Players Light for a Canadian brand. For American the only kind I had regular access to were Winston red packs.
Been smoke free now for close to 15 years. Still miss it too.
My main brand is Marlboro Lights (I just can’t call them Marlboro Gold Pack) and I’ve been smoking them since high school. That’s what almost everybody was smoking when I started and I’ve just stuck with them.
In those days, cigarettes were cheap, less than $2 a pack and I tried practically all the well-known brands at one time or another. I came to the conclusion that most cigarette brands are terrible!
Every once in a while I’ll buy a pack of Marlboro Reds, which are great cigs, but too strong for an everyday smoke.
Back when Parliaments were on sale for buy-one-get-one-free I would smoke those until the promotion was over, and then go back to Marlboro Lights. Parliaments are a great smoke but they burn a little fast. Still, 4 packs of cigs for $10 was an awsome deal.
Until I quit it’s Marlboro Lights for me.
Started with my Dad’s True Blues when I was 14-15 (they’re not on the list).
Marlboro Reds thru High School (yes, we had a smoking area at HS in the early 80’s!)
Switched to menthols in the Navy, and stayed mostly with Salem until I quit cold turkey in 2007.
Abdullah Imperial Preference , a little too soft for my tastes.
(wonder who’ll get the reference here…)
I started out as a Kool man, but eventually switched to Marlboro Reds which is my default brand now. Newport recently released a non-menthol cigarette and I’ve been on and off of those as well since they’re only $4 or so. Back when they always had something buy one get one I had no loyalty and would smoke whatever full flavor was the deal of the week.
Sometimes for special occaisons or just because I’m feeling saucy I’ll buy a pack of Luckies or Dunhill and every great once in a while when I can find them Players Navy Cut.
Hah!! I’d forgotton all about that, but yeah in the 70’s we did have a designated smoking area at high school. Gad, seems like ancient history now*!..“Son, ya probably won’t believe this, but back in the old days even our teachers gave us time and a place to smoke…sometimes they’d even come out and join us…”*
I started when I was about 16 with the old reliable Pall Mall reds - that was what an older guy I hung out with smoked. Still think they’re the best, but these days I mostly roll my own - it’s a lot cheaper. I prefer Drum tobacco for RYO’s but it’s hard to find in stores so mostly I use Top or Bugler. Never did learn to like filters.
SS
I smoked Newports for many years, then switched to Maverick Menthols. They are surprisingly good for a budget cigarette, and only cost $4.50 at the Wawa Store.
(Note: Quit five years ago, haven’t looked back since.)
My default was Marlboro Lights 100’s*. I wasn’t as brand-loyal as most people, and if there was another brand on sale that was in the same taste ballpark, I’d switch for as long as I could get is cheap.
At the time I quit, I had been smoking Benson & Hedges 100’s for a couple of years, simply because that’s the brand my wife smoked. She wouldn’t smoke anything else, and it was easier for us to be able to share if we smoked the same brand.
*I never understood why anyone who smoked didn’t smoke 100’s. “Why yes, I like to pay the same amount of money but receive less product than I could – makes sense to me!”
Dunhill International (flat pack) reds by choice. Usually Marlboro Lights for ease of access.
Kreteks – Djarum Specials. They’ve been forced by the idiotic “won’t somebody think of the children?” law to start selling short, fat things that they call “cigars” instead of the real thing, and they taste like ass, but I get bored without them.
When I smoked regular cigarettes, my smoke of choice was Marlboro Lights, with Winston Light being my backup; occasionally, when money was tight, Dorals were ok.
But since '98 or so, I’ve smoked Middleton Black & Mild (pipe tobacco cigars).
There’s exactly the same amount of tobacco in a 100 vs a king size. Kings are fatter, 100’s are narrower.
In Nicaragua, I noticed a local brand called Alas. Even though that no doubt means something different in the local lingo, I always thought it an appropriate name.
You almost had it…I smoked Benson and Hedges Menthol.
For about three months, then switched to chew for four years.
Then I quit.
I used to smoke American Spirits. After smoking my first pack, most other brands tasted of chemicals.
I quit 6 years ago last July. Best thing I ever did - not to get preachy or anything.
Back when I smoked, I smoked Viceroys. I don’t think they exist any more.
Sometimes I couldn’t find them (they weren’t hugely popular back in my smoking days either) and I’d sometimes smoke Camel filters (not lights) or Winstons. Not Marlboros, those things tasted awful.
In later years, trying-to-quit years I went through a “Dunhills, kept icy-cold in the freezer” phase.
This is incorrect (in the U.S. Market). While there are slimmer cigarettes available in different lengths, (Virginia Slims come in 100s and 120s and they had a King size version for a little while), and Camel has a “Wide” cigarette, most brands Kings and 100s are the same diameter.
The filters tend to be a little longer on 100s, but you still get more tobacco in a 100.
U.S. Benson & Hedges 100s in a box are a little slimmer than they are in the soft-pack for some reason, and it wasn’t always like that, but I noticed it last year when I had to get my B&H Lights in a box.
Never smoked, but when I was a kid I bought Lucky Strikes candy cigarettes. I was just out of high school, though, when Joe Camel came along. Were I not yet, though, I doubt I could have resisted his appeal.
Marlboro Ultra Lights. I like the taste of Marlboro better than other brands, and the ultra light is so that I’ll only get ultra light cancer.
lest a well intentioned person try to correct me, yes I know that light/ultralight is flavor and has nothing to do with health risks
I started out with Marlborough lights because that’s what 14-year olds smoke. Inevitably, in my experience. After that it was dozens of whirlwind affairs with dozens of brands; I worked next to a tobacconist for awhile and spent time smoking brands from all over the world. DuMaurier, George Karelius, Silk Cut, Gitanes, are a few of my favorites that I can recall from over the years. Cigarette costs in Chicago being what they are, I now roll my own, as does nearly every smoker I know. I roll Peter Stokkebye London Export tobacco, and I love it. I can’t smoke a machine-rolled cigarette anymore, it just tastes like dust and chemicals. I imagine the late Mr. Stokkebye probably adulterated his cigarette tobacco with something or other, but for me it tastes and smells much cleaner than the cIigarettes I used to enjoy. The lady of the house minds the smell much less as well.