INSIDE THE CRAVING FOR HERBAL CIGARETTES

Can these smokes become ayurveda’s next big growth driver?

- Soumya Gupta & Devina Sengupta

Sometime in late-2021, 40-something Mumbai-based film writer Abhishek found in a routine checkup that his haemoglobin was higher than normal.

His doctor told him it was because of his smoking—Abhishek was getting through 20-40 cigarettes a day—and told him to quit. He didn’t, although he brought it down to six cigarettes a day. “It was enough to bring my haemoglobin back to normal,” he recalled. “But I only quit completely in 2023, when I realized you can really stop smoking if you want.”

Abhishek tried many things in his mission to quit smoking, including herbal cigarettes. But, he said, they were useless. “The main selling point of these herbal cigarettes was they were in a very attractive wooden box,” he told Mint. “Apart from that, they taste like gobar [cowdung].”

He tried other methods as well and failed. Eventually, he kicked the habit a year later with the help of an app.

Another chronic smoker, former corporate lawyer Ashwin, 34, also turned to herbal cigarettes as he tried to kick the habit while struggling with a stressful job in 2015. “I bought this fancy looking wooden box of herbal cigarettes,” he said. “But they tasted so disgusting that I gave them all away to a friend.”