There are a couple of things at work with these cigars that causes hardening of the ash. They are advertised as doble envuelto or doble tapa, with two wrappers. Why they aren't advertised as having two binders, and just one wrapper is just the maker's choice of words. My experience is limited to just 2- five packs, so consider the source. Both 5-packs arrived very damp. I thought, foolishly, to smoke one before aging/drying them, and it was bitter with a very firm draw, quite routine for a wet cigar that needs to stabilize. My experience was that the tobacco in the wrapper/binder was in serious need of aging or hadn't been thoroughly processed. As Rickamaven wrote, the ash hardened. This is frequently a function of the unprocessed sugars in the tobacco leaf hardening during combustion. It's basically a carmelization process. Frankly, without several months of aging, I wouldn't smoke one. With appropriate age, they are a fine value cigar.