% Natural Tobacco Leaf”. Well, let’s check it out.)
The number of cigarettes in the pack and the format are the same as their predecessors. The design is more “pompous” or childish))) Well, or ladies’, if you like)) “Pearl” filter with a wide “gold” strip and the name of the brand in the “gold”. The cigarette paper is no longer white, but “tobacco”. But that’s just the color)
The bag in the cigarette is quite contrasting, from light yellow to brown. The slicing is “wild,” with strips of leaf, large chunks of twisted leaf, slices of stem, and very small fractions. By the way, there are also light, translucent fractions of the surrogate. So it is not clear what the manufacturer means by “100% tobacco leaf”?
I wish I could say that it smells like a cherry from the pack and from the cigarette. But it’s not cherry – it’s the “cherry” flavoring that everyone is so used to. It resembles cherry, but nothing more than that. I don’t know the specifications of the cigarette, but the smoke is quite light.
There is “cherry” in the flavor of the smoke, but quite lean. The flavor of these cigarettes is much denser than the taste. The tobacco notes behind the flavoring are not perceived at all. As my colleague said when trying these cigarettes – they are not for the smoker, but for those around him! Indeed, standing next to a smoker of this variety is more pleasant than smoking it))
Richmond Collector`s Edition Limited. Collector’s Edition Limited! No more, no less! This variety is packaged in a plastic, semi-automatic cigarette case design worthy of detailed consideration. The cigarette case is black with a velvet finish.
On the lid of the small sticker with instructions for opening the pack) Only in the instructions does not say that until you do not tear off and the excise, the pack will not open) Opening mechanism is made in the manner of a slider – you need to slightly press the front of the pack and slide it down, then the lid of the pack is released from the locks and will open.
On the back of the tutu “legend” edition with medals and the price of cigarettes.
The whole cigarette case is made of stamped plastic, the only metal part is the spring that opens the lid. The undeniable quality of the cigarette case is that it blocks almost 100% of the aroma of the cigarettes in the pack.
The pack contains twenty slims cigarettes. The design… Well that’s exactly the “super-premium” cigarettes! =) Brown-red cigarette paper, black filter with sequins, wide dividing strip and brand name in “shining silver”!
But the “guts” of the cigarette clearly do not stretch to the “super-premium” class. The bag is very light, light yellow fractions predominate, brown fractions less than a third. Slicing is “wild”, there are very large leaf fractions for this format, strips, stem slices and of course a surrogate leaf. TTX: tar 5 mg, nicotine 0.5 mg, CO 5 mg.
There is no tobacco note in the smoke flavor at all. But the flavoring is over the top! I managed to identify cherry and vanilla in the foreground and cinnamon in the background. The cigarette smokes easily, quickly and, except for the mediocre tobacco base, tasty. “Tasty” is with an eye and an understanding that I’m smoking purely flavoring. It’s hard for me to adequately evaluate these cigarettes, but smoking girls will like them=)
