Well, my friend and I just tried the new Bolivars, and I gotta admit, construction was definitely sub-par. I'm a big fan of the previous Bolivars, so this was a disappointment. The flavor was fine, though not as strong as the previous blend, but the construction (mine was plugged, his cracked about 1/2 inch in of smoking, just not very good). I got them from JR's in Manhattan, so they were properly humidified the whole way. I hope to get a couple more just to see if we got 2 bad ones, but if this is a new trend, then General Cigar made a big mistake.