Premier
Previously made in Canada by CTC. With Imperial Tobacco's purchase of CTC the Premier tubes (along with Rizla, ElRey, Escort and Rayo) are being made in a new facility (still Canada) on different machines.
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- Escort
- Posted by Damefrank on Monday, 28-Feb-2011
I had a black Escort rolling machine I used for over 8 years without a single problem. I watched my friends go through many throw-aways while I plugged away rolling an average of 12 cigarettes a day all those 8 years.
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Well I just lost the darned thing and I'm bummed. I've used my friends rolling machines (Rizzla, Premier, Bugler) and none were engineered to operate as smoothly as this Escort was. No matter how dry or wet the tobacco was, this machine rolled magnificently.
I know it was made in Canada but am unable to find anyone anywhere on the internet who still buys from this company. I found them just over a year ago on the internet. But now it appears they are gone. Now I'm sorry I didn't acquire another while I had the chance. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions or have one they want to sell me????? (I'm not kidding!)
- Re: Premier
- Posted by FWIW on Tuesday, 22-May-2007
Just tossing my 2 cents in. I found there is a trade off between Premier, and Zigzag 100 light tubes. The Premier has a pronounced paper taste. Nearly none in the Zigzag. However, the Zigzag seems to have a less aggressive filter. Mixing some empty tubes on a counter. I could close my eyes and pick out which brand I had every time. I want a mild smoke so the denser Premier filter is more appealing. For me it is sort of a toss up between them. With the difference in cost (Zigzag is literally twice as much at my store) probably winning the toss in the long run, if I stick to this MYO deal.
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I have never gotten a bad tube from either brand.
- Re: Premier
- Posted by stuffitall ken on Saturday, 14-Jul-2007
Premiers are best when rehydrated for a day or 2 after being stuffed without so much paper or filter bleed. We just use a sponge on a paper towel inside of a plastic chew (skoal) can for a couple days in a tupperware #3 sealed container, then they go right in the freezer and taste fresh and no bite at all when we pull them.
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- Re: Premier Full Flavor King Size
- Posted by Turtle on Sunday, 24-Dec-2006
Pretty sure these are the old ones. They say made in canda and say CTC on them. My local tobacco store gets news orders in of them so there must be warehouses full some where. they are just awful. The filter falls apart and you can taste the paper and glue. Well really just some are bad. You'll get a good box then a bad box, all say ctc and canada on them. $1.89 a box local, not worth it.
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- Premier lights
- Posted by Ray on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2006
Anyone got any recommendations for a good light tube like the Premier lights used to be? I've tried Top lights-hard to pack and you get a lot of air-hard to draw. Gizeh silver tips are strong and thin paper breaks sometimes when stuffing.Are Gambler lights OK?
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- Re: Premier lights
- Posted by Wazmo Nariz on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2006
I dunno--I've had the exact opposite experience from you apparently; I always thought the old PLs were shite, I think the new ones are far superior (although still not the last word in light tubes). I think the Zig-Zag Lights are about the best there is when it comes to ks Light tubes these days--but still by no means perfect...most all brands have one flaw or another. I used El Rey Lights for years until they changed...they are now worthless to me.
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I tried the Gambler once but wasn't impressed; I wish I could remember why, but it was a few months ago. Something about the "taste" they had, I think.
- Re: Premier lights
- Posted by Dave L on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2006
Try any of the Saint Vincent made light tubes. Their lightness should be close to the old Premier lights. See Light Tube Types for the various filter lengths/types. Any tube with a perforated filter will be lighter than the Premier's. Zig-Zag, Top and Gambler lights are (or were, things change so often you never know) the same tube with different logos... Escort and the Canadian made ElRey lights _could_ be the same tube (with cork instead of white tip) as the old Premier lights.
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- Premier
- Posted by Ray on Monday, 25-Sep-2006
The new premier lights are horrible! I've been happy with the old for over a year of syo but I'm sending these back.
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- New Premier Lights
- Posted by Wazmo Nariz on Thursday, 31-Aug-2006
I've been forced to switch to the Premier King Lights after El Rey Lights became rubbish, (locally, the Zig-Zag Lights are ridiculously overpriced--$3.49 for kings??? I don't think so) and I've got to say I'm impressed with the new make. The case has a spot-glued flap which can be easily reinserted to close the lid instead of the simple taped-down crap.
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I couldn't really stand the old Premier Lights...burnt too quickly, tasted funky and gave off a slight chemical aftertaste. ot the new ones...these are solidly made, fairly consistant diameter-wise, a more even burn and with almost no alteration of the tobaccos flavour. And locally, they're far cheaper ($1.49) than the Zig-Zag King Lights.
