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I drone severely.
2. Indian Cigarettes Review ![]()
I've been in India for over a month. Before leaving for this trip, a nurse told me I should be crochetting instead of smoking. I told her I'd quit on the trip. Dear nurse, I apologize.
Numbered in the order of memory. Review in description.
1. Lucky Strike Red 100s - America
A buddy brought three pack of these along. I used to think Luckies were like smoking printer paper, which was an opinion informed by last smoking a full pack of them as a teenager who prefered tar content to oxygen [goes well with coffee]. You grow up and start peeling lights instead of attempting to suffocate yourself. And you grow old to appreciate that American tobacco isn't solely a patriotic selling point. Packed nicely. Tasty. A satisfying length and burn time. Easy on the throat. A Classic.
2. Marlboro Purple Burst - Switzerland
Captain crunch berry flavored cigarettes. My favorite of all tried, and exciting because I've been looking for them for awhile; found them at the best smoke shop in Shillong. Vendor said they were an odd pack from duty free. A solid marb with one berry and one mint flavor bead. Best smoked with only the berry bead popped. While the mint bead was fresh more than an unadulterated menthol ice assault, it cut the berry and added harshness to an otherwise soft-feeling smoke.
3. Marlboro VISTA Forest Fusion - India
India's purple burst. One berry and one mint bead, although the berry was more demure and mint was more menthol-y than the Swiss ver. Again, a solid captain crunch marb. I did not pop many of the mint beads across this pack, just berry. Tobacco alone when unpopped was subpar, which was true across the board of bead ciggies, I think. Whether fact or an affect of bead anticipation, I don't know.
4. Marlboro Ice Burst - India
One green mint and one menthol bead. It's fun. An easy smoke that doesn't taste like cigs but does smell like them. Vaguely harsh.
5. Classic CONNECT - India
A slim cigarette with popping bead advertised as low-smell. Tasty, but unclear what they taste like. We put our heads together and theorized mint and melon. Tastes like the fresh memory of fruit-sweet, or maybe laundry and papaya. It's easy to smoke a lot of them, they're just pleasant. Although, I brought a few home and lower humidity costs them some of their ephemerality. Goes well with all social occasions, and light enough to have multiple or with dinner. Turned me into a rude person to dine with.
6. Classic Ice Burst - India
The first cigarettes we tried upon arrival, like minty candy. A nice not-quite peppermint taste with a strong icy cut. Good body. Will kill your throat if it's all you're smoking over the course of a day. Good for sharing. Satisfying.
7. Shift Duos - India
A strong contender for favorite fruit ciggie against the purple burst. It's a melon-y, refreshing fruit flavor, like fruit stripe gum without the pineapple note. Just tasty. Not worth popping the mint bead [except perhaps before the last couple hits when everything burns], which negates the wonder of mystery-fruit. Not as soft feeling as the purple burst, but gentler in mood. I would smoke these regularly if given the opportunity. Not readily available.
8. Gold Flake Indie Mint - India
A special mint flavor that I found almost sugary and extremely tasty, which a friend described as pinesol. Pinesol syrup maybe. It is, whatever it is, a very Indian flavor. Low ice, high sweet, spearmint-y but not a leaf-mint. Both strong aroma and taste. Heavy by Indian produced standards for sure. I always wanted a second. The filter is too squishy to handle a full smoke and starts to fall apart.
9. Gold Flake Mixpod - India
Judging by the social media photo filter insert in the package, this one is attempting to compete with vapes. Which are to my understanding not legal, and perception, not readily available whatsoever. But it's nice. A berry and bubblegum-like flavor, though neither berry nor bubblegum. Like a ghost with skin but no organs, just solid corporeal form. The flavor is ambiguous and mixed in one bead. In general, a positive experience. We smoked about a million of them for good reason.
10. Gold Flake SLK Sleek Line Kings - India
Of all the beadless, only-tobacco cigarettes I smoked, these were by far my favorite and the most pleasant. A slightly sweet tobacco with the usual niceness of slims. A courteous cigarette.
11. Gold Flake Kings
Unenjoyable. Dry and papery. Scratches the throat unreasonably with very little body, flavor, or satisfaction. Both too short and too long. Only permissable in absence of luckies and/or following several beers.
12. Classic Regular and/or Mild?
Not so good but preferable to the beadless gold flakes. Only bummed, never purchased. I would call myself bead-spoiled if it were not for the near spiritual experience luckies were after these and the GF Kings. Not something to bitch about, but completely unremarkable.
"13". The Airport Smoking Room Lighter Machines - India
A metal box with a button to the left that triggers internal coils to heat, mounted on the wall. You lean in and crane your neck to insert your cigarette into a hole in hopes of hitting the haphazardly wound coils, may-be lighting your cig. The oppressive stale smoke stink makes you consider quitting. And then you layover in Europe, in which there are no smoking rooms, and you mourn what you once had and now do not.
