Cubans

[cigarsmoka]

I have been trying to learn a lot about Cubans lately. I actually bought a few packs and a box. The packaging was superb, the bands legit, the construction perfect, tripple capped, the whole nine. The only trouble, is when I lit it it tasted like an ashtray. Half of the sticks that were from a box weren't even smokable. It's amazing how high tech these guys are getting, and the only real way to tell if a cigar is legit or not is by the flavor. I smoked one of the fakesand actually found it quite enjoyable, so one out of the bunch was at least half way smokable. It's interesting because when I was younger I always looked for the tall tale signs, tripple capped? Real bands? It sucks that counterfeiting is growing more and more, scary part is a lot of the people in the industry are the ones doing it. I'm not accusing anyone, but there must be some inner workings on the wrong side. I'm glad I like Honduran and Dominican Cigars so much!!Edited by: cigarsmoka

[hex1848]

I agree. Dominican tobacco is excellent and IMHO rivals most Cuban's I've smoked. I have read before that Cuban tobacco has been getting worse and worse. Before the Cigar boom of the 90's a lot of the Cuban tobacco fields had been converted to sugarcane and other "cash crops" and were converted back to tobacco to help demand. The soil conditions in those fields where destroyed bybad farming practices. You might be getting realCuban's the tobacco used to produce them just sucks.

[winetaster]

I find dominican and honduran to lack depth and complexity which is why I only smoke cubans now. I have been reading other posts on this board and it seems theres lots of talk of fakes. If you do a little research you will find plenty of vendors that ship to the US and that sell legitimate habanos.
There are many things to look at when smoking habanos. The age is a huge factor. Unlike dominican and honduran cigars the age of a cuban can make a huge difference in taste. A 1 year old partagas SD4 for example may be in a sick period and taste like nothing at all. A year later it can be strong as death and complex in flavors. This is the main reason for looking at the age of cubans before smoking. Other more obvious rasons are that many develope into increadibly creamy rich tasting cigars. Especially with 10 or more years on them. I have recently been smoking Monte 4's from the late 60's early 70's and they were excellent. Great leather flavors and still a bit of kick for a 35 yr old PC.