I am still at unfortunately, but only cigars these days. Used to smoke everything from Silk Cut (when I was trying to be healthy!) to Drum. Worst cigarettes I ever smoked were probably Cleopatra’s, when I spent a a couple weeks in a £1 a night room in Egypt.Those things had bark in, never mind leaves. Right now I am smoking a Nub cigar with a Cameroon wrapper. Fantastic cigars.
Started out with Winston Lights (squirreled away individually from my father’s pack as to go unnoticed) then smoked at a safe distance down by the creek (when I smoked the first one I didn’t cough at all which looking back was very odd and I distinctly recall enjoying it but at the same time also literally thinking ‘heh, I’ll never get addicted to these’ somehow at 11 I thought I was magically immune to such things as ‘addiction’ – little did I know). Was Winston lights and little else for a really long time I briefly smoked “Capris” (influenced by the matriarch of another place I lived, most gawdawful cigarette with perfume), moved again, senses restored (enough to get away from those things anyway, bleh) EDITED – Correction as I think about it they might have been named “Eve’s” (whatever they were, they were white and extra long and narrow, had goofy flowers down the sides of both the cigarette and the package, which was also white save for its name and those flowers… just awful, whatever they were, an old lady’s cigarette for sure) (even when I ended up living in a place with a bunch of girls, all the white girls smoked Marlboro red, all the Black girls smoked Kool’s and grr… can’t think of the other brand’s name… I can see the pack in my mind’s eye though… every last one, by race, white and black thats what people smoked, was a clear divide and was strange… I was the weirdo with my Winston Lights) went like that for a really long time until they kept shooting up in price (then a brief turn at “Tourneys” and “GPF” and other miserable “scrapings from under the shoes of tobacco plant workers”) until I found out about make your own, the tubes, the little machine, etc, then it was Top tobacco, then Buguler, then for quite a while Gambler Light (yes I managed to get into all the cruddy ones, unawre there was anyathing else… rotten supermarkets!) Going from storebought to MYO was noticeably difficult… something was missing (some bad stuff… about the past couple of years until very recently about once a month on the way to one appointment I picked up one pack of Marlboro Red and boy could I tell the difference! "jonesed’ not for my MYO cigarettes but for Marlboro for a day after I used them up, every month!) went rounds of quitting in and throughout all of this… sometimes for months at a time (but those nicotine neurons never healed, was in that awful craving state most people only stay in a couple of weeks the whole time. 4 months one time 7 months another) with snuff and snus (electronic cigarettes just don’t work out for me real well, upkeep on them is too much and evidently I need tobacco alkaloids not just some kind of just clinical ‘nicotine’) I smoke in little explosions when I do… five in a row one day… weeks without, then a few over a few days, stop again, etc Now I’ve found American Spirit (just in time for the gov’t to screw up papers so badly on storeboughts that I’m wondering if the tubes we get for MYO are going to be “FSC” and have that wicked chemical on them too)… American Spirit costs more but its nice (and withotu evil government fillers added in… at least as far as the tobacco… who knows about the papers now), as both pre-packaged and MYO loose, its maybe the first nice tobacco I’ve ever had in my life they may have just backed me into a corner where I may end up trying to smoke my cigarette tobacco in a pipe (I guess one of the American Spirit types a ‘perique’ or something might sorta work for this… but I’d have to get pipe filters for this ancient pipe of my father’s I’ve just had laying around for near a half a century)… and learn how to smoke it… too bad nobody sells American Spirit "perique’ other than one place that’s hugely expensive having it in just a little pouch (which is too small of an amount to buy anyway, I need at very least the can they come in, wish it came in bigger like gambler does) I’ve also heard there are proper pipe tobaccos that can double as MYO/RYO and are much cheaper (not taxed to death like cigarette tobacco) but I just don’t know anything about that yet.
I smoked Kools and Newports, about 1-1/2 packs per day since 1972 or therabouts. I used to love Gallouise’s unfiltered and Kool and Camel straights also. The reason I’m posting is because I wonder if anyone has had the same experience I did with Natural American Spirits. When I was trying to cut down about 6 months ago, I tried to make the switch to NAS, but it was more difficult than making the switch to snus. Supposedly, they have all this “free base” nicotine, and higher nicotine content than virtually any other cigs, but they absolutely did not hit the spot for me, and I was smoking the Menthols, which are the strongest of all the store available NAS brands. No doubt, there’s a lot of other stuff (one poster above correctly noted “carbon monoxide” which is why your first cig of the day makes you so dizzy) that one becomes hooked on when one becomes hooked on cigarettes in addition to the nicotine. Another poster suggested “tobacco alkaloids.” I’ll buy that, which may be why snuff and snus work great. I can’t believe I’m not smoking right now.
