Tradition was, Canadians didn’t smoke U.S. cigarettes. Is RJ Reynolds trying to make a break with tradition?

While Canadians watch American television and movies, gossip about American celebrities, eat at American food chains and buy American goods, they have remained faithful to Canadian brand cigarettes.

The reasons are as complex as nicotine addiction, tobacco politics and Canadian U.S. relations.

Canadians smoke British style Virginia tobacco because that’s the cigarette they become addicted (and loyal) all the tobacco smoked in Canada comes identical plants grown in 5 counties in south west Ontario.

Many Canadian smokers sneer at U.S. brands. Even world leaders like Camel and Marlboro have little appeal north of the border.

Unlike American cigarettes, Canadian brands are not ‘blended’ or flavoured. Subtle variations between brands are achieved by filters, and by selecting different grades and different parts of the tobacco plant.

Tobacco companies have kept the loyalty of smokers, farmers and politicians alike by using their monopsony with Canadian tobacco farmers to protect the farmers’ monopoly in Canada.

They have even argued that they need to protect Canadian brands from the spill over advertising of the U.S. cigarette brands.

(U.S. magazines with their heavy content of Winston ads are widely read in Canada.)

As a wholly owned subsidiary of RJ Reynolds, RJR Macdonald now seems poised to exploit that spill over advertising.

This July, RJR Macdonald changed its packaging of Winston cigarettes and began distributing promotional matches. This is one of the first retail promotions in Canada of U.S. brands in recent history.

Sales of Winston cigarettes in the first half of 1998 (before the new package) were 25 million, in line with sales of recent years. The impact of the new packaging and promotion may be seen during third and fourth quarter sales.

What happens with the tobacco after its grown, the secrets of winston cigarettes

As is difficult to grow tobacco, the further tobacco processing its more difficult process because takes a lot of time and effort. After the tobacco harvest in manufacturers hands fall tons of raw tobacco leaves, which must be properly processed for the possibility of future use. At the same time, during the processing, the smallest deviation from the handling process will result loss of yield.

The first thing that manufactures can do is to dry the tobacco leaves. The drying process isn’t different from similar processing for other plant products. Bushes of tobacco are linked in pairs and hunged on poles, where tobacco is dryed. The secret of drying tobacco is in the construction of the barns where it is dryed. Barns should have a rectangular shape and located strictly from east to west. In this case, the tobacco leaves will receive a uniformly distributed heat from the sun. Depending on tobacco uses, tobacco is dried different from 20 to 50 days. Some companies of tobacco production, in tobacco drying use thermally treated procesing in a special way to get a light caramel flavor ( in the language of the tobacco professionals this process is called toasting.) As a result of these developments appeared a cigarette, which has been named after Winston city and became the cradle of the company RJR, Winston cigarettes. Winston cigarettes became the first mass produced cigarettes with the filter in the USA. At various times they have been recognized as «the best cigarette brand» (1956), «best selling cigarettes in the United States» (1965). Thanks to Winston s magnificent flavor and exclusive taste, this brand became famous worldwide. Today, Winston produces more than seven varieties of cigarettes, Winston Light (Blue), Winston One (White), Winston Red (Classic), Winston Super Light (Silver), Winston Super Slims Blue 100 s, Winston Super Slims Fresh Menthol 100 s, Winston Super Slims Silver 100 s. In 2010 2011 in Europe, this brand released a new format of Winston cigarettes Winston XStyle that was a breakthrough for the Winston brand.

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