Choosing Cigarettes for Ritual Smoking
In this section, I discuss choosing cigarettes for Ritual Smoking. If you havent
read my instructions for Creating and Participating in a
Smoking Ritual, you might want to look them over and become familiar with some of the
considerations involved. Also, as a matter of personal taste, I participate in Ritual
Smoking using cigarettes. I dont see why cigars and pipes could not be used as well;
Ive just never been too fond of them and as a result have no experience from which
to speak of their use. There are many pipe and cigar sites on the Web which may help you
if this is you interest. That said, lets go shopping!
So many wonderful choices to consider! Length, flavor, paper color, smoking
characteristics, package design
Truly an outing for the creative side of the brain.
Shopping for cigarettes will give you an opportunity to venture into establishments which
cater exclusively to the trade of tobacco: Tobacconist, or more commonly Smoke shops. The
aroma in these stores alone is enough to conjure up the beginnings of wonderful things. If
you are fortunate enough to find a good one, they will also give you an introduction to
the ritual aspects of smoking.
I find that smoke shops fall into two general categories: the first is in business for
the sole purpose of selling cigarettes as cheaply as possible. I avoid these places like
the plague and recommend you do to. They rarely carry a good selection of cigarettes
appropriate for Ritual Smoking, and in general, they make a poor beginning for creating
the mood of a ritual. The second type of smoke shop ranges from simply functional to
wonderfully engaging. These shops will be filled with the aroma of tobacco, be staffed by
knowledgeable and intelligent sales people, and will offer a good selection of cigarettes
from several parts of the world. In choosing the cigarettes you will use for Ritual
Smoking, by all means shop until you see something which calls out to you and appeals to
your sense of style and taste. It is important to remember that rituals are created from
items which are otherworldly and unique. Make your ritual cigarettes something which can
draw you outside of your day to day routines.
To begin with, you might purchase a variety and try several brands until you find
something special. A few recommendations: If youre new to smoking, certainly select
something in the Lite or Mild category to minimize your initial adjustment to smoking. If
youve smoked before, choose something different than your "usual brand."
Youll want to do a few things to set Ritual Smoking apart from what you did before.
And a different, possibly more exotic brand, can serve this purpose well. Whatever your
background, by all means read the wonderful reviews of different brands, and the highly
entertaining and informative discussion of smoking in general that youll find at MagdaZines Start Smoking Page.
One other thing to consider in the choice of brands is what I call the "mood"
of the cigarette. The mood of a cigarette is set by its maker and can encompass many
aspects of the product. Certainly the design of the packaging, the appearance of the
cigarette, its aroma and quality, its smoking characteristics, all contribute to this
elusive quality. But there are other factors as well. The way a cigarette is marketed can
have a bearing upon its mood. If something is so common as to appear on every other
billboard in town, it hardly can be thought of as special and unique. Also, it has come to
light recently that many of the more popular American cigarette manufacturers add
chemicals to the tobacco to accelerate the ingestion of nicotine. To my mind, these
cigarettes are manufactured to engender habitual smoking and if you notice how
theyre typically used, this seems to be the case. Certainly not the mood were
looking for in Ritual Smoking! For this reason, I would encourage you to refrain from
these brands. There are chemicals which can be added to tobacco to promote smooth
combustion and enhance its taste (menthol for example) which are very much in the mood of
Ritual Smoking. So dont avoid such things entirely. Just choose wisely. Since most
cigarettes which have appropriate and appealing moods for Ritual Smoking are only sold in
tobacco stores, this will give you an excuse to visit these wonderfully aromatic
establishments.
Ó MrTedd 1998