@LHB Newports! that was the other brand I couldn’t think of that the Black girls at a place where I lived smoked! you also reminded me I once tried a pack of Gallouise (because I’d learned a certain famous somebody I admire greatly smoked them and I had to try them, was a strange little light blue pack of shorter smaller cigarettes with an equally smaller filter on the end that I had special ordered. I didn’t care for them, even if my famous hero did.) There’s a menthol American Spirit? I never knew, never heard of that one (I’m not a fan of menthol anyway).
I generally smoke a pipe or 2 each day. I smoke a large variety of blends, but lately am leaning toward latakia blends. In addition, I also share a hookah bowl amongst friends on a weekly basis. Never smoked cigarettes however, they never had any appeal to me.
Gallouise are yummy.
If I could snag a pack of the Gallouise Blue Shorts (the unfiltered, fat ones) I’d have to temporarily give up giving up smoking. The strongest smokes I ever had. The Natural American Spirit Menthols have the highest nic content of any of their brands (including the Perique) and are unusual in that the menthol resides in the filter in the form of crystalized menthol. The tobacco is not mentholated, unlike the normal store bought brands that I used to be hooked on. Which reminds me. In 2007 I came down with a severe case of bacterial pneumonia (woke up with a 103.4 degree fever). When I went to the drug store to pick up my antibiotics and an economy size bottle of Tussionex, I thought that my condition necessitated a switch, so I picked up a carton of Salems. During the entire period of my recovery, I never smoked less than 1/2 pack per day.
BTW, if you roll your own using regular rolling papers instead of those tubes they make nowadays, you don’t get any of that FSC bullshit. It’s in every store bought brand now, including NAS. But it’s added to the paper, not the tobacco. I use an old ribbon roller, Zig Zags and NAS American Blend if I want a smoke; I don’t care about the health risks of smoking a non filtered every now and then. As a matter of fact, I don’t care about the health risks of anything, I just don’t like smoking that much any more.
I “started” smoking with a pack of Marlboro Reds that I was able to acquire through some friends when we were about 15. I still remember sneaking out of the house at night to take a walk in the park and suck down a cig. The nicotine buzz was amazing - I was not able to walk straight for about 5 minutes. But in those days, we didn’t have a consistent source, except for my friend’s dad who would leave his Kool 100s sitting out in the porch. My buddy would take 2-3 cigs a day from him and that was enough to keep us happy for a time. I am pretty sure I started working at a local convenience store when I turned 16 just to have access to smokes. By this time I had made the switch to Camel Filters. I stuck with these until I discoverd Kamel Reds. Smoked those on into college, and then Camel introduced the Turkish Gold line which I fell in love with. Its a familiar Camel blend but containing more turkish tobacco than other varieties. So for the last 8-9 years, until I found snuff, its been Camel Turkish Golds or Silvers (Silvers are a lighter version). For variety, I would occasionally pick up the odd pack of Parliament Lights (P-Funks) or Marlboro Lights, but not very often. I haven’t had a cig for 3+ weeks (I still cave and buy a pack about once per month) and after writing this, I sort of want to go out and buy some. Instead, time for a nice pinch of Lime Toast.
@whistlrr: The most popular pipe tobacco suitable for MYO is Daughters and Ryan, usually referred to as D&R. It is not good in a pipe as it is just cigarette tobacco which is cut wider, Mostly 10 count as opposed to cigarette cut which average 32 count. They make a large variety. Some people say the Venguer is similar to Marlboro. MYO papers still don’t have the speed bumps.