All of this is relative to a baseline of: American Spirit Yellows.
06/16/2025
Numbered in the order of memory. Review in description.
1. Lucky Strike Red 100s - America
A buddy brought three pack of these along. I used to think Luckies were like smoking printer paper, which was an opinion informed by last smoking a full pack of them as a teenager who prefered tar content to oxygen [goes well with coffee]. You grow up and start peeling lights instead of attempting to suffocate yourself. And you grow old to appreciate that American tobacco isn't solely a patriotic selling point. Packed nicely. Tasty. A satisfying length and burn time. Easy on the throat. A Classic.
2. Marlboro Purple Burst - Switzerland
Captain crunch berry flavored cigarettes. My favorite of all tried, and exciting because I've been looking for them for awhile; found them at the best smoke shop in Shillong. Vendor said they were an odd pack from duty free. A solid marb with one berry and one mint flavor bead. Best smoked with only the berry bead popped. While the mint bead was fresh more than an unadulterated menthol ice assault, it cut the berry and added harshness to an otherwise soft-feeling smoke.
3. Marlboro VISTA Forest Fusion - India
India's purple burst. One berry and one mint bead, although the berry was more demure and mint was more menthol-y than the Swiss ver. Again, a solid captain crunch marb. I did not pop many of the mint beads across this pack, just berry. Tobacco alone when unpopped was subpar, which was true across the board of bead ciggies, I think. Whether fact or an affect of bead anticipation, I don't know.
4. Marlboro Ice Burst - India
One green mint and one menthol bead. It's fun. An easy smoke that doesn't taste like cigs but does smell like them. Vaguely harsh.
5. Classic CONNECT - India
A slim cigarette with popping bead advertised as low-smell. Tasty, but unclear what they taste like. We put our heads together and theorized mint and melon. Tastes like the fresh memory of fruit-sweet, or maybe laundry and papaya. It's easy to smoke a lot of them, they're just pleasant. Although, I brought a few home and lower humidity costs them some of their ephemerality. Goes well with all social occasions, and light enough to have multiple or with dinner. Turned me into a rude person to dine with.
6. Classic Ice Burst - India
The first cigarettes we tried upon arrival, like minty candy. A nice not-quite peppermint taste with a strong icy cut. Good body. Will kill your throat if it's all you're smoking over the course of a day. Good for sharing. Satisfying.
7. Shift Duos - India
A strong contender for favorite fruit ciggie against the purple burst. It's a melon-y, refreshing fruit flavor, like fruit stripe gum without the pineapple note. Just tasty. Not worth popping the mint bead [except perhaps before the last couple hits when everything burns], which negates the wonder of mystery-fruit. Not as soft feeling as the purple burst, but gentler in mood. I would smoke these regularly if given the opportunity. Not readily available.
8. Gold Flake Indie Mint - India
A special mint flavor that I found almost sugary and extremely tasty, which a friend described as pinesol. Pinesol syrup maybe. It is, whatever it is, a very Indian flavor. Low ice, high sweet, spearmint-y but not a leaf-mint. Both strong aroma and taste. Heavy by Indian produced standards for sure. I always wanted a second. The filter is too squishy to handle a full smoke and starts to fall apart.
9. Gold Flake Mixpod - India
Judging by the social media photo filter insert in the package, this one is attempting to compete with vapes. Which are to my understanding not legal, and perception, not readily available whatsoever. But it's nice. A berry and bubblegum-like flavor, though neither berry nor bubblegum. Like a ghost with skin but no organs, just solid corporeal form. The flavor is ambiguous and mixed in one bead. In general, a positive experience. We smoked about a million of them for good reason.
10. Gold Flake SLK Sleek Line Kings - India
Of all the beadless, only-tobacco cigarettes I smoked, these were by far my favorite and the most pleasant. A slightly sweet tobacco with the usual niceness of slims. A courteous cigarette.
11. Gold Flake Kings
Unenjoyable. Dry and papery. Scratches the throat unreasonably with very little body, flavor, or satisfaction. Both too short and too long. Only permissable in absence of luckies and/or following several beers.
12. Classic Regular and/or Mild?
Not so good but preferable to the beadless gold flakes. Only bummed, never purchased. I would call myself bead-spoiled if it were not for the near spiritual experience luckies were after these and the GF Kings. Not something to bitch about, but completely unremarkable.
"13". The Airport Smoking Room Lighter Machines - India
A metal box with a button to the left that triggers internal coils to heat, mounted on the wall. You lean in and crane your neck to insert your cigarette into a hole in hopes of hitting the haphazardly wound coils, may-be lighting your cig. The oppressive stale smoke stink makes you consider quitting. And then you layover in Europe, in which there are no smoking rooms, and you mourn what you once had and now do not.
All of this is relative to a baseline of: American Spirit Yellows.
06/16/2025
1. Minky ![]()
Something's cooking...
04/18/2025
04/18/2025