Zig Zag Rolling papers Made from wood pulp and flax, and uses natural gum Arabic, they come in five sizes. One size is the single wide. This size is often called “the white pack” because of its color. Yet another size is the size 69 often called “the orange pack”. Also known as “orangies” in some areas because of its color. The third size are the kings, or king size. Also known for their orange or reddish hue. The fourth is 1½ and the fifth is double wide. Zig Zag rolling papers Usually the white pack and orange pack are sold together in many stores across the United States.
In Canada, the most popular size is the single wide, but with “kut-corners”. In Australia, the most popular size is King size. There are also varieties within these sizes including Liquorice, Water Resistant, Slow Burning and Free Burning.Cigarette tobacco: Sold in four varieties.Filtered cigarette tubes: These are filters for hand-rolled cigarettes.Filter cigarette making machine: This is a basic rolling machine, used to roll tobacco into cigarette papers; it provides an alternative to rolling cigarettes by hand.Cigar Wraps: Flavored cigar wraps, officially made for use with cigar tobacco.Cigarillos: Flavored mini cigars, similar to that of Phillies. Common flavors are mango, grape and natural.
The company was founded in 1879 by Maurice and Jacques Braunstein. Based in Paris, in 1882 the company built the Papeterie de Gassicourt, a cigarette paper production plant near the town of Mantes-la-Jolie. In 1894 they invented the process of “interleaving” rolling papers. They called their papers Zig-Zag after the zigzag alternating packaging process. In 1900, Zig-Zag rolling papers were awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
Success led to expansion in 1936 to a new mill in Thonon-les-Bains. During World War II, the company’s original facility in Mantes-la-Jolie was destroyed and at war’s end, all production was shifted to the Thonon factory.
With the death of Jacques Braunstein, in the 1950s Zig-Zag was sold to a partnership of the Group Bolloré and competitor JOB. In 2000, Zig-Zag became part of Republic Technologies of which Group Bolloré owns 19 percent.
The character portrayed on the front of Zig-Zag products, colloquially known as the “Zig-Zag man”, originates from a folk story about a Zouave in the battle of Sevastopol. When the soldier’s clay pipe was destroyed by a bullet, he attempted to roll his tobacco using a piece of paper torn from his bag of gunpowder.
In January 1969, a band called “Captain Zig-Zag and the Acid Test” (featuring a lead guitarist who was a lookalike for Captain Zig-Zag) was the warmup band for Led Zeppelin‘s Whisky a Go Go debut (Alice Cooper was also on the bill).