ElRey
The ElRey's (like the Rizla, Premier, Escort and Rayo) are now made in Canada by RBA. They have 15mm filters and cork colored tips. The lights now have porous paper instead of filter perforations.
The German made ones (pictured) are/were a good, well made, tube. Along with the Rizla, these are the only tubes with full circumference glue (smoke is less likely to bypass the filter). The way they glue on the tipping paper results in barely noticeable rings on the filter (glue lines telegraphing through). The German made lights have laser cut perforations and a cork color tip. I cannot visually see a difference but the lights seem to be a bit lighter than the Silver Tip lights. Offset seams. ~$2.10 per 200
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- ElRey Full Flavor
- Posted by scott johnson on Thursday, 15-Feb-2007
Picked these up at Walmart today for $1.49. Not a bad tube at all. Similar to a Premier FF tube. Cheap enough too! Stuffed easily with dry and moist tobaccos.
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If I see them again at Walmart, I'll pick them up. Too good of a deal to miss. (The Drum tobacco they had was dry as Shredded Wheat cereal)
sj
- Re: ElRey Full Flavor
- Posted by Captain U-96 aka Mike on Friday, 16-Feb-2007
Scott, keep in mind Wal Marts marketing practices. They tell manufactures what to do, and offer a price per 40 foot container trailer or more. I'm not surprised the Drum you got from them is dry as a birds nest! Last year I bought a can of Bugler there, and could have used it in a Tinder Box it was so dry, and cost $12. I've been using El Rey FF off and on for years, and liked them even more when they were made in Germany.
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I would like to see just one tube manufacturer that introduces a product and doesn't change the original specs. Mike
- Re: ElRey Full Flavor
- Posted by Abdul Mohammad on Monday, 19-Nov-2007
Please,
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I need a maker that will accomodate tubes of 7.0-7.2 diameter, and in length for Fine Cut smoking Articals FCSA. (Fine cut
tobacco) without filter.
Supermatic model. Metals part
Do you have any automatic machine and can make ~500 cig/day?
Smokey Mac - Cigarette Tube Filling Machine
OR The 'Smokey Mac' cigarette tubing machine is a robust device for churning out your own cigarettes. A tabletop design, this machine fills each tube with one smooth action on the handle. Finished in great looking multi-coloured plastics, this machine will fill all of the tubes we stock, apart from RIZLA. A great looking gift. Made in Germany by EFKA. -
Price and delivery time for 4 makers.
ASAP
Thanks
Abdul
- Re: ElRey Full Flavor King Size
- Posted by Turtle on Sunday, 24-Dec-2006
Pretty sure these are the old ones too. They say ctc and canada on them. Taste exactly like the premers I tried, not worth the $1.89.
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- Re: ElRey Full Flavor King Size
- Posted by mark on Sunday, 31-Dec-2006
thought i might make a correction to this post. the tube industry has changed significantly since we ran an ad for a "stuff it" cigarette kit in the 11/29/92 issue of the san fransisco examiner "holiday gift catalog". we sold a basic set-up which included the only light tubes i was aware of at the time, escort (with ventilated paper). most u.s consumers used cigarette papers and the stuffing format was consided more a canadian style format (where the ryo market was large because of high taxes). ctc was about the only game in town for nearly a decade. silver tip (and i believe silver tip light) surfaced in the mid-1990's but did not become a serious player until the brand was taken over by rudiger s. in 1999. this was around the time when the master settlement aggreement(msa) kicked in and more brands became readily available. el rey was introduced by fred stoker company and rizla and club by robert burton associates (rba) around this time. (both made by efka/eu and owned by imperial). shortly thereafter, el rey light also became available. the market had been dominated by the ctc style light with laser perforated paper (escort, rayo, & filterite, not to mention most of the private label brands) for most of the nineties. so at the beginning of the decade, both elrey light and silvertip light provided an alternative light with ventilated tipping paper. several years ago fred stoker lost the contract for el rey distribution to american western cigar. that lasted for a while until rba took up all the imperial efka/eu products. as most of you know, a couple of years ago imperial acquired ctc (and a huge portfolio of tube brands which deserve a better review at a later time). ctc factories in monteal, canada and plattsburg, ny were closed. a new factory in new brunswick, canada (efka canada) is currently in operation by imperial and makes el rey light presently. (in case you missed that, we went from 3 vendors to 1). the variety of brands of light tubes on the market currently is nevertheless fantastic for the consumer. "light" tubes today are light relative to their regular "full flavor" counterpart. althought not politically correct to use the term light anymore, this category of tube currently may have longer elements (17, 20mm or more vs a 15mm), can have a higher density filter element, perforated tipping paper (old el rey), laser ventilation wholes in the paper (old escort), and a thicker/coarser paper that is less dense (around same weight) and resultantly more naturally porous (current el rey), and any combination of the above. well, hope that helps. sorry for the long post, but in between the rambling, el rey was never made by ctc.
