A few years ago, after Amber Leaf had been dominating the tobacco market for quite some time, another new brand appeared on the shelves - Player's Gold Leaf. Despite Amber Leaf being the first hand rolling tobacco to come packaged in a similar sealed box to tailor-made cigarettes, Gold Leaf was (and still is) presented in a virtually identical way.

I remember attending my local store a year or two ago to buy Amber Leaf to find that they had sold out. There sitting on the shelf I saw a box of Gold Leaf. Due to the packing being almost identical, I actually thought that it was Amber Leaf and told the shopkeeper, who then explained that it was a new tobacco from Player which was similarly named Gold Leaf. I thought I'd try it.

The first thing that struck me about this tobacco upon opening it, was the extremely dark colour and the very potent smell. Upon making my first 'rolly' I noticed that the tobacco was extremely moist and damp and also very heavy, probably weighed down by the moisture. Not many people know that they actually put chemicals into tobacco to help keep it fresh. It seems that Player had gone a little bit too far.

I was quite dissapointed by the first Gold Leaf 'rolly'. The taste was incredibly strong and seemed to stick in the back of my throat and on my teeth, it really was very overpowering and very potent in strength. I didn't enjoy it at all. It also made me cough quite a bit, though I continued to smoke it (it's expensive enough, so I'm not wasting it!).

By the time I got the end of the box, I still felt extremely disappointed by the product. Although it's one of the cheaper tobacco brands available on the market today, it didn't seem to last two minutes and the 12.5 gram pouch was gone in less than a day. You can understand my frustration when a 12.5 gram pouch of Amber Leaf usually lasts me nearly two days.

On the face of things Gold Leaf appears to be a cheap choice of tobacco, but due to it's weightiness, moisture and extreme strength it actually works out quite a bit more expensive than smoking Amber Leaf and the taste is actually quite nasty. I will try and refrain from buying it in the future.