Quote Originally Posted by ggiese View Post
I will not disagree that sometimes "hand made" is not the best. We know a few humidor makers who make complete crap - the Chinese pressboard machine made humidors selling on eBay are far better quality.

However - machine made does not automatically mean quality. As a matter of fact, all machine made cigars I've tried are - at best - "okay". But - the best cigars I've smoked we're hand rolled. The more skilled the roller - the better the cigar. And I've dissected machine made cigars and saw what was packed in it - clearly someone swept the floor of the tobacco factory and packed it into the cigar...

There's a damned good reason cigars are still hand rolled in "sweatshops" (your words not mine). Because those hand rolled cigars are truly the best. A skilled roller knows how to pick and pack/bunch the tobacco leaves, apply the proper pressure to the binder, and - most important - skillfully apply the wrapper. If it's done properly - it's a masterpiece.

If you truly want cheap smokes - why not take up cigarette smoking. Those are machine made and are a fair piece cheaper than even machine made cigars...
There are serious differences between mass-market non-tobacco ingredient using machine made cigars and cigarettes and the cigars that are machine made from all tobacco leaf. The differences begin with the tobacco varieties used, and continue right on through the harvest-curing-fermentation processes up to the additions of chemicals-curing agents-flavors-burn enhancers, etc. The comparision is not valid between the two products imo.

I am in no way debating the overall quality of the experience between smoking hand-rolled premium cigars and a machine made 100% tobacco cigar. I don't have any machine made cigars in my stash.