Back in 2009, cigarette flavors with exotic fruity flavors were banned because they were (justifiably) believed to be targeted towards kids. Now we’ve entered the age of the E-Cig where your puff of nicotine can come in just about any flavor you can think of. The NYT’s Matt Richtel on this week’s big cigarette merger and the race for exotic vapor flavors.

+ Syndicated from Kottke: Over the past century, adult per capita cigarette consumption in the US rose from nearly nothing in 1900 to a peak of morre than 4000 cigarettes per year in the early 60s and then fell to the current rate of around 1000/yr. Currently, smoking in the US correlates highly with level of education and poverty. Check out this graph on the rise and fall of American smoking.