Camel Turkish Jade - Smoking & Cigarettes
 

Hello everyone,

I'm not crazy, I swear. Ok, maybe I'm batshit crazy about my favorite brand of cigs and it's hard as hell to find the old stuff.... kinda like people trying to get the "real" Coke after the New Coke, then back to Classic Coke switcheroo... But here goes:

I'm trying to find reasons or proof for the change in the:

Paper
Taste
Quality

in Camel Turkish Jades.

Here's what little "proof" I have, other than the "in my head" proof that the older style tastes better.

Sometime in 2005, Camel changed both the box, the carton that the cigs come in, the paper the cigarettes are rolled with and the taste of the tobacco. THe tobacco taste is kinda subjective, I know, I can't prove that because I don't have testing equipment.

Box changes:
1)Text under the camel says:
Old: "Mellow Menthol Blend"
New: "RICH & MELLOW MENTHOL"

2) Camel image and background:
Old: Poorly drawn, similar to the look on the camel that people say has a naked woman in. The background is of a single pyramid with 5 palm(or date?) trees in the background. Solid green sky. Normal sand.
New: Fuzzier yet more appealing image of the camel. The sand is green colored. There is a city scape near the pyramid, and the shading of the pyramid is reverse of the old graphic. The sky starts white at the horizon and gradually changes to the green color.

3) Box coloring:
Old: Green background
New: White background

Cigarette changes:
1) Filter:
Old: Mottled dark tan color
New: Diamond pattern on a light tan almost cream color

2) Paper:
Old: Has turkish jade printed in green ink parellel with the edge of the filter and the design circling around, which looks like a strange M with a dot between the "m"s
New: Has Turkish Jade printed in black ink running down the length of the cigarette. The design banding around the cig is repeating IninIninIninI....

3) Tobacco:
Old: Tastes better, no after taste or dry throat (even after smoking year old cigs)
New: Tastes worse, dry aftertaste similar to smoking a light "regular" cig after being used to menthols.
[I know this is probably in my head, but I have a hunch they changed the tobacco]


Oddly enough I come across older cartons of Camels somewhat frequently, or at least of the older variety. If this is a regional thing that somehow the cigarette shipments are arriving in Ohio when they should end up in Kentucky, please let me know. As I'm not happy with the "new" flavor of turkish jades, and if I come across a menthol that is close to the "old" flavor I'll probably switch brands.

/WAY too obsessed with his addiction.

That is some funny shit right there.

Dude, you need to lighten up a bit. Maybe smoke a few other brands to see if there is a different smoke out there for you.

There is nothing wrong with changing the smoke, but I thought it was common knowledge that cigarette smokers were the most brand-loyal consumers in the world. Why would Camel do that instead of leaving the old brand alone and making a whole new line? I don't understand.

I know that import cigs do not taste the same as the ones you get when you are actually in the country, and I thought it had to do with freshness. You might be onto something!

I understand this, I'm going with the tan filter. The Turkish brands of camel have something in them that make my stomach clinch. This only happens with Turkish Gold, silver and jade. All have the tan filter. I think it's the paper used as it seems to burn faster then the other brands. Lucky for me my brand of Camel Wides has not been changed :)

No, that's exactly it right there. Because of the die-hard brand loyalty (seriously, it's to the point of self-identity--the "Marlboro Man" ad campaign was brilliant in that respect), they can get away with radical changes like the one alledged here and only lose a few customers. tlimbert: how many cartons of the kind you don't like have you smoked since you noticed the change? And... You don't like them. Yet you're only considering changing brands?

There are lots of reasons a company might change the contents of their product. Pricing issues are the top one, but in the case of the New Coke switcheroo, it was to hide a change from sugar to High Fructose Corn Syrup in their recipe. They switched to the nasty, watered-down "new Coke", then went to a "Coke Classic" with HFCS which became standard good "old" Coke.

How long do cigarettes last, does anybody know? How long are they good after they're opened?

I heard the taste change came after the firing of an employee :D

If I can only be so lucky some day to find out... :)

When I started smoking I smoked Camel Filter just like my old man. One day a few years ago. They had one of thoughs buy one get one free deals with Camel Turkish Silver. I liked the taste a whole lot better. I dont think it has anything to do with the filter, but the tobacco. It says more smooth, and it is. One other thing I wanted to share. You know how on the back of the back it says a blend of Turnkish and Domestic blend. When I was in Greece the back of the back said a blend of Domestic and American blend.

Saying all of that I hate that I smoke and should quit, and will soon. I just need to get my head in the right place first.

Depends on the humidity and how stored..... If kept in a cool dry place they can last upwards of a week. If kept in your car or in a pocket you'll notice a taste change within 24 hours...... in most brands.

Soft packs last shorter than boxed.... as does the brandings.... some "premium brands" go bad faster than some of the cheaper low grade brands.

As for the OP, my guess is the marketing and sales department decided the changes were in order to get more sales. It has been my experience as a Winston smoker that RJR likes to fool around with the look of the pack, the paper, and the quality of tobacco and flavorings. It causes my Winstons to burn faster, taste nastier and leave a severe aftertaste as well as at times give off a scent where everyone around me swears I'm smoking pot, because of the smell.

