Back in the 1800s, there was nothing known as the RYO tobacco or roll your own “anything” – in those days, all cigarettes were pretty much rolled by hand. And first-generation RYO tobacco folks were using newspapers as cigarette tubes. One can only imagine how these RYO cigarettes tasted.
It was back in the dark ages, right? But today, as the rolling tobacco lifestyle has become more popular, with an estimated 5-7 million pipe tobacco smokers in the U.S. alone, the demand for premier cigarette tubes has exploded in popularity along with pipe tobacco.
RYO Lifestyle Folks are Demanding Better Products
Also, some percentage (no one really knows) have switched from smoking a pipe to the RYO lifestyle – some just don’t want to deal with the hassle of lugging a pipe around along with a pipe tobacco pouch. And as the cost of more traditional cigarettes has risen, the demand for pipe tobacco, manual and electric rolling machines, and premier cigarette tubes has also increased.
For some RYO folks who are using electric rolling machines, a durable, malleable cigarette tube and matching filter are, of course, a necessity. Many of the first and second-generation cigarette tubes made 10-15 years ago were just not that well made. They fell apart easily, didn’t burn evenly, broke easily, would not ash properly, and the paper tasted horrible.
Premier Cigarette Tubes Come in Lots of Flavors, and they are Economical
But today, you can get really high-quality premier cigarette tubes that burn flawlessly, taste great, don’t break as pipe tobacco is being loaded into them, and, once made, can be moved around without breaking. The onward march of technology has really improved the overall quality of cigarette tubes and filters too.
As we discussed in a recent blog post, there is no single best-pipe tobacco. And, you will find variances in the moisture content of the pipe tobacco, texture of the actual tobacco and in lower quality pipe tobacco products, and some finite number of filler products that can and do break cigarette tubes.
Today you can get a carton of premier cigarette tubes for under $5.00 and. Golden Harvest makes great cigarette tubes, and they are aggressively priced. But we carry lots of other premium cigarette tubes from other manufacturers like Top, Zig Zag, Shargio, Zen, and others.
Cigarette Tube Flavors come in a number of flavors, just like pipe tobacco.
Mild
Menthol
Rice Paper
Vanilla
Natural
Grape
And you may want to experiment with different flavors of cigarette tubes that may or may not match the flavors of your pipe tobacco. Some RYO pipe tobacco smokers like to live life on the edge and mix combinations of pipe tobacco and premier cigarette tubes.
Pipe Tobacco Basics for the RYO Aficionados