Premium cigarettes : which ones can I take?
Do you think cigarettes in the $5.5 price range are different from budget and mid-budget models? Sometimes it seems to me that when you buy Marlboro, you overpay purely for the brand. In return, this brand offers mediocre tobacco with a corresponding flavor. And the strength is clearly underestimated. It’s not normal when I can’t get enough nicotine after smoking a whole cigarette of Marlboro Red, let alone the Gold version.
However, there are still expensive cigarettes on the market, whose price is due to the high quality of tobacco. But the number of such brands is much smaller. Today we will talk to you about premium cigarettes more expensive than $55 and find out which ones you can take and which ones you should not because of the chemistry in the tobacco.
Sobranie Black cigarettes
Over the past 10 years, Sobranie Black cigarettes have changed beyond recognition. In what way? Once upon a time, I used to smoke this brand instead of Parliament. I liked them for their thicker and richer tobacco flavor with a hint of prune. Now these cigarettes in terms of some aftertaste have become bland with a sour-paper tinge.
From the beginning to the end of smoking, you can’t leave the feeling that the tobacco was heavily treated with sauce and some “chemistry”. Why do I think so? Because they smolder very quickly, but at the same time give a weak high. I took two or three puffs, and almost half of the cigarette has decayed. I can praise Sobranie Black only for the design and the way the cigarettes are made. I like the old filter with the wide recess instead of the “well”. Considering the price of Sobranie Black at $5.8, I would not smoke them on a regular basis.
Parliament Night Blue cigarettes
Parliament cigarettes have been the main competitor of Sobranie cigarettes for years. And what do we have in the end? Most smokers prefer Parliament, despite their high price. Recently I paid $5.7 for a pack. Just think about it, in a year they may cost even more.
At one time Parliament abandoned the paper-walled filter and resorted to using a “mouthpiece”. In this way they achieved a softer flavor without harsh offnotes. If you look closely, you can see one large perforation ring on the filter itself for additional smoke softening. It is better to close it with your fingers.
The tobacco smells better than the Sobranie. There is no expressive smell of sauce here. The flavor is good, tobacco, but with a delicate creamy, bitter, nutty tinge. The strength is still 8 mg of tar, 0.6 mg of nicotine, if you take your own feelings into account.
Winston Blue cigarettes
There was a time when I used to actively smoke Winston Blue and XStyle 8. But now I would not buy these cigarettes and there are certain reasons for that. When you buy cigarettes for $5.5 you get almost identical tobacco as in Rothmans or LD. And this is not praise. On the contrary, Winston Blue tobacco is filled with a lot of blasted veins, which mixed with the chemistry that the tobacco is impregnated with, gives an unpleasant, sweetly rancid flavor. It’s hard to explain. Natural tobacco doesn’t usually taste like this.
The filter is made worse than that of Sobranie. It manifests itself in the fact that the paper, if moistened with saliva, begins to slightly peel. Winston Blue is stuffed so sluggishly, as if the manufacturer tried to save as much as possible on tobacco.
Dunhill Blue cigarettes
As you have realized, I consider Sobranie Black and Winston Blue to be “unfit” to smoke. I was disappointed by their tobacco. For the same money I’d rather take a pack of Dunhill Blue, which still have the tobacco spirit. The cigarettes themselves are made with the highest quality, starting from the filter and ending with the filling itself. It is difficult to bend a cigarette by 20%, otherwise there is a risk that it will break. And I can easily bend a Winston cigarette by 50-60%, which indicates that the stuffing is not dense enough.
I am pleased that the premium Dunhill Blue does not have a filter mouthpiece. It would be superfluous here, given the already delicate flavor with echoes of English, not American tobacco blend. The bouquet reveals notes of bitter, burnt bread and soft, creamy sweetness. The saucing here is negligible. The smoldering speed of the cigarette is moderate, which indicates that the tobacco has minimal trash content and there is simply no chemistry as such. Final verdict? You can take it if your budget allows, because a pack costs as much as $5.9.
