Philip Morris International has recently launched a new brand of
cigarettes called Next to fill the void left when the Malaysian
cigarette tax hike priced their flagship Marlboro brand out of the
reach of lower income bracket smokers at RM 6.50. Next is the new wave
of cigarette brands that retails at RM 4.50 – close to the “old”
(pre-tax hike) prices of mid-range cigarettes.
Next cigarettes comes in the standard two established tobacco
industry standard types – full flavored and lights (mild). The full
flavored packs comes in a darker shade of blue than the lights. The
design of Next cigarettes is minimalist, with just a characteristic
“streak” down the box aligned with the X of NEXT.
The full flavored packs taste like a milder version of Marlboros –
and that’s not a bad thing at all. PM did well with NEXT, it tastes
like their premium flagship brand but is priced at a very affordable
price at RM 4.50 for a post cigarette tax hike.
I won’t bother with NEXT Lights, since the full flavored version is
already like a watered down Marlboro so you can imagine what the Lights
taste like…
There is one minor gripe I have with the quality of the cigarettes
though – all of the NEXT cigarettes (both full flavored and lights)
have a distinctive defect in the wrapper. There is a fault line running
down every cigarette, which seems to make the cigarette look fragile.
However, testing the cigarette by rolling a cannabis cigarette (which
stress tests the wrapper integrity) proved me wrong…the “fault line”
is not a bad wrap at all – the wrapper didn’t open up or tear at that
line (where I expected it to). It’s just the way NEXT cigarettes are
made – it’s not a structural integrity issue at all. Nice.
I like Next cigarettes since I smoke Marlboros and NEXT basically
taste the same, and it comes from the same tobacco company as well. The
retail price of RM 4.50 is making me switch from Marlboros to NEXT full
flavored cigarettes.
NEXT cigarettes – The next best thing… 😉
