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Habanos on the web?
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wpaley Offline
#1 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 11:55 AM EST
Joined: 07-20-2002
Posts: 1
Does anyone have any experience buying Cubans from Europe and having them shipped to the US? I understand they are shipped w/o bands which are shipped separatly.
RICKAMAVEN Offline
#2 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 12:00 PM EST
Joined: 10-01-2000
Posts: 33,248
Slimboli Offline
#3 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 12:01 PM EST
Joined: 07-09-2000
Posts: 16,139
What? Why ... that's illegal. No one at this forum would even think of breaking the law ... ;-)
jreddoch Offline
#4 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 12:42 PM EST
Joined: 12-30-2000
Posts: 1,309
I have several friends who buy from Switzerland and Canada. They've been happy with the cigars, but both recently had boxes confiscated and received nasty letters from customs. No word yet on whether they were able to get refunds or replacements.

This is an unfashionable thing to say, but I've smoked a number of these cigars and don't think they taste any better than some of the better cigars from central America and the DR. The workmanship damn sure wasn't as good. At least half the Cubans were plugged. Some people aren't happy unless they taste the forbidden fruit.
Slimboli Offline
#5 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 12:58 PM EST
Joined: 07-09-2000
Posts: 16,139
Not unfashionable at all. Many of the Cuban cigars are not all what they are trumped up to be. I have found far superior cigars from the Dominican, Nicaragua, etc. Cuban cigars are all about having something that you are not supposed to have (not to mention the trouble they are to get ... and the mystic.Those customs letters can be quite costly too. They usually confiscate the cigars, and then fine you what they feel they are worth, so you are out more than double the money, and no cigars.

Also, many of the cigars coming out of Cuba these days are highly inferior to the cigars of the past. Because of the high demand, supplies of 'aged' stock is dwindling. To keep up, they are slopplily made using farm leaf, and are not aged as long as they normally would. Nothing like a 'green' Cuban cigar, I say. They may be better if you age them a year or so ...

If you do buy ... check the seals and codes on the bottom of the boxes.
Slimboli Offline
#6 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 12:59 PM EST
Joined: 07-09-2000
Posts: 16,139
Sorry for the bold ... didn't mean to do that!
xibbumbero Offline
#7 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 3:06 PM EST
Joined: 01-25-2002
Posts: 12,535
Yes you did.LOL X
aberdeen Offline
#8 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 3:24 PM EST
Joined: 06-11-1999
Posts: 741
they don't give out fines, but send letters saying the cigars were confiscated and allowing me a certain time if I want to contest it otherwise the case will be considered closed and supposedly the cigars destroyed. I have had this happen twice, the last two times in fact that my friend tried to ship them to me, so that is why now I just wait until someone from his company comes to the states and brings a box with him. But if you buy overseas, a good idea is to buy a brand without bands and have the tobacconist put them into a non Cuban box, that always works.
jreddoch Offline
#9 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 3:31 PM EST
Joined: 12-30-2000
Posts: 1,309
It doesn't always work. My friend ordered some Montecristos from Switzerland. The bands were removed and they were sent as a bundle labeled "Flor de Robert, Genuine Honduran cigars, aged in Switzerland". His second order from them was confiscated anyway. I guess it's just a gamble.
RICKAMAVEN Offline
#10 Posted: Sun, Jul 21 2002, 6:45 PM EST
Joined: 10-01-2000
Posts: 33,248
wpaley
i believe most of the guys have summed it up.(toby hates when i end a sentence with a preposition or a proposition)
i have never had a box of "Portuguese"
cigars, (my point of purchase) that were not authentic.
i bought monte #5's. because of it's
uniqueness, size and guage, and not being a particularly big seller, and it was my favorite, the
odds of them being fake are nil, or close enough. it would be like a counterfeiter (not the guy that
installed your kitchen sink) making fake $2.00 bills.
with the eurodollar doing what ever it
does the price went from $110 a box to $160.
the monte A's at $750. + a box were perfectly
fine. the cohiba lanceros @ about $400. + had to sit for a year before i could draw through them
without becomming all hairy with a little head like BMW.

i have changed to the DR monte
series V, and the hemmingway masterpieces are the equal of the monte A.

without the influx of
soviet money, cuba's in bad shape financially and as slimboli says, it is more important to them to
make cigars than it is to make good quality cigars.
i think you might have trouble buying buy
a decent cigar in cuba.
even though i am the oldest on the board and apparently almost
everyplace i am or go to, i have talked to "real" old timers who tell me less than 20% of the cigars
sold in this country before the embargo, were cubans and that is before the DR and all the other places that sell good
cigars even existed.

you will have to find one cuban cigar someplace and taste the forbidden
fruit once and than you can put your quest to bed forever.
aberdeen Offline
#11 Posted: Mon, Jul 22 2002, 6:44 AM EST
Joined: 06-11-1999
Posts: 741
you think quality is bad now, wait till the embargo ends and Cuba makes cigars for the US. They will use every scrap of tobacco and probably scraps from any vegetation that grows there to make cigars. The price will go way up because of the new market, and the quality will go way down. I predict a short honeymoon. Where US smokers would greatly benefit is if and when the embargo ends, is for cigar makers now to export the Cuban tobacco and roll it elsewhere, like in Perdomo's factory or Fuente. They can also mix the Cuban blends with others. Then you will get some super premiums, but so scarce it will make the Opus X look like a dimestore cigar and very expensive, until the market settles.
BMW Offline
#12 Posted: Mon, Jul 22 2002, 2:12 PM EST
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 3,010
Rick, I resemble thta remark! ( I really do!) Barry
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