Rolling Paper Sizes
A HISTORY
Where it All Began
Experts believe the tobacco plant, as we know it today, began growing in the Americas at about 6000 BC. It is believed that Native Americans began using tobacco in various ways (including smoking) a few thousand years later. As time went on, tobacco and tobacco usage became very common in the Americas. There is a drawing of smoking by the ancient Mayas from about 1400 years ago. In it, a Mayan is shown smoking a roll of tobacco leaves with a string.
DISCOVERED BY EUROPEANS
COLUMBUS
Tobacco was first discovered by Europeans via Christopher Columbus. Columbus received dried tobacco leaves as gifts when he landed in what is now the Caribbean. Two of his crew are credited with first observing smoking when they were exploring what is now Cuba. The natives taught them how to smoke, and one of the crew, Rodrigo de Jerez, took the habit home to Europe. In fact, his neighbors were so frightened by seeing smoke coming out of his nose and mouth that they notified the local Inquisition. Jerez was jailed for 7 years. By the time Jerez was finally released, smoking had become all the rage in Spain.
BLUNTED ENDS
Smoking at that time was done via loosely rolled, open-ended cigar type products with multiple wrappers or binders held together by licking the ends of the leaves. As cigar smoke progressed, many improvements came to Cigars. For example, one “new” style of cigar rolling formed a rounded smooth tip. This “Blut” end caused this new style to be called a Blunt. Today, most cigars, even Coronas and Robustos, have the same rounded end, but the original term Blunt still applies.
INHALATION BEGINS
The birth of the modern, rolled cigarette happened in 1614 in Seville, Spain. King Philip III required all tobacco grown in the Spanish New World to be shipped to a central location in Seville to control pricing and prevent oversupply. Because of this, Seville became the new world center for the production of cigars. Street beggars would pick up the remainders of used cigars, take them apart and re-roll them in newspaper. Because of the scarcity of tobacco and their desire to enjoy every drop, the street beggars began holding the smoke in their lungs (inhaling). This took hold and made its way through the working class until the practice became common. Thus the modern, hand-rolled cigarette was born.
THE DAWN OF THE
CIGARETTE PAPER
LET IT BURN
Of course burning newspaper had its own problems, especially with the then lead-based inks. Spanish merchants began offering plain, unprinted paper for this purpose. One small factory in the Alcoy region that was making specialized packing papers offered the first paper designed specifically for cigarette rolling. This paper was later improved and an additional factory in Alcoy opened to compete. Over time, more cigarette paper factories opened near Barcelona, then France, then the UK, and eventually there were many paper factories across Europe.
In the Alcoy region there is still one rolling paper factory left, which can actually trace its roots back to the first rolling paper factory. This Alcoy factory produces many of popular papers to date. Brands suchs as RAW, Elements, Juicy Jay’s & DLX are made using processes that date back to the origin of this factory. Some of the craftsmen at this factory have been making papers for generations!
VARIOUS SIZES
In Spain, the size that was developed based on consumer preference was approximately 78mm long by 44mm high. At first, this was the size that dominated the entire European market. However, King James I, and later his successors, enacted heavy tobacco taxes. This led the British market to move to a smaller size that held about 25% less tobacco. This new small size was about 70mm long by 38mm high. As the British Empire grew, so did the proliferation of this smaller British sized rolling paper. In fact, to this date, in most of the commonwealth countries the number one size is the small 70mm paper (single width).
This paper became known as “Standard Size”, or “Single Wide.” The original Spanish 78mm paper became known as “Spanish Size”, except the British referred to it as One and a Quarter, in reference to how it holds about 25% more tobacco then a British Standard Sized paper.
THE KING IS BORN
THE KING IS BORN
Flash-forward about 100 years and the industrial revolution allowed the mass production of machine-made cigarettes. At first, most cigarettes were either 70mm or 78mm long without a filter. However in the 1950’s, filtered cigarettes began to take over. Consumers were concerned that by purchasing a filtered cigarette they were getting less tobacco as the filter took up some of the space in the paper. Thus, large tobacco companies responded to this by increasing the length of cigarettes to accommodate the filter. Cigarette size increased from 70mm or 78mm to a new 84mm size.
This new size became known became known as “King Size,” named after the King of England who was seen publicly smoking this new cigarette. Over the next several decades the shorter cigarettes saw their market share shrink dramatically until they were all but replaced by the new 84mm “King Size.” However, rolling paper factories missed the opportunity to change their sizes to suit this new consumer preference and continued producing the legacy sizes of generations past. It wasn’t until 2009 when HBI finally produced the world’s first 84mm cigarette rolling papers with their launch of DLX brand 84’s as they are called. While it may appear that rolling paper companies are dramatically behind the times, this is common among rolling paper factories as most companies prefer not to change with the times.
However, this sort of dinosaur attitude has recently been changing as new and improved forms of cigarette papers have been launched in recent years. Among them are natural unbleached and unrefined papers (e.g. RAW), ultra thin rice papers (e.g. Elements), and extra slow burning papers (e.g. DLX). The next oldest significant rolling paper innovation was the invention of interleaved rolling papers which was launched 116 years ago at the 1900 world’s fair, and led to the formation of the Zig Zag brand. Zig Zag means how the papers are interleaved in a zig-zag format.
COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES
56 independent countries make up the Commonwealth in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific.
