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Last post 4 years ago by GaryR. 8 replies replies.
Genuine Counterfeit Cubans.
USNGunner Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 05-17-2019
Posts: 4,402
A friend of my at work, fellow squid, bubblehead, and cigar guy were chatting on the way out the other day. I had brought him in a couple of my Drew Estates to try as he had never had any. His daughter travels extensively and brings him back some nice cigars evidently and he likes the real Cubans. He's my age so he's been around long enough to know.

Anyway, we were talking about a post I had read here about how some cigars get better after resting a bit, and he popped in with this.

He had bought a box of the "Genuine Counterfeit Cubans" from a mail order cigar place. He got them, and fired one up and thought "Dog rocket"! He said the only reason he didn't throw them out was he had just spent however much on the cigars and shipping, he is way to frugal, and could foist them off on the "non-cigar" guys or moochers. LOL.

But he pulled one out recently at his camp, now they've been buried in his humidor for several years, and he said it was a completely different cigar. "Hell it was good!" is the quote. I filed that away, and actually ordered a couple of fivers to stash and forget. Smoke one to see, and then let them roll. What the hell, they're cheap enough.

I'm having a damned good time here. ThumpUp
Pudding Mittens Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 08-15-2016
Posts: 1,291
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Just wait till you have a large collection going back years, and can have the fun of smoking different cigars from different acquisition dates and can see which get better and by how much. Lots of surprises. Of course some cigars are just inherently bad and stay bad forever, but quite a few are "bad" Right Off The Truck (ROTT), but years later, they're vastly improved. Always nice when that happens.

If you buy at a faster rate than you smoke, an aged collection will build automatically. Those cheap, big, clear plastic tubs and the kind of humidification and monitoring setup for them that I mentioned previously will provide a very inexpensive, reliable and low maintenance form of mass storage for them all to age in proper conditions.

A strong suggestion though: starting NOW, right at the beginning, get a few Sharpies and write the month and year of your acquisition on everything. For example, stuff you get this month is marked "6/19". If it's a single, write it on the cellophane sleeve. If it's a bundle or box, write it on the bundle or box, and later if you take cigars out of the bundle or box, look at the month/year and copy it onto the cellophane sleeve(s) of the cigars you remove from them.

On individual cigars' cellophane sleeves I write it once, but on a box or bundle I typically write it several times for redundancy, as over time handling can cause a single copy to get rubbed off or become otherwise illegible. If it's in two or three places, this is unlikely to be a problem. And, writing it twice or three times to cover 20-25 cigars is pretty low-effort.

The result is that you know when you acquired each and every cigar, bundle or box, without needing any external database (a log book, a spreadsheet file, database in an app, etc.) which are all unnecessary pains in the rear. Plus, if you gift cigars to anyone, there's the acquisition date right on the cigar for the recipient to see, which lets them correlate their experience with the cigar to its age (which is interesting and useful), and it also impresses them that you're sharing not new stuff, but significantly aged stuff (you get good friend brownie points).

If you don't start this from day one (or close to it), though, it won't work well. You'll never go back and Sharpie them all "en masse" because it's a pain and you won't remember the dates of acquisition anyway. However if you do it to each cigar/bundle/box as you get them it's very quick and easy, and if you do it from the start it's comprehensive too, covering your entire collection.

I've done this from the start, and down the road it's really, really nice.
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tonygraz Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2008
Posts: 20,175
I smoked a few of those several years ago and liked them without much aging. I never bought any more because the price was higher than I wanted to pay and based on what I saw this week, it still is. Also tried the original Cubans and liked them with aging, but the latest batch (9/17) has not been very good - even at $ 16 for a bundle of 20 robs.
izonfire Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 12-09-2013
Posts: 8,642
Just had an AB Prensado that ROTT was a bit harsh, but now, after nine months, it was really good
Had a two year old Man O War that tasted like a Sobremesa. Now that was a nice surprise!

Years back, I bought the bundle of Sosas. Knew nothing about em. The description sounded interesting (of course) and the price was right, so I bit. ROTT - they were absolute trash. Horrid. But it would kill me to dump 'em. Wasn't the money. Was just the thought of it. So I buried em in an old humi and sprayed bourbon on the inner lid weekly on my regular Monday humi-check. At two years, they smoothed out incredibly. And the bourbon added an amazing note. That was probably six years ago. Now, I've got a variety of cigars in there just to see what they will do. And I've still got a few of those Sosas buried in there too...
izonfire Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 12-09-2013
Posts: 8,642
Pudding Mittens wrote:
.get rubbed off


Coincidentally, I just rubbed one off a little while ago... Think
USNGunner Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 05-17-2019
Posts: 4,402
You guys are great. Love the ideas.

PM, I have all that in hand and the hygrometers calibrated. Waiting on cedar and cigars. That is a great tip for marking them, I'll do that.

Izonfire, let the in hand thing slide, but I like that bourbon infusing thing. That's a neat idea and could be fun. Sweet.

I've got a good stash on the way, I'll make sure to mark it. Thanks.
24132413 Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 01-25-2017
Posts: 555
izonfire wrote:
Just had an AB Prensado that ROTT was a bit harsh, but now, after nine months, it was really good
Had a two year old Man O War that tasted like a Sobremesa. Now that was a nice surprise!

Years back, I bought the bundle of Sosas. Knew nothing about em. The description sounded interesting (of course) and the price was right, so I bit. ROTT - they were absolute trash. Horrid. But it would kill me to dump 'em. Wasn't the money. Was just the thought of it. So I buried em in an old humi and sprayed bourbon on the inner lid weekly on my regular Monday humi-check. At two years, they smoothed out incredibly. And the bourbon added an amazing note. That was probably six years ago. Now, I've got a variety of cigars in there just to see what they will do. And I've still got a few of those Sosas buried in there too...




.....yes, you are 100%. Some aging can turn some average smokes into something enjoyable. I have La Aurora Barrel Aged Churchills and Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Natural Dble Corona sit for about 4 years and they became very nice!
GaryR Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 06-06-2019
Posts: 49
izonfire wrote:
Just had an AB Prensado that ROTT was a bit harsh, but now, after nine months, it was really good
Had a two year old Man O War that tasted like a Sobremesa. Now that was a nice surprise!

Years back, I bought the bundle of Sosas. Knew nothing about em. The description sounded interesting (of course) and the price was right, so I bit. ROTT - they were absolute trash. Horrid. But it would kill me to dump 'em. Wasn't the money. Was just the thought of it. So I buried em in an old humi and sprayed bourbon on the inner lid weekly on my regular Monday humi-check. At two years, they smoothed out incredibly. And the bourbon added an amazing note. That was probably six years ago. Now, I've got a variety of cigars in there just to see what they will do. And I've still got a few of those Sosas buried in there too...


I had an AB Prensado Saturday night from a sampler that I absolutely fell in love with. I remember thinking as I smoked it that is was as good as a Padron 1926. It has great flavors and a creaminess, amazing draw and stayed cool all the way through.

Then on Sunday I had a second one and the flavors were just way off. Still had an amazing draw and stayed cool, but just didn't have that amazing taste that I got the night before.

I am assuming it was aging that made the difference. At least I hope so, because I got on CB and bought a box of churchills on Saturday after the smoke and a couple glasses of Scotch.
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