Breakfast Puffs

Southbound on the SLEX, I usually make a breakfast stop at this gas station. They've got dirt cheap brewed coffee and mustard smeared hotdog sandwiches. Pretty convenient, yes, until this morning, that is.

I checked out the steamer first, no regular hotdogs in sight, only the slightly more expensive german franks, which I was actually visualizing during the drive to, anyway. Two pots full of brewed coffee, no problem there. Then I noticed it, and alarm bells rang in my head, it was the second consecutive day that the delivery van failed to unload any Philip Morris products on the shelves, yes that meant my precious Marloboros! To make matters worse, they didn't get a delivery of my previous brand of Winstons as well. There were only 3 options left for us chain-smoking idiots, Mild Seven, Hope and Fortune. God help me in this dark hour...

I weigh my options, Mild Seven, a Japanese favorite, was an imported brand and thus priced appropriately, a cool ninety bucks. Fortune was on the other end of the price spectrum and Hope is priced almost similarly as the Winstons and Marlboros. On the taste... more of the same spectral positions, really. Mild Seven was the more palatable of the trio... Hope reminds me of streetwalkers while Fortune meant I'd have to spit out a generous amount of tar-tainted saliva with each puff. Another option that was NOT on the table was to postpone my after breakfast treat a mere 10 minutes until I got to the sari-sari store that is near the office. Breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the day.

Being a smoker over the better part of the decade (okay, a bit more, actually), I've come across these brands at some time in my life and learned to appreciate them one way or the other. Let's talk about Mild Seven (MS) first. MS came to our house along with YSL and Davidoff brands once every 3 months early in my college 'career'. My dad has a friend who bought these from Zamboanga's markets and gave a ream each as a present. I saw it fit to smuggle some for my own consumption and preferred the rather bland tasting MS to both other brands. I guess my patronage of MS was due to its availability, being free definitely earns some bias. Of course, whenever I'd consumed the last of the freebies, I'd switch back to better tasting Mediums, Silvers and Super Selects, or even the local Reds as more and more of my allowance began to patronize 'Saint Micheal'.

Hope is where it all began, my dad smoked this or Philip Morris when I was in high school, depending on what raffle gimmick was ongoing at the time. Thus, I learned this filthy habit courtesy of this brand, historically favored by construction workers, streetwalkers, carpenters and street urchins because of their cheapness and that strong menthol kick. Sucking on these babies was like chomping on 2 Storck candies while inhaling incense.

Finally, Fortune. It tastes much like burnt rubber, and has a really earthy after-taste. Nevertheless, back when I was stuck in the rice paddies of Pangasinan, poverty and desperation made me love these cancer-inducing little suckers. Well, actually, I still preferred the even cheaper Memphis brand to Fortune, but that particular brand was only available in 2 of the 4 barangays I lived in, and the only other affordable alternative was the reverse-action-filter-less La Campana. The name Fortune was well thought of in those parts...

So after reviewing my choices, I finally forced myself to decide and bought myself a pack. I'm not revealing which brand I chose, in case you were wondering, I might forfeit my chance to get to that Marlboroland in the sky and get shot down to La Campana hell. Puff, breathe in, exhale... life is good.