Anyone here ever tried Clove cigarettes or Kreteks?
Why yes I have actually @Salmiak !! I was in Vietnam last Christmas and did try a few of the indigenous cigarette brands. I have two one left in a packet of āGudang Garamā left which are a commercial Indonesian Kertekā¦
These arenāt cigarettes in the western sense, though they do look similar and are filtered; they have a lot of clove in there Iād guess maybe 1/3 or so clove in the mix. The production quality is somewhat lacking.Ā Theyāre very strongly flavoured and sweet; although Iām no stranger to strong smokes (Gitanes are my favourites) these are actually tough to finish in one sitting without putting it downĀ for a bit.
IāmĀ going to have to light one now; will report backĀ in a bitā¦
Yeah, just smoked 1/2 of one; Iād forgotten that the filter is [presumably] impregnated with some kind of sweet clove oil. Overpoweringly sweet and clove, actually give me a little bit of a headache, thereās almost some kind ofĀ mentholĀ element to them as well, though I suspect that thisĀ is all due to the clove. Iāve remember why I didnāt buy more of these, and still had a couple left,Ā really not my thing. Ā Ā
Next chance you have try the unfiltered Gudang Garam. Ā WOW !
As kretek are impossible to find in Spain, I used to roll some shredded pieces of clove in my Ideales black Spanish RYO tobacco. The results were frankly delicious and satisfying!
@perique - Are you a fan? Iām really not sure about them to be blunt, I did smoke most of a packet when in Nam as an after dinner smoke.
Itās a once in a while āguilty pleasureā. Ā
I used to enjoy them. Iām not sure if you can still buy them in GB - they canāt possibly meet the tar/nicotine limits imposed by the EU - and I suspect they are catastrophically bad for you! (Which is not a reason to curtail your enjoyment of them as a consenting adult etcā¦)
You can still buy them here @Justin the Djarum blacks, vanilla, cherry and menthols are sold in specialist tobacconists. I used to like them from time to time, but my OH banned me from smoking them in the house as they absolutely stink the place out! Out of the pack, lovely sweet clove scent, room aroma, burnt clove!! And it clings to clothes like nothing you have ever seen!!
When I still smoked, I absolutely adored Djarum non filtered kreteks. They and bidis are the only smokes I get an occasional craving for, and both have been banned for sale in the good old land of the free.
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Yeah all through out high schoolā¦ I do not miss themā¦ You never forget the smell of a bidiā¦ I see you can order 250 for $100 on Etsyā¦Ā In case anyone is looking for them in the land of the free, home of the regulationsā¦
I smoked Djarums in high school. To ne honest, I never liked the flavor (although oddly enough I did like the smell). I only really smoked them because I was going through a āgothā thing and they were entirely black.
@Hitsuzen I went through the same black cigarette goth thing for awhile in the 80ās tooĀ :)). My choice was Sobranie Black Russians. As I recall they were excellent and Iād smoke another if I could find one.
I miss enjoying the real djarum blacks. I tried them again and I couldnāt stand how sweet they were lol
Every once in a while I would pick up a tin of Djaram Internationals but they stopped making them 10 or so years ago. None of the other clove cigs seemed to match up to them IMO.
A shout out to my fellow ex-80s goths. Apartments and nightclubs redolent of cloves and Aquanet. Funny that Djarums have since been re-marketed as clove ācigarsā ā just came across some a couple months ago and tried a pack. They still taste pretty much the same as I remember. I dropped the goth scene circa '90 as my music tastes changed, but I was still hanging around a lot with art students, some of whom were still doing cloves, though it was mostly regular commercial brands of cigarettes.
Ah, I recall djarum and bidis from 25 years agoā¦used to buy them on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley or the Haight in SFā¦memories. Probably my lungs would collapse now if I tried that againā¦havent seen them in many years but really havent been looking for them either.black and red thin red pack.they illegal now like everything else in the US?
The djarum would burn slow,fizzle and snap periodically when smoked, very sweet.gave me cottonmouth though.Wonderful aroma and just smells terrificā¦a smell youll never forget.
I think they go by ācigarsā now to avoid laws around flavored cigarettes.Ā I used to smoke cloves exclusively when I was, oh, 19ish maybe?Ā After several months I stopped when I began coughing up blood.Ā :-S
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Oh, they repackaged and reclassed them? Is it the same thing or a cheap knock-off to skate the laws?Just a ghost of the original?
I havenāt tried them, but I assume theyāre the same thing.Ā Same brands anyway; Kretek, Djarum.Ā Packs of 10 instead of twenty.