- Premier Menthol
- Posted by kristi on Monday, 07-Aug-2006
I tried these tubes, too. I ended up throwing them into the trash. I thought they were horrible. Bad tasting. I dont know if it was paper or glue or what, just couldn't hand with them.
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Dano on Tuesday, 31-Jan-2006
To make a long story short, I think the Premier tubes taste like brown paper bags with glue on them.
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I brought a box way back when and ended up throwing them out.
It was like.. Whoa! Reallly Really Bad!
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Dave Grant on Saturday, 15-Jul-2006
I have started using the Premier FF tubes, and don't have any complaints. Of course, taste is *very* subjective. My favorute tobacco blend may be vary different from the next guy's.
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Mechanically, they seem to be well-made. I haven't had any problems with stuffing them on an Excel. They are also quite inexpensive, available locally for less than $1.50 a carton.
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Dave L on Saturday, 15-Jul-2006
At this point we need to know if they are the new or old Premiers. I haven't seen the new ones but the old boxes have CTC and Made in Canada on them. Danos January 'way back when' comment would indicate he's talking about CTC made Premiers.
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Dave Grant on Thursday, 31-Aug-2006
Hmm. The tubes I've been buying locally are CTC made, but the ones I've been getting lately from Smoker's Warehouse are Robert Burton Associates. Both have "Made in Canada" on the box. The CTC tubes seem to be of a bit better construction mechanically than the RBA ones. The RBA tubes seem to fit tighter on both my SuperMatic and Excel machines, which sometimes leads to having to smooth them a bit with the fingers to get them to slide over the nozzle. Taste is about the same, as far as these old jaded taste buds can tell.
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- Re: Premier Light
- Posted by JD on Friday, 04-Nov-2005
I bought a box of Premier Light 100mm tubes a few weeks back and have come to the conclusion that they're rubbish. The tubes ruined the taste of anything I stuffed 'em with...they weren't harsh but had a strong, almost overpowering "paper" taste. I've been afraid to give them another try and most likely won't.
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- Re: Premier Light
- Posted by JD on Wednesday, 09-Nov-2005
A friend of mine who uses Premier light tubes came over and was surpised at the papery, chemically smell of my Premier light 100s. He uses them exclusively and gave me a box of his. The difference was like night and day. It was actually an excellent tube, much like the Premier Light king-size I use (I prefer the micro-perf paper to the laser-cut holes). I later went down to the store I bought the 100s from and slipped open a couple boxes from the shelf and noticed they had the same smell as the one I bought initially. Went to the store my friend bought his and all was well...picked up a couple boxes and have no complaints what-so-ever.
I went back to the original place and told them of the problem. The manager went back to their stock room and noticed that the last couple of cartons of Premier light 100's was stacked up in a larger box filled with incense sticks. Incredibly ignorant....
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- Premier Kings
- Posted by Tim S. on Wednesday, 12-Oct-2005
These are only $1.44 at the smoke shop here, they are priced the lowest. And they work well, but even if they was the same $2.00 a box. I would still buy these, as they are a fairly well made tube. And just work well, nothing fancy mind you but they just work good.
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They do have signs, that they are not made the best. But as I said, they do work well and smoke good as well. I got a free box, with my supermatic blue and liked them. Out of a rating of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. I would rate these 7 for the highest, and 6 for the lowsest as a over all rating. Tim S.
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Ralph on Sunday, 26-Jun-2005
The new boxes of Supermatic light tubes are sealed across the top instead of a single piece of tape. I've found these new tubes are wider. It looks like they finally calibrated their machines properly. They fit easily on the Supermatic machine now. I suspect Excel users will breath a sigh of relief. This is long overdue.
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Rabid on Thursday, 20-Jan-2005
Just found out the CTC has officially closed its doors as of December 17, 2004. Robert Burton & Assoc are the new owners... Wonder how that's gonna effect things?
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Hey, and is it me or have there been a lot more culls lately in a box of Premier's?? I have seen as many as 25% of the box too tight to fit a SuperMatic
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by irishguyincc on Wednesday, 13-Apr-2005
I purchased a new Supermatic a couple months ago and it came with a box of Premier full flavor tubes. These tubes are real nice and have offset seams. Are the Premier tubes being made differently, or by someone else now? Years ago I tried some Escort and Rayo tubes and they weren't very good. These Premier tubes I received seem real nice in comparison. Does anyone know if the Premier light tubes are as good currently, or are they still like the old Rayo light tubes which I didn't care for?
