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Last post 22 months ago by Sunoverbeach. 24 replies replies.
Hard Draw cigars
Dae006 Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 04-30-2020
Posts: 7
I'm new to CIGARBID, but not all that new to smoking cigars. My first order/auction through Cigarbid was $260.00 worth of cigars. I've smoked ~25 so far, but from a 10 pack of 5 Vegas 'A's and a 5 pack of Romeo y Julieta 1875 Reserve Bully, I've had 5 un-smokable cigars, 3 of the 5 Vegas cigars and 2 of the Romeo y Julieta's. I've never had such a bad run of hard draw cigars. Is this a Cigarbid quality issue? I run a 70/70 humidor and have been for years. I always let them sit two weeks before smoking them as well. Never had this percentage of bad cigars. It makes my pretty good deal I got, not such a good deal when you can smoke what you paid for.

Any reasonable comments or suggestions are appreciated. Herfing
Palama Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 02-05-2013
Posts: 23,627
Dae006 wrote:
I'm new to CIGARBID, but not all that new to smoking cigars. My first order/auction through Cigarbid was $260.00 worth of cigars. I've smoked ~25 so far, but from a 10 pack of 5 Vegas 'A's and a 5 pack of Romeo y Julieta 1875 Reserve Bully, I've had 5 un-smokable cigars, 3 of the 5 Vegas cigars and 2 of the Romeo y Julieta's. I've never had such a bad run of hard draw cigars. Is this a Cigarbid quality issue? I run a 70/70 humidor and have been for years. I always let them sit two weeks before smoking them as well. Never had this percentage of bad cigars. It makes my pretty good deal I got, not such a good deal when you can smoke what you paid for.

Any reasonable comments or suggestions are appreciated. Herfing


Do you normally smoke those 5 Vegas and RyJs? If so, then to continue the savings benefit from CBid either let them acclimate longer (...maybe 4 weeks instead of 2...) or get a PerfecDraw tool. If you don’t then chalk it up as poor QC and move on to other cigars.

opelmanta1900 Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 01-10-2012
Posts: 13,954
Dae006 wrote:
I'm new to CIGARBID, but not all that new to smoking cigars. My first order/auction through Cigarbid was $260.00 worth of cigars. I've smoked ~25 so far, but from a 10 pack of 5 Vegas 'A's and a 5 pack of Romeo y Julieta 1875 Reserve Bully, I've had 5 un-smokable cigars, 3 of the 5 Vegas cigars and 2 of the Romeo y Julieta's. I've never had such a bad run of hard draw cigars. Is this a Cigarbid quality issue? I run a 70/70 humidor and have been for years. I always let them sit two weeks before smoking them as well. Never had this percentage of bad cigars. It makes my pretty good deal I got, not such a good deal when you can smoke what you paid for.

Any reasonable comments or suggestions are appreciated. Herfing

70 Is too high for both... Shoot closer to 65/65...

The 2 cigars you mentioned are practically unsmokeable when the draw is perfect...

It's hot outside... The cigars are gonna have to sit in your humidor for 3-4 times longer than they were in the cardboard box...
Palama Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 02-05-2013
Posts: 23,627
opelmanta1900 wrote:
70 Is too high for both... Shoot closer to 65/65...

The 2 cigars you mentioned are practically unsmokeable when the draw is perfect...

It's hot outside... The cigars are gonna have to sit in your humidor for 3-4 times longer than they were in the cardboard box...


I was thinking the same thing but depending on your ambient RH and temps, 70/70 might not necessarily be a bad thing.
Dae006 Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 04-30-2020
Posts: 7
Thanks to both of you.

Paloma- This is the first time I’ve tried either one. Funny you mention the Perfect Draw tool. I ordered it last night while attempting to smoke the bully.

Opelmanta1900- Thanks for the advice. I’ll have to get some Boveda 65 packs and keep them separate. How is a guy to know which cigars need more or less humidity?

Thanks
benja123 Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 03-09-2015
Posts: 1,269
I just got a perfectdraw a month ago. Have used it at least 10 times. It doesn't make a bad cigar good but it does make it smokeable. Unless, like me you poke a hole in the side the first time you use it. Finishing that smoke was like playing a clarinet.
Palama Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 02-05-2013
Posts: 23,627
Dae006 wrote:
Thanks to both of you.

Paloma- This is the first time I’ve tried either one. Funny you mention the Perfect Draw tool. I ordered it last night while attempting to smoke the bully.

Opelmanta1900- Thanks for the advice. I’ll have to get some Boveda 65 packs and keep them separate. How is a guy to know which cigars need more or less humidity?

Thanks


I used to smoke the Bully when I first started. They were okay but had one go totally south so threw the rest deep into my humidor and didn’t think about them for close to a year. I ended up giving them away and the guys that smoked them, really liked it.
Sunoverbeach Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,650
I was going to say perfecdraw but see it's been covered. Well worth the reduction in aggravation. But yeah, don't go crazy with it like benja
Stogie1020 Offline
#9 Posted:
Joined: 12-19-2019
Posts: 5,310
benja123 wrote:
I just got a perfectdraw a month ago. Have used it at least 10 times. It doesn't make a bad cigar good but it does make it smokeable. Unless, like me you poke a hole in the side the first time you use it. Finishing that smoke was like playing a clarinet.


