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Clove cigarettes

Anyone here ever tried Clove cigarettes or Kreteks?


  • MisterPaulMisterPaul Member
    edited August 2015 PM

    Why yes I have actually @Salmiak !! I was in Vietnam last Christmas and did try a few of the indigenous cigarette brands. I have two one left in a packet of 'Gudang Garam' left which are a commercial Indonesian Kertek..

    These aren't cigarettes in the western sense, though they do look similar and are filtered; they have a lot of clove in there I'd guess maybe 1/3 or so clove in the mix. The production quality is somewhat lacking. They're very strongly flavoured and sweet; although I'm no stranger to strong smokes (Gitanes are my favourites) these are actually tough to finish in one sitting without putting it down for a bit.

    I'm  going to have to light one now; will report back in a bit....

    Yeah, just smoked 1/2 of one; I'd forgotten that the filter is [presumably] impregnated with some kind of sweet clove oil. Overpoweringly sweet and clove, actually give me a little bit of a headache, there's almost some kind of menthol element to them as well, though I suspect that this is all due to the clove. I've remember why I didn't buy more of these, and still had a couple left, really not my thing.   

  • @MisterPaul

    Next chance you have try the unfiltered Gudang Garam.  WOW !
  • As kretek are impossible to find in Spain, I used to roll some shredded pieces of clove in my Ideales black Spanish RYO tobacco. The results were frankly delicious and satisfying!
  • @perique - Are you a fan? I'm really not sure about them to be blunt, I did smoke most of a packet when in Nam as an after dinner smoke.
  • It's a once in a while "guilty pleasure".   :D
  • JustinJustin Moderator
    I used to enjoy them. I'm not sure if you can still buy them in GB - they can't possibly meet the tar/nicotine limits imposed by the EU - and I suspect they are catastrophically bad for you! (Which is not a reason to curtail your enjoyment of them as a consenting adult etc...)
  • Skell18Skell18 Moderator
    You can still buy them here @Justin the Djarum blacks, vanilla, cherry and menthols are sold in specialist tobacconists.

    I used to like them from time to time, but my OH banned me from smoking them in the house as they absolutely stink the place out! Out of the pack, lovely sweet clove scent, room aroma, burnt clove!! And it clings to clothes like nothing you have ever seen!!
  • When I still smoked, I absolutely adored Djarum non filtered kreteks. They and bidis are the only smokes I get an occasional craving for, and both have been banned for sale in the good old land of the free.
  • Yeah all through out high school... I do not miss them.. You never forget the smell of a bidi... I see you can order 250 for $100 on Etsy...  In case anyone is looking for them in the land of the free, home of the regulations...
  • HitsuzenHitsuzen Administrator, Moderator
    I smoked Djarums in high school. To ne honest, I never liked the flavor (although oddly enough I did like the smell). I only really smoked them because I was going through a "goth" thing and they were entirely black.
  • @Hitsuzen I went through the same black cigarette goth thing for awhile in the 80's too :)). My choice was Sobranie Black Russians. As I recall they were excellent and I'd smoke another if I could find one.
  • I miss enjoying the real djarum blacks. I tried them again and I couldn't stand how sweet they were lol
  • Every once in a while I would pick up a tin of Djaram Internationals but they stopped making them 10 or so years ago.
    None of the other clove cigs seemed to match up to them IMO.
  • A shout out to my fellow ex-80s goths. Apartments and nightclubs redolent of cloves and Aquanet. Funny that Djarums have since been re-marketed as clove "cigars" -- just came across some a couple months ago and tried a pack. They still taste pretty much the same as I remember. I dropped the goth scene circa '90 as my music tastes changed, but I was still hanging around a lot with art students, some of whom were still doing cloves, though it was mostly regular commercial brands of cigarettes.

