Captain Black cigarettes have a fairly high popularity among fans of the so-called “non-cigarette” tobacco products. Under this brand, several varieties of pipe tobacco are produced, both natural taste and with the addition of flavors. Other popular products produced under this name are Captain Black cigarettes. Quite often they are called cigarillas, but this classification is not correct. The brand entered the Russian market in 1998, at that time the rights to it belonged to British American Tobacco. Direct production under the name “Captain Black” was handled by one of BAT’s divisions – Lane Ltd., which was later (in the first half of 2011) sold for $ 250 million. The buyer was Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S.
Captain Black cigarettes are often referred to as cigarillos, but this is not entirely true. The main argument of incorrect classification is that cigarette paper is replaced by a restored tobacco sheet; the size of the finished product is somewhat larger than that of a cigarette.
Homogenized tobacco leaf (also called reconstituted) is made from tobacco scraps, cellulose and water. That is, this is paper, for the manufacture of which they took not wood, but tobacco waste. The appearance of this type of tobacco leaf was due to the need to increase the production of cigars, and the use of such products made it possible to significantly increase the speed of machines engaged in twisting cigars. Homogenized tobacco leaf is much more elastic than natural, so it has become widely used as a binder and cover sheet in inexpensive cigars and cigarillos.
Classifying Captain Black cigarettes as cigarillos because of the larger size than cigarettes is also not entirely true. Since such a clear classification of tobacco products by their size does not exist. For example, cigars are usually attributed to all smoking products rolled up from tobacco, having a length of more than 12 cm and a diameter of more than 1.2 cm. But, at the same time, the notorious “panatella” refers to cigars, although it does not fit into these classification frames by thickness (its diameter is less than 1 cm). In addition, if the cigarilla has a filter element, then it should be covered by the cover sheet. In the case of Captain Black, this is not observed – the filter and the cigarette are fastened with rim paper.