Spotting Fauxhibas

[kurly]

Hey peoples

So this weekend I visited my parents (in beautiful Collingwood, ON) and entered a golf tourney/fundraiser for the local high school football team. It was tons of fun, I spent time with a lot of freinds I haven't seen in a long time and smoked some beautiful cigars.

One thing I noticed was a HUGE number of folks smoking cigars (which was odd because 2 years ago my Dad and I were given 'looks' each time we took something else out of the travel-dor).

Anyways, I know up here (in Ontario) it seems like everyone I know (and their uncle) has been to Cuba in the last year. It's just becoming really popular, both for young (and poor) people and older folks looking for a great vacation in an interesting country. Everyone seemed to have also brought back 'Cubans' and had taken to smoking them as vigorously as my Dad and I had at previous tournaments.

I would have been surprised if someone showed me a band that wasn't Cohiba or Montecristo, but it wasn't until I started talking to a few other people that I realized, almost everyone bought their cigars from sources other than government shops (mostly off the street, one way or another).

A few even had their boxes with them.

I have two questions for the board:

What is the FIRST thing you look at when analyzing a potential fake (Cohibas especially). Obvious fakes aside (glass top box, dog poo in a banana leaf, etc.)

AND with the exception of when someone specifically asks if their smokes are real: Do you tell them if they are fake if and when you spot them?

[JFellows]

What is the FIRST thing you look at when analyzing a potential fake (Cohibas especially). Obvious fakes aside (glass top box, dog poo in a banana leaf, etc.)

- The embossing of the "COHIBA" name. It should stick out from the label, as opposed to being printed on there flat.
- The cap. Most authentic ones will have a nice triple cap.
- The font. Look online for examples of the authentic font and the various counterfeit fonts.
- The overall appearance and color of the cigar.
- The dot pattern on the label.
- The way the cigar is constructed (real Cohibas have only a small wrapper/binder, and thick, dense, accordian-shaped bunches of leaves as the filler).

AND with the exception of when someone specifically asks if their smokes are real: Do you tell them if they are fake if and when you spot them?

If they're not boasting about it or claiming it to be one way or the other, I won't correct them. Ignorance is oftentimes bliss. However, if some asshole is running his mouth talking about the great deal on an Esplendido he just got in Mexico, I'll definitely be letting him know.

[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.....