Parliament cigarettes appeared on the United States tobacco market in 1931 and are believed to be the first cigarettes to introduce the filter tip. This piece of cotton was meant to keep bit of tobacco for the smoker not to inhale them. Parliament cigarettes have a very mild tobacco flavor though they are still quite strong. This is because of the carefully developed balance to ensure soft and pleasant smoking. Phillip Morris which is the manufacturer of Parliament cigarettes is famous for it's great production technologies and thus there's no wonder Parliament cigarettes are so pleasant to smoke. Cigarettes manufactured under the Parliament cigarette brand have several nicknames. The Parliament Full Flavor are sometimes called 'P-funks' and the Parliament Lights are 'P-lights'. These originated from the name of the famous funk group P-funk. Currently Parliament cigarettes are represented in six different varieties: Blues (full flavor), Lights, Ultra Lights, Menthol Full Flavor, Menthol Lights and Menthol Ultra Lights. All of them are available in both King Size and Hundreds varieties. The Hundreds, however, are offered in the USA and Canada only, as in Europe and the CIS only the King Size variant is available. Parliament brand are very popular mainly for their filtering system. While most of tobacco brands offer cigarettes with solid foam filters, every Parliament cigarette has a recessed paper filter for better filtration and staining prevention.