It’s now been about a day and a half since I decided to make myself a guinea pig in order to evaluate the new Eclipse cigarette from RJR. As mentioned before this study is not funded by anyone but myself, so you’ll get the real deal on this site.
If you haven’t seen part 1 yet you can find it here.
What smell?
I thought today that I’d go some more about the smell, or lack thereof, of the Eclipse. I am completely impressed. RJR is on the ball with this one, the cigarette simply doesn’t leave a smell behind when you’re done with it. A lot of it has to do with it not producing ashes, of course; what little carbon burns is purified to start with. For the first time in a long time I went to bed last night without the usual tobacco stench in my apartment.
Less irritation… perhaps
Another important aspect is that RJR’s claim that the cigarette produces less lung irritation seems to be on the ball, at least so far. When I got up this morning I did not feel like coughing and there was nary a wheeze to be heard. I would just take it for granted previously, but that I should see so much improvement in one day is pretty remarkable. Remember though that this is just one day, so the results are very preliminary indeed.
Sore throat 🙁
I must report that my throat is a bit sore. I have no idea whether this is related to the new cigs; it’s been chilly in the northeast recently, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to find that the sore throat is related more to that. At the same time it is also possible that the cigarette’s construction may be a little more conducive to throat irritation, at least in the beginning. This could be related to the “harsher smoke” you get by puffing a little too vigorously, which is likely to happen in the early adoption stage.
Further observations
The taste, or lack thereof really, is something I’m getting used to really quickly. In fact I practically enjoy that. Cigarettes do not taste or smell particularly good to me, even after smoking for, what, 18 years now. I do not particularly suffer from “smoker’s smell” either, in the sense that the smell of smoking does not seem to stick to me as much as to other people, but there’s a bit of a kick about smoking an “undetectable” cigarette.
In fact I think I will try and smoke in a place where I am not supposed to smoke sometime this week, as a sort of “real-world test” of this cigarette. As I am next door to Bloomberg’s New York there is really no shortage of places where I could do this. Strictly in the interests of science of course.
I also find myself getting a bit of a kick from other smokers’ reactions to the Eclipse; most often they look at it and ask me if I’m sure it’s lit. Also, let’s face it, as a tech geek I get a bit of an ego boost out of being able to say that I’m doing a mundane task in a more high-tech way than most people, and that’s another item to add to the Eclipse’s positives.
By and large this trial is proving almost disappointingly uneventful, so I guess it’ll be quite easy to keep it up for another 5 days, at which point I’ll decide either to switch back to my old brand or continue with these semi-smokeless ones.
I’ll keep posting further observations on this site.