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Dave L on Wednesday, 13-Apr-2005
Jeff just posted about his Vera Cruz also having offset seams...I don't know if the change has happened yet but Mark at D&R mentioned in November that the lights will be perforated. This indicates to me that they will probably have offset seams as well. I'll try to find out more.
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Harry on Saturday, 22-Oct-2005
I've been using the Premier 100 Lights for almost 2 years. The last order of 10 boxes seemed to have considerable quality problems. They were still sealed with tape so possibly they were an older supply but I purchased them in June 2005. Tube diameter varied from just right to too big I'd guess about 25% were too big....as a result many of them were not completely glued the whole length. About 5 in each box of 200 had NO filter.....one had two filters...and the strangest one had the filter in the middle of the tube. As both my Supermatics are inconsistent stuffing 100mm I'm now trying Gizeh King Light tubes.
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- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Kev on Saturday, 22-Oct-2005
I've had that problem for at least a year - primarily varying tube diameters. I still use Premier and Zig Zag 100's for the spouse though she only goes through about 3 packs a week. I personally switched to king size Gizeh tubes though other king size tubes (including Premiers) don't have the varying diameter issue.
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Between the poor quality of 100 tubes and lack of any inexpensive flip-top cig cases for 100's, I now enjoy my king size.
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by MyFaceFrozeThatWay on Saturday, 10-Dec-2005
I've been a El Rey Lights user for awhile...but thought I'd try a few boxes of the Premier 100mm Lights. What a mistake. The only thing consistent about them is the apparent lack of consistency. I've run across varying diameter tubes, poorly glued seams and filter leakage all within one box. They also seem to burn pretty quick--I can get about an 8 minute smoke from an El Rey Light King, about the same as I've been getting from the Premier 100mms.
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All in all they seem to me to be a poorly made 100mm tube (I've noticed a far better consistency from the Premier FF kings. Weird.)
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Kev on Thursday, 08-Dec-2005
Okay, I'm having to dump the Premier light 100 tubes. The diameter varies from tube to tube so I end up with loose or tight packed smokes depending. If they stayed a consistent diameter I could compensate.
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Back to ZigZags since the diameter doesn't change...
- Re: Premier and Escort
- Posted by Kev on Saturday, 31-Jul-2004
I switched from Zig-Zag to Premier due to the quality and the price being slightly lower. But, has anyone had any interesting additions to their tubes? I have a single Premier tube with a mosquito embedded in the paper. It looks to have been embedded when the paper was rolled, not just smashed onto the paper while in storage.
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- Escort
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Tuesday, 06-Jul-2004
The Escorts are not as good as the Premier. I find that the Escort tubes have a distinct taste of paper when smoked.
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- Re: Escort
- Posted by Dave L on Wednesday, 07-Jul-2004
I wonder if something is going on at CTC and if your experience relates to Puffaddict's (below). It seems unlikely that CTC would be so subtle as to use different papers for different brands. Other than appearance, I haven't noticed any difference between their brands of light tubes (Escort, Rayo and Premier lights). I'd guess three papers for all their brands - standard, light and brown (Vera Cruz).
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- Premier
- Posted by Puffaddict on Saturday, 10-Apr-2004
just got a box of these and was dissappointed to find on opening the box that there was a discernable paper / glue smell. Did I just get a box that was stored badly or has anyone else noticed this?
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I usually use zig-zag and havent noticed any odor or taste on burning with them.
- Re: Premier
- Posted by Jeff on Friday, 18-Feb-2005
I'm very dissapointed in my Premier Supermatic light tubes. They seem to be partially sealed down the tube. This is letting way to much air inthe tube. All my tobacco's are burning hot and tasting a bit harsh. Did I get some bad boxes at a tobacco shop or is this just the quailty of their product?
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- Re: Premier
- Posted by Kev on Friday, 18-Feb-2005
I bought a split case of the Premier light 100s back in the fall and haven't had that problem. Now the diameter can vary from tube to tube. Some are too tight to fit on the Supermatic injector. Not many but I probably waste 5 tubes out of 200 tube box.
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Prior, I used Zig Zags. I switched because the Zig Zags frequently had a seal problem at the filter. Quality control is lacking for both brands. I'm seriously considering going to king tubes - more brand selection and decent/cheap cigarette cases are available.
- Re: Premier Light
- Posted by Tim Aydt on Friday, 26-Sep-2003
Premier Light: This is my wife's tube of choice. Micro-perforated paper seems to make it easier to draw through and provide a smoother smoke. I am hoping for a 100's version to come out soon. Only $1.79 per 200 at the local smoke shop.
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