@LHB thats really interesting about the menthol being in the filter not the NAS (what is the N for? “Natural”? anyway its easier than spelling it out each time and I’ll start doing that too) also about the gulliouse being so strong… at the time I wasn’t looking for ‘strongest cigarette’ (though I guess I sorta am now) and at the time (many years, decades ago) just wasn’t ready for it (I remember the filter getting very dark and just… meh, didn’t like them at the time). I lack certain coordination properties needed for rolling things (tried this with other substances which quickly became one of several deterrents to using aforementioned other substances, even with the little zigzag rolling machine, never could get the appropriate wetness on the gummy edge etc etc) and I need a filter (even tried getting little ittybitty filters to put in the then ittybitty ‘cigarettes’ you can get from an ittybitty rolling machine… just, no dice, didn’t work out). I have to stick with the tubes/MYO method (for now anyway, once they get to the tubes, like I said, may be chased to trying to smoke it all in a pipe?) I guess I’m trying to find the strongest smoking tobacco (if I am going to smoke) yet somehow trying to be at least somewhat health conscious too (yeah I know, its kinda weird and working at odds against myself that way. I stop at smoking inflammable weird chemicals). Whenever I stop and think about it, the idea of inhaling burnt paper (of any sort even as it is now) along with my tobacco has always kind of bothered me a bit anyway. Everyone else has probably already seen this, but just in case I’m going to share the video that made me go “oooh no… we’re not going there” (I don’t have a mouse in my pocket, I mean me and maybe my one still smoking really good friend if I can convince him, though I’ve had no luck getting him to E-cigss, snus or snuff). I showed him the video, said "maybe we should do pipes? I’ve heard you can smoke pipe tobacco like cigarette tobacco anyway…(etc)… (this is my friend who thinks its okay to have mystery bubbles in your restaurant cup of coffee but he’s a good guy). He only replied “you’ll have to get a pipe (got one!) and filters for it” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_mTXZVCOM0Y I’m no chemist, but even I can see that with a name like “Ethylene Vinyl Acetate” that this just can’t be good. Anybody else who’s also not a chemist notice the word "Vinyl’ sandwiched in there? What, are we going to be smoking old raincoats and car seats now? No, this can’t be good at all @Nachman Thank you! that is exactly the information I have been looking for and needing (re: which tobacco)! I made a note of that brand (and memory device to recall its name) and its also a huge relief to know we don’t have ‘speed bumps’ in our MYO (for now! Yet!). I’ll admit I’ve already taken a few tubes out (just purchased yesterday) and studied as close as I can (eyes not great) for any potential suspect differences, going “well… I dunno” (of course I didn’t see anything, but with my eyes that didn’t mean much…) thank you for clearing that up! A tobacco that could go either way, pipe or cigarette would be great (and of course cheaper access to it is great. Doesn’t even have to be great tobacco… I wish there was an NAS for both… somewhere I read that the NAS "perigue’ might be good either way… have you heard that?) I’m going to want to inhale no matter which way I go… if I’m backed into using a pipe I know I’ll want to treat a pipe (and whatever’s in it) like a ‘paperless cigarette’
started about 20 years ago with Camel Filters, been smoking them ever since.
You don’t inhale a pipe. Don’t pretend it’s a paperless cigarette or you will be sorry.
@ whistlrr: I quit smoking nearly two years ago, but I can tell you that the best *and* the most economical way to make your own cigarettes is to forget about using tubes and use a traditional rolling machine. Top sells filters, both the short (itty bitty) ones and the regular king-size ones. A bag of 200 sells for around $3. The papers that American Spirit includes in their pouches and tins are among the best quality papers in existence: pure flax and 70mm. There are no tubes of this quality. I know from experience that all tubes are pretty substandard. Rolling machines are cheap and will last longer than tube injectors. In other words, you can get far better quality for less money all around. Oh, and American Spirit tobacco is widely available and contains no chemical additives. I did buy the occasional pouch of Perique, but preferred to buy the Royal Blue tin. (NAS never made Perique available in a tin.) Prior to SCHIP, a tin of NAS cost around $20 with tax. Hard to believe now, isn’t it? I think the price has doubled since April 2009. You may, however, want to forget about the cigs and pipe and consider some decent mild cigars. Please listen to LincolnSnuff: a pipe does not work well as a paperless cigarette.
Must tell more about smoking days: before switch to Samson, I smoked Drum Halfzwaar for years untill the brand was sold to BAT or Imperial Tobacco or whatever. Old Drum was a great blend of up to 17 shag tobaccos, produced in Douwe Egberts tobacco factory in Friesland only. And it was never dry, opposite wap true: you had to air it for a while before smoking. That was an advantage to Samson, which is rather dry blend and there’s always a risk to get bone dry pouch from shop. Early 90’s I think Drum was changed to current boring international blend. But American Spirit is a great shag! It’s getting more popular in Europe and is produced under license in Germany. My brother smokes it when he rolls his own. I always rolled my cigs manually, started to use filters later. Tried different machines, too complicated fro me.
I think Republic Tobacco does Drum now. Man, the old-school Drum was my everyday smoke. I felt so ripped off when they changed it. 
I used to smoke Waves alot, and back in the day, Magna.
Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes, Gauloises, Gitanes, Marlboro red
Started on a pipe and cigars; I foolishly started cigarettes at 23. Enjoyed Three Castles, the original Drum, Camels, Parliament Lights, clove cigarettes, Jester… Went down to pipe only, but still inhaled, so I began smoking Carter Hall (it’s cheap). Finally quit altogether (thanks snuff and snus!), though I might go back to smoking without inhaling someday–just on occasion, I miss Three Nuns, McConnell’s Scottish Flake, Erinmore Irish Flake, Radford’s Sunday’s Fantasy… But then again, so many snuffs to try!
reading throu the comments here seems a few people gave up smoking ryo /myo so if you have any lying around you would like to trade ( full flavor or natural only ) i have around 50 snuffs fribourg treyer bernard schmalzers and a load of wilsons dholokia etc let me know what you have and what you would like usa only ( whisper me )