Spotting Fauxhibas

[cigar no baka]

I wouldn't go around telling everyone, but if anyone asked me where I got my Cubans, I'd say "From a La Casa del Habano, if you buy them from anywhere else in the Carribean you're probably getting fakes." and leave it at that unless they want me to go into details.

[kurly]

I saw some great ones this weekend. Someone heard I was smoking Siglo III's and wanted to trade an Esplendido since he never had the opportunity to try them in Cuba. I took one look at the pigtail at the end of his panetela and handed mine over and thanked him for it (I didn't think it was my place to correct him).

Another person took his box onto the course, and it looked OK, except it was missing the factory code and the date code was hand stamped and quite a bit smudged. He thought he was smoking Esplendidos as well, but they were clearly panetela shaped (with pig-tail).

It had other potential giveaways, but I wasn't 100% sure on them (I have never bought Lanceros). The Habanos sticker was placed in a way so that it wouldn't be affected when you opened the box for the first time (most of mine rip but could someone confirm that they need to be placed in such a way in order to maintain authenticity?). The button on the front of the box didn't look like anything I have brought back from Cuba before. Also, nowhere on the box could you see the Lanceros name, I couldn't remember what they look like in stores, can anyone confirm that they are supposed to have the name Lanceros burned onto one of the sides?

Another person had a SLB of Robustos. Everything looked fine, except it was missing the factory code and date stamp on the bottom of the box. But when I looked harder, there was a HUGE amount of colour variance between the wrappers, and many of the rings had been put on in such a way that it didn't form a continuous Cohiba (squares) band, it was like they glued the wrong end of the band...

[cinda]

hummmm Kurly did not stay long.....