I can sense when they have put cheaper tobacco in the cigs or changed the blending within the first few drags. It's so bad I am giving serious thought to changing brands to Dunhill. They never have changed, they always taste, burn and look the same. They are more expensive but I find I don't need to smoke as often.

remember when M&Ms were black and white, for some contest they said... they changed the dyes used, if you have old ones and new ones right next to each other the shades are very different... especially for the yellow, the new yellows are practically flourescent.

I'm sorry, you mistook me, it seems the guy had camels at home.
He fed them only tobacco that he stole from the company.
He had to make up for the lost inventory, so he ...a.... :confused:

But that's just what I heard :D

I mean I can tell a difference between good cigarettes and bad cigarettes, but I've been smoking for three years, and I don't think I would ever pick up on the types of details that you have. Kudos, I suppose.

^ Nice first post, hmmmm could this be spam?

I hope the mod I just reported you to finds it useful!

I did, thanks.

Eh.. I've smoked Jades for a long time. I haven't really noticed any major difference in the taste. In fact if I smoke a regular menthol the other's just taste really bland to me. So even if they did change it.. I'm sticking with Jades for a while.

As far as how long smokes last, when I buy a carton, I just put the carton in the freezer and take the pack out as I need it. Seems to lock in the flavor that way.. or I could just be stupid.

Distinguishing between cigarettes is a bit like wine tasting. As you sample different kinds, you start to learn how to distinguish between one brand and another, or even on type within a brand. I can tell any Canadian name-brand cigarette by taste. I don't know the cheap ones, but they all taste terrible to me anyway, so I don't smoke them.

As has been noted, us smokers tend to be an odd bunch. We all find our brands, which may have more to do with the stuff that people around us smoke than anything else. Once we've chosen one, we're unlikely to switch it up. Those in the business of manufacturing our cancer, then, can feel free to tweak and polish in order to reduce costs with the knowledge that it won't impact their business signifigantly unless they really stuff it up.

Personally I can't stand menthols and we can't get Camels up here anyway, so I have no idea about the specific brand in question. I know my smokes of choice (DuMaurier) went through something of an overhaul about a year and a half ago and haven't quite been the same since. Still, I can't find anything I like better so I stick with it.

Canadian Cigs > American cigs anyway. If I could get my hands on some of those, I'd leave Camel.

Really? I prefer American cigs, particularly Marlboros. Canadian cigs aren't bad; at least, the good brands aren't. My only beef is that the tobacco in them isn't as dry as most of the Yankee brands I've had, so they tend to make me (excuse the possibility of too much information here) far too phelgmy for my liking. I don't have that problem when I'm smoking Reds, even if they are a bit harsher.

Maybe we can work something out...

Strange. I heard the opposite from a Canadian friend of mine. He said he had to smoke like 4 times as much to get the nicotine or something. He went across the border to get American cigs a lot when he was up in Canada.

:shrug: maybe it's just me. I know that it seemed like whatever I was smoking up there was alot stronger than the ones here. I know I came back to my full flavor Camels and felt like I was just inhaling plain air. That was a long time ago so the pot I was smoking with it could have had something to do with it :p

I can only comment on tobacco. There is a huge difference in quality. I smoke an unfiltered pipe so I can tell very easily. Some shit just burns the crap out of your throat. So I don't know about cigs, but with tobacco in general there is a HUGE difference in taste, smoothness, lightness, etc.

So far I've found English blends to be the best.

I smoke OPs so I cant complain.

Yeah, I smoke the Turkish Golds myself, but they are getting hard to find. Anytime I go somewhere that doesn't have them my fall backs are Camel Filters, and Marlboro 72's.

I remember the box change, they did it for gold, silver, and jade. The tobacco in the golds got a little harsher. The old brand tasted like breathing in straight air, with no bitter Domestic tobacco taste. The new Golds after the box change still almost taste like air, but yet almost not quite have that domestic bitterness oh so common in Marlboro and the cheapos like Winston etc.

So yeah, I think they put just a little domestic tobacco in the Turkish to save costs, but it takes away from the smoothness of the almost tasteless Turkish tobacco.

I saw a show once about how American cigs are made. basically they extracted all the juice from the leaves into a vat and called it the "mother liquor" the pulp of the leaves was turned into a paper of sorts and shredded into perfectly even shreds and this shredded material was sprayed with the "mother liquor" to make the "tobacco" in the cigs.

I switched to hand rolling a long time back. now I'm on Bali Shag and Top papers...for some odd reason, Bali comes w/o papers. all domestic cigs make my mouth and throat dry, they also upset my stomach.

I used to smoke Jester, but local laws changes and it's not on the shelves any longer. I did go out of my way to buy packs of it before it was totally gone.

I was told the reason the state made it illegal here was something to do with how fast it burns and additives that cause them to go out. something about causing less fires ? seems to me domestic smokes burn faster and don't go out if you stop smoking them like hand rolled cigs.