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Delicious Ingredients of Cigarettes

From Ask MetaFilter:

OK, so there are apparently 4000 different chemicals in a cigarette, right? But as I understand it, the only substance that makes it addictive is nicotine. So why don't cigarette companies simply not include all these various chemicals? Does their removal lessen the 'joy' smokers get from smoking a cigarette? What's their purpose?

I'm a non-smoker, so I don't know why anyone would get a kick out of smoking in the first place. But it seems to me that from a list of around 4000 chemicals, a list which the anti-smoking ads tell me include chemicals like formaldehyde, arsenic and cyanide, none of them seem necessary to the proper functioning of a product that at its simplest only needs nicotine for addiction and paper to hold it in and help burn it.

So why include them in the first place? Are they really necessary or are they there for some more sinister purpose?

I've often wondered the same thing myself. As I read through the thread, I found the explanation was simple and rational.

People, wake up. Your Marlboro or Lucky Strike cigarette bears as much resemblance to a Cuban cigar as a Big Mac bears resemblance to a grass-fed, free range organic beef tenderloin. Every component of a Marlboro cigarette has been quantified, tested, vetted, and synthesized down to the molecule; hundreds of steps of chemical engineering are performed between the tobacco field and the end product. - ikkyu2

The enlightened ikkyu2 also points to the list of additives subpoenaed from Big Tobacco. I was reluctantly-pleasantly-surprised to discover how many ingredients sounded straight up delicious. While The Truth gang is right in declaring the urine and rat poison components of a smoke, I believe most of us aren't even aware of the "better" stuff.Its hard to imagine putting the following ingredients into a cake and it not coming out scrum-diddily-umpcious.

• Anise
• Basil Oil
• Bay Leaf, Oil and Sweet Oil
• Chocolate
• Cinnamon Leaf Oil, Bark Oil, and Extract
• Clover Tops, Red Solid Extract
• Cocoa
• Coffee
• Fig Juice Concentrate
• Honey
• Lavender Oil
• Lemongrass Oil
• Licorice Root, Fluid, Extract and Powder
• Lime Oil
• Lemon Oil and Extract
• Butter, Butter Esters, and Butter Oil
• Mimosa Absolute and Extract
• Mullein Flowers
• Myrrh Oil
• Nutmeg Powder and Oil
• Orange Blossoms Water, Absolute, and Leaf Absolute
• Parsley Seed Oil
• Peppermint Oil
• Pimenta Leaf Oil
• Plum Juice
• Raisin Juice Concentrate
• Rose Absolute and Oil
• Rosemary Oil
• Rum
• Rye Extract
• Sage, Sage Oil, and Sage Oleoresin
• Sandalwood Oil, Yellow
• Spearmint Oil
• Sugars
• Vanilla Extract And Oleoresin
• Vetiver Oil
• Wild Cherry Bark Extract
• Wine and Wine Sherry

I wonder how this breakdown in chemicals stacks up against a Big Mac?