  • Ah, I recall djarum and bidis from 25 years ago....used to buy them on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley or the Haight in SF....memories. Probably my lungs would collapse now if I tried that again...havent seen them in many years but really havent been looking for them and red thin red pack.they illegal now like everything else in the US?
  • Chicago_CAChicago_CA Member
    edited April 2016 PM
    The djarum would burn slow,fizzle and snap periodically when smoked, very sweet.gave me cottonmouth though.Wonderful aroma and just smells terrific..a smell youll never forget.
  • I think they go by "cigars" now to avoid laws around flavored cigarettes.  I used to smoke cloves exclusively when I was, oh, 19ish maybe?  After several months I stopped when I began coughing up blood.  :-S
  • Oh, they repackaged and reclassed them? Is it the same thing or a cheap knock-off to skate the laws?Just a ghost of the original?
  • I haven't tried them, but I assume they're the same thing.  Same brands anyway; Kretek, Djarum.  Packs of 10 instead of twenty.
  • The djarum are the same brand. They had to change them a bit and rename them to cigars to avoid the flavored cigarette law several years back.
  • TobeTobe Member
    I see they're still for sale at Sheetz truck stops/gas stations here in the Pennsylvania area, though some places you have to ask for them as they're not on display. Sadly, they irritate my throat far too much to enjoy regularly, but I'm sure I'll try them again sooner or later. It's that wonderful smell!
  • ChairmanMowChairmanMow Member
    edited April 2016 PM

    When I was in college, I introduced one of my friends to pipe smoking and he introduced me to Djarum Blacks.  As a general lover of tobacco, I eventually developed a taste for them, though it took some time.  It's unfortunate that the Fascists and the Communists that run the United States saw it necessary to team up and ban them.  That's bipartisanship for you.  The Djarum cigarillos that replaced them are harsher due to the wrappers that they use, and if you order cigarettes ones from overseas, they are smaller in diameter and have less tobacco.  One more reason why the PACT Act needs to be repealed.
    'It is not a vice.  If it were a vice you would have it.'
    ~Pope Benedict XIV pontificating on snuff~
  • i remember yrs ago a friend always had a red tin of Djarum. i remember they were a little fatter on one end than the other. when ya puffed'm, lil crackles or pops.. :) .. i remember'm well.. havent had any or seen in a long long time..i do enjoy clove and have some clove snuff. McChrystal's Holiday snuff this past yr was called cinnamon and was a wonderful concoction with clove in it. i remember the note said it was put together by Ian McChrystal

  • TobeTobe Member
    @ChairmanMow Djarum Blacks haven't been banned. At least not in Pennsylvania. The pack is smaller but otherwise I can't tell any difference. Sadly, it appears that the Djarum Splash line is gone. I liked that one most of all.
  • PsickoPsicko Member
    edited May 2016 PM
    @Tobe the old ones were banned in the states due to pact that covered flavored cigarettes. I used to work at a tobacconist when the law became enacted. I compared the old ones to the new ones at that point in time since we had both in stock. There is a definite difference. As someone else stated you can get the original ones in the 20 pack overseas.
  • TobeTobe Member
    @Psicko What exactly was changed? The taste is still the same to me, and I smoked them regularly enough. Maybe there's some nuance I'm missing... I don't know. I'll take your word for it. I do know that the Splash line and others were discontinued for running afoul of the flavored cigarette regulations.
  • PsickoPsicko Member
    @tobe not sure what was changed. I haven't smoked them snice the change. If I recall the new ones don't have a filter and they are a bigger ring gauge. Those two could have accounted for the taste change. The new ones tasted more harsh. Changing the ring gauge Also probably messed with the taste as the ratio to filler to wrapper changed.
    Cigar companies make cigar blends for a specific ring gauge. Most companies make them for robusto sizes and whatever ring gauge is specific to that line of robustos. If you ever smoke the smallest ring gauge of a line and compare it to the biggest, there can be a noticeable difference, especially the when the difference is big like a 46 ring gauge compared to a 70 for example.
    There might be some more differences between the new and old, but not sure.
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