Quote Originally Posted by Indensicator View Post
Gentlemen, greetings from the UK
My son brought me 2 boxes of Romeo Y Julieta N0. 3 in aluminium tubes back from a trip to the UAE. I have just smoked the first one and it was very dissapointing. The tobacco seemed to be very tightly packed and drawing was virtually impossible. I had to use a cocktail stick to create any kind of draw. (I initially used a cutter of course). I am thinking about taking a few of the cigars out of their tubes and hydrating them in a humidor in the hope that this might loosen the tobacco? Has anybody come across this problem before and if so what solution/s worked. Many thanks.
Being Canadian I have access to Cuban cigars and have actually smoked quite a few RyJ's......the Churchill being one of my favorite cigars.

I would suggest you smoke a couple more before you decide to try anything. Nobody is perfect and even the best cigar roller can roll the odd one too tight. I bought 5 Churchill's from my favorite B&M a year or two back and of the 5, the first one I smoked was quite loose and the draw way too easy. Another of the 5 was too tight. I picked all 5 out of the exact same box.

To my knowledge, and here I actually have a bunch of experience as I used to roll cigarettes (both by hand and with a little machine and tubes) a lot and hard too draw normally means rolled too tight and taking them out of the tube or hydrating them won't change that.