RAW Giveaway: We’re giving one lucky person a goody bag stuffed full of RAW stuff. It couldn’t be easier to enter. So keep on reading for your chance to get your hands on this fantastic prize.
Freedom Seeds meets RAW Papers
Got any Veras? The Rolling Papers market is a large one, containing brands like OCB, Zig-Zag and Smoking. However while these giant companies may dominate the market there are alternatives out there…
One such alternative is RAW.
RAW take a slightly alternative approach. Their papers being unbleached and less processed. This gives Raw Papers their distinctive light brown shade, with papers so thin you can almost see through them. This combined with their special watermark mean the papers burn just right.
In short while there are many companies out there making Rolling papers…few do it as well as RAW.
We’ve been massive fans of RAW papers from the start. So when the opportunity to team up with them arose - we jumped at it. The result? Freedom Skins!
As with any industry there is plenty going on behind the scenes and how RAW fit into the rolling paper landscape is certainly an interesting story. But before we discuss that we need to look at the history of the humble rolling paper itself.
History of rolling papers
The history of rolling papers is inexorably linked with Spain and in turn the city of Alcoy.
When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage of the Americas he did so with tobacco. The smoking of tobacco cigars quickly caught on with the Spanish aristocracy. In turn the much prized cast offs from discarded cigar butts found their way into the hands of peasants. Wanting to smoke the tobacco that remained in the butts they took it and rolled it in used newspaper. Newspaper was far from the ideal solution for smoking tobacco however, and so with this came the need for a paper that could be used to smoke tobacco.
As Alcoy was already the paper making capital of Spain, it inevitably became the location of the first machines made specifically for creating rolling papers. And so rolling papers have now been manufactured for centuries in the Spanish city.
History of RAW Rolling Papers
During the 1980s Alcoy’s main rolling paper manufacturer was forced to close its doors. Following this move competitors came forward to buy the most valuable paper machines. Once the vultures had swooped they left only a few antique machines behind, those which they considered worthless. One man who could however see the value in these machines was a man named Jose Emilio. As a former employee he could see that while the machines were old they were still more than capable of producing top quality rolling paper.
At the start of the 1990s New Yorker Josh Kesselman met with Jose Emilio. With the expertise of the Alcoy manufacturers Josh was able to develop the brands of Juicy Jays, Elements and eventually – RAW. Josh (pictured above) is still in charge of RAW papers today and continues to drive the company forward.
RAW ambition
RAW pride themselves on being innovators in the rolling papers market.
So what sets RAW papers apart?
- Natural unrefined rolling papers – RAW papers are less processed than other papers
- Special watermark helps the papers burn better
- Chlorine free / Unbleached
- Vegan Friendly
More from RAW
In addition to the classic RAW Papers they have also introduced a new range of rolling papers made using unbleached hemp fibres - Raw Organic Hemp.
What started out as rolling papers has now grown into a wide range of smoking accessories including cones, tips, rolling machines, rolling trays, rolling mats and much more besides.
RAW Collaborations
RAW are proud of their ties with the hip-hop community. Which has led to a collaboration with US rapper Wiz Khalifa on a line of smoking accessories. Perhaps an inevitable move when you consider the title of Wiz Khalifa’s gold-certified debut album - Rolling Papers.
RAW Foundation
The RAW Foundation represents the philanthropic work overseen by RAW owner Josh Kesselman. They have worked on several projects based as far afield as Ethiopia, Uganda, the Philippines and Bali. Work helping improve the lives of those less fortunate includes: supplying 100,000 meals to malnourished children, digging a deep bore well in Ethiopia and the refurbish and repair of water wells in Uganda.
Win!
All of the above tells you that RAW is a great company so we thought we'd give you a chance to find out just how good their products are for yourself. We’ve put together a goody bag full of RAW stuff and we're giving it to one lucky winner.
Below you’ll find 10 different ways to enter this competition - some worth more entries than others. The more entries you make the more chance you have of winning this fantastic prize. So try as many as you like. Good luck!
Freedom Seeds - RAW
The competition will run until 12pm (GMT) on Friday 20th March 2015 - the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.
To find out the latest news and more from RAW head over to their website here
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