The Captain Black cigarettes line was created by the American company Lane Limited and its founder Herman Gee Lane, who once immigrated to the United States with his family from Germany. Lane managed to achieve success in a short time through hard work, despite the difficult times for American business. Along with the expansion of the company’s staff to 150 people and the promotion of Italian, English pipes, he also created his own tobacco blend.
The history of Captain Black cigarettes began in 1973, when pipe tobacco first appeared on store shelves, with a rather high price of 25 cents per ounce at that time. Lane’s price list had included the mixture earlier, as early as 1956, and sold in bulk, advertised as “slightly fragrant, slow-burning, pleasant.”
The name itself was invented by Herman, who was fond of the biography and adventures of Edward Teach, according to the cruel and intimidating enemy “Captain Blackbeard”. Thus, the name “Captain Black” became an abbreviation of the English nickname “Captain Blackbeard”. His passion for pipe tobacco led him to invent a special method for steaming Black Cavendish tobacco. This tobacco is the basis of all his subsequent blends.
In 1990, almost two decades later, the manufacturer released a new format of Captain Black cigarettes – mini-cigars with a glued filter for those who want to mitigate smoking. This time, a homogenized sheet of tobacco dust was used, rather than ordinary saltpetered cigarette paper. Made according to long-term traditions, natural tobacco fell in love with customers, and the popularity of the novelty has grown rapidly. Soon, mini cigars became the choice and new pleasure of millions of smokers, replacing cigarettes during the cigar boom in the United States.
After managing several corporations, it was only a $205 million deal with Reynolds American that took the company international. In 2011, it was bought by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, a large international cigar and tobacco corporation, to which users were skeptical, because usually a change of hands has a bad effect on the quality of the product. But, in 2012, it became known that the recipe for the mixture and the price would not change, production would also remain in the state of Georgia. The corporation pays a lot of attention to pipe tobacco, and the brand has not lost its position as a sought-after brand in this industry.