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- Re: ElRey Full Flavor King Size
- Posted by Dave L on Sunday, 31-Dec-2006
Are Rizla, ElRey and Premier lights all basically the same tube now, i.e. all made at the New Brunswick facility on the same machines?. I haven't heard of changes in Rizla or ElRey FF tubes (yet?, currently made in the EU), are the Premiers the only Imperial/RBA FF tubes being made in Canada?
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- The New ElRey Lights
- Posted by Denny on Friday, 05-May-2006
Has anyone tried the new El Rey light tube? You can easily tell from the older, as the new tubes do not have the micro perf's. Does anyone know who is making them? They really seem to be a nice tube for the money and have a nice smooth positive draw for a light tube. I bought mine from D&R. They are a little milder than the Windsail tube, but not quite as neutral in flavor.
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- Re: The New ElRey Lights
- Posted by Manx on Friday, 05-May-2006
I'm curious about that as well. The old El Rey Lights have been my one and only tube for well over a year, and I'm down to my last two boxes. Knowing how often tubes change for the worse, I'm praying this ain't happenin' with the El Rey Lights.
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- Re: The New ElRey Lights
- Posted by JD on Wednesday, 24-May-2006
I've been using El Rey almost exclusively for well over two and a half years. I just picked up a box of the "new" E-R's, and I've gotta say they're rubbish compared to the old version.
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The paper tastes markedly different, it appears to use micro-perf paper now instead of laser cut filter holes and the tipping paper seems to be made of a lighter material. There is a very noticable change in the taste of the tobaccos I smoke in them comnpared to the older tubes as well. The filter seems a little different, too, but I can't put my finger on why, since I don't have any of the older ones left to do any destructive comparisons with.
Looks like it's time to look for aother main tube. These are no better now that a Premier Light or any other similar half-assed tube. What a shame.
- Re: The New ElRey Lights
- Posted by Ralph on Thursday, 19-Oct-2006
I just bought a bunch and I like them much better than Gambler. With 50 cents that Gambler is giving, Gambler is a better buy but they smoke like newspaper. I was strictly Premier Supermatic light guy but the last run doesn't fit on my Excel tube properly. The burn rate is massive. They can't even calibrate their own tube machines to produce tubes that fit on their own machine? Go figure. I'm an ElRey light guy until they have quality issues. Hopefully never.
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- ElRey Lights
- Posted by Denny on Monday, 24-Apr-2006
Hi I just wanted to let everyone to know that there has been a design change in the Elrey light tube. I am not sure if the filter length has changed, but gone are the micro perf's at the filter end. I think St. Vincent USA company may be making them. Also D&R tobacco may have something to do with them, as I may have picked up some hints in a conversation with them. The new tube definitely has a positive draw, and is lighter than the full flavor tube. Old stock may still be obtained in your local tobacco shops, but D&R has the new ones.
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- Re: ElRey Lights
- Posted by Dave L on Monday, 24-Apr-2006
Do they say made in Canada? See the posts a few threads down the page. I've been wondering if Imperial moved ElRey production to the old CTC plant. Do they have single seam construction?
...St Vincent tube boxes have a tuck in cardboard tab to hold the box closed (no tape) and CTC was last known to use an off-centered 1/4" wide piece of tape.
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- Re: ElRey Lights
- Posted by Denny on Wednesday, 26-Apr-2006
Yes they do say made in Canada, and yes they do seem to have a single seam construction. They do not have the St. Vince tuck in tab, but rather the same box as the older filters, except that the seal tape is the scotch tape rather than the white strip tape. They may have made an overrun of the Canadian boxes, and are using them up, or they are trying a new method, but they do draw better.
