In the 19^th Century, during the battle of Sevastopol, a French soldier (also known as a “Zouave”) had his clay pipe broken by a bullet. He had the brilliant idea of rolling his tobacco in a piece of paper torn from a bag of gunpowder.

In 1894, the Braunstein Brothers perfected the process of interleaving papers in a zig-zag manner and introduced a cigarette paper booklet under the name Zig-Zag®.  In 1900, Zig-Zag gained international recognition when they were awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

For over 100 years the image of Le Zouave has been part of all Zig-Zag cigarette papers as a tribute to that creative soldier. Today, Le Zouave and Zig-Zag are known throughout the world as a premium cigarette paper.

Diploma picture from 1900 Universal Expo in Paris, France