Guantanamera Cristales

I've seen a couple of threads here regarding these (especially the guy who couldn't decide if he wanted $40 each or for the box:smiley8: ) so I thought I'd post a little info about them.

As per my introductory post, I bought some of these in tubed 10-boxes last week while in Cuba. I had assumed (wrongly) that they were hand-made. In spite of my newbieness, I knew different as soon as I took one out of the tube, and that's been confirmed by some of the links members have posted here.

The wrapper is quite dark and isn't nearly as firm as any of the other smokes I had in my hands in Cuba. It isn't nearly as smooth as anything else I had and it had a quite predominant vein, which is something else I hadn't seen. It also doesn't have a cap (is this common?)!!

They are quite mild, and note I'm only comparing that to other cigars I smoked there such as Montecristo #1, Cohiba Siglo IV, H. Upmann (don't remember which one I smoked), etc. I found it a particularly easy draw and burned very evenly.

All in all, it was a very pleasant smoke for a newbie, where-as I found the Cohiba quite heavy. I will say the Montecristo was simply a work of art to look at and hold, and to me, more enjoyable than either the Cohiba or the Upmann.

At the Duty Free shop in the airport in Santiago de Cuba, the Guantanameras were 19.50 Convertible Pesos (~$25 CDN, ~$22 US) for a box of 10.

I don't think very many of the fine people here would enjoy these due to the mildness (except maybe as a morning smoke) but if you can ever get yer paws on some, they may be a nice addition to your collection to give to friends.

I'm not even going to attempt to identify flavours, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to post and I'll do my best to answer anything you ask.