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- Re: ElRey Lights
- Posted by Dave L on Thursday, 27-Apr-2006
The ElRey's were being made in Germany and the lights had perforated filters. The new tubes are made in Canada and do not have perforated filters. They are not made by St Vincent.
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ElRey is an Imperial Tobacco brand. Prior to St Vincent the only light tubes without filter perforations were all made in Canada by CTC. When Imperial bought CTC they discontinued all but the Premier Lights. Apparently the new Premier Lights are made in Newfoundland and have filter perforations.
If the scotch tape is a narrow strip with no gripping tab and placed slightly off-center on the box, the new ElReys are almost surely being made in the old Premier plant. If they are using the same micro-perforated tube paper, the ElRey lights are Escorts in disguise (which would make a lot of folks happy).
- Re: ElRey Lights
- Posted by Denny on Saturday, 29-Apr-2006
I never tried the Escorts, but if they were as good as these, I think there will be a lot of converts. It's a shame that the tube companies keep moving things around, it's almost like playing a shell game with the SYO community. You would think they would at least keep us posted!
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I think the new ElRey lights are better than the older, as I have tried both, but I think that the Windsail tube has the most neutral taste of all the tubes that I have tried this far. The only draw back with Windsail is that they are a full flavored tube, and are a tad stronger than the ElRey lights, but tolerable to my taste. If anyone hasn't tried the Windsail tubes, the might want to, as of this point, they have been consistent in both construction and flavor. I have loaded 3 boxes without finding a bad one in the bunch.
- Re: ElRey
- Posted by platoslostdialogue on Thursday, 23-Feb-2006
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone knew why ElRey FF say "Economy Pack" on them, while the lights (at least the boxes I received) are void of this label. They're both the same price and have 200 tubes
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- Re: ElRey
- Posted by Rudy on Friday, 24-Feb-2006
Stopped off at a store yesterday and they just got a shipment of tubes, I noticed that they had lots of tubes wrapped in plastic and in mutli-packs of five boxes each they all said "Economy packs" looks like your box of "Economies" may have been part of a pack at one time.
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Rudy
- Re: ElRey
- Posted by Jo on Tuesday, 21-Feb-2006
Do the ElRey regular tubes have filters?
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- Re: ElRey
- Posted by Bob on Wednesday, 25-Jan-2006
Just recieved 10 boxes of these, the price was right.
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But mine are NOT made in Germany, they are made in Canada. The filters are also not glued all the way around as stated.
Looks like these are also made by CTC.
- Re: ElRey
- Posted by MyFaceFrozeThatWay on Thursday, 26-Jan-2006
Oh no, say it ain't so! I've just returned from my local shop and noted all their El-Rey stuff in stock is still labeled as Made in Germany; BUT they're out of El-Rey lights and have been for about a week and the manager said they're having trouble getting them from their usual suppliers.
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Nutz! The El-Rey lights have been made favourite tube for awhile now and have always been first-reat quality-wise, but sure I can't tolerate any half-arsed CTC-type construction/quality....
- ElRey Lights
- Posted by MyFaceFrozeThatWay on Friday, 23-Dec-2005
I've just finished my second box of these babies, and I've decided these are my Main Tube from here on out. I've tried every light tube around, but these seem to have them all beat. The construction and quality is perfect...I didn't find one bad tube or shoddily constructed one in either box. They exhibit no paper taste and didn't add to or detract from the tobacco's flavour much in any way. They also burn smoothly and evenly--I've been getting about a 9 to 10 minute smoke from these things--excellent value for a king size.
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- Re: ElRey Lights
- Posted by Tim_Mc on Wednesday, 09-Jun-2004
I agree 100% with the review above and will now try the full flavor El Rays just for fun. They are well made, strongly glued so as to eliminate gaping in the filter end, and are indeed the lightest of the lights that I have tried. Unless there is some other light tube out there I haven't tried, I think these qualify for the lightest-tasting filters on the market. I mean this in a good way. When I think of a Light Tube, I think of these. The flavor is still there, though, I just find the heat to be cut vastly down from a normal tube. The draw is tighter than perhaps some would like. But if you like a Marlboro Light you will like these tubes (providing the correct basic light/brown virginia tobaccos are used of course).
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