Shag tobacco

Shag is fine-cut tobacco for handrolling cigarettes that is cut into strips with a width of up to 1.2 millimetres and a length that varies from a few millimetres to several centimetres. Shag cigarettes, or roll ups, usually have no filter, unlike regular pre-manufactured cigarettes. Shag is especially popular in The Netherlands and Belgium, but can also be found in countries such as The United Kingdom, Ireland and The United States. However, in countries where English is the native language, it is never referred to as such, because of the verb to shag, which is British slang for to fuck. The word shag is often regared as a typically Dutch name for regular tobacco.

Popularity in The Netherlands and Belgium

Shag became very popular in The Netherlands and Belgium in the 1960s and 1970s, because being able to make their own cigarettes, instead of having to smoke cigarettes with a predefined weight, taste and size, gave most people an extra sense of freedom. It is now very popular among lower class individuals. Recently, its popularity has increased because roll ups are cheaper than factory cigarettes, although both have become more expensive in the last few years, mainly due to an increasingly heavy anti-smoking sentiment.

How to make shag cigarettes

Shag can be smoked by wrapping it in rolling papers. Learning how to do this properly usually takes a couple of days.

Different kinds of shag

There are several kinds of shag. The most common kinds are heavy and half heavy. Other kinds are mild and three-quarter heavy. Shag cigarettes, even the mild ones, are often heavier than factory cigarettes. Heavy shag is the most natural kind of shag, since no chemicals are added to it to change the flavour or the heaviness.

Brands of shag

• Brandaris
• Drum
• Javaanse Jongens
• Samson
• Van Nelle
• Bali Shag
• Taribi shag
• Unic shag
• Judo shag
• Ducal shag

Copyrights

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Shag (tobacco).