ROFL
corey sellers Offline
#10 Posted:
Joined: 08-21-2011
Posts: 10,359
I did the same thing Benja right out the side the cigar them it got smashed really hard in the ashtray.Got a better cigar and moved on the perfectdraw does a great job .
Pudding Mittens Offline
#11 Posted:
Joined: 08-15-2016
Posts: 1,291
.
As others have said, try 65% or even 63% or 64%.

Also try dryboxing cigars 1-2 days before smoking them. Less necessary at 63-65% storage but still often helpful, and usually quite necessary at 70% storage. Dryboxing means leaving them outside a humidor. You can do any of these options:

1. place them in their cello sleeves in an unhumidified humdor.
2. place them without their cello sleeves in an unhumidified humidor.
3. place them in their cello sleeves on a table somewhere, out in the open.
4. place them without their cello sleeves on a table somewhere, out in the open.

Which of these 4 options to use for a particular stick, and for how long to do it, will become clear over time based on the experience you slowly accumulate.

Try cigar brands that are consistently better-constructed. Allow me to suggest AJ Fernandez's cigars, in my experience they're 99% bang-on perfect in draw resistance and construction quality. He has great rollers and uses a draw-test machine on every cigar, with the acceptable range apparently set quite narrowly for precision and consistency.

Don't smoke in high-humidity conditions (e.g. outside when it's raining, outside on an excessively humid day, inside in your wet-sauna or hottub room, etc.)

The PerfecDraw tool is the best tool of its kind, however there's a very narrow "Goldilocks zone" between using it too little to make a difference in the draw and using it too much, leading to a cigar with excessive airflow AROUND tobacco (i.e. essentially too big of an air channel in the center of the cigar that lets drawn-in air bypass the tobacco entirely) which leads to a terrible uneven/unmanageable burn, excessively-loose draw and a "bland hot air" taste that ruins the cigar experience. Be careful. Also remember some cigars cannot be saved with the PerfecDraw as that middle zone doesn't exist (you go straight from "still too tight of a draw" to "crap burn and hot air taste").
.
frankj1 Offline
#12 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,215
the dude joined just over a month ago. He won bids, received them, rested them two weeks, and smoked 25 of them already.

How did the noob get them delivered same day as purchased?
fiddler898 Offline
#13 Posted:
Joined: 06-15-2009
Posts: 3,782
I get a fiver of Hard Draw Cigars as a bonus every time I win a bid.
tonygraz Offline
#14 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2008
Posts: 20,231
frankj1 wrote:
the dude joined just over a month ago. He won bids, received them, rested them two weeks, and smoked 25 of them already.

How did the noob get them delivered same day as purchased?



I feel like I was back in algebra class. Was this a trick question ?
delta1 Offline
#15 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,778
call CBid customer service...they'll send you replacements for the unsmokeable ones...at least that's what they did for me about 6-7 years ago when I had that problem...they also advised me to let cigars rest in the humidor for at least 2-3 weeks before smoking them
Dae006 Offline
#16 Posted:
Joined: 04-30-2020
Posts: 7
So tonight I took the last bully out, let it sit for a couple hours in my (low humidity) house just to try that tactic. Maybe just lucky, but it’s smoking much better. Just getting into the 2nd 3rd. Good draw and much happier with this one.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I appreciate it.

Frakj1- Are you saying I smoke too much? 😬 With working from home through the COVID-19 it’s pretty easy to smoke 2-3 a day. I can’t afford to smoke the super premium cigars so I was hoping to get some decent cigars here at a reasonable price.

Thanks again everyone. I’m going to try your suggestions.
clickbangdead Online
#17 Posted:
Joined: 01-31-2009
Posts: 2,230
Going to second the recommendations above: lower your storage humidity 65 is ideal, and let your cigars rest to acclimate and reduce their shipping moisture content. I often don't touch a box until it's had 90 days of down time. Additional, dry boxing for a day or more if you smoke in a humid environment. I smoke outside, and in the summer its like 100% humidity at night (mostly when I smoke) so dry boxing is pretty much mandatory in order to get cigars that smoke well and don't require relights.
frankj1 Offline
#18 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,215
Dae006 wrote:
So tonight I took the last bully out, let it sit for a couple hours in my (low humidity) house just to try that tactic. Maybe just lucky, but it’s smoking much better. Just getting into the 2nd 3rd. Good draw and much happier with this one.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I appreciate it.

Frakj1- Are you saying I smoke too much? 😬 With working from home through the COVID-19 it’s pretty easy to smoke 2-3 a day. I can’t afford to smoke the super premium cigars so I was hoping to get some decent cigars here at a reasonable price.

Thanks again everyone. I’m going to try your suggestions.

nope...but we've had a run on first posters crying about waiting for their orders to ship and somehow you managed to join, bid win, receive and smoke a couple dozen in a matter of weeks.

did Victor convince you to use his technique...send a pic of your junk to CS?
borndead1 Offline
#19 Posted:
Joined: 11-07-2006
Posts: 5,215
70% humidity is way too high. Shoot for 62%-65%. And let your cigars rest for at least a month.
Dae006 Offline
#20 Posted:
Joined: 04-30-2020
Posts: 7
frankj1 wrote:
nope...but we've had a run on first posters crying about waiting for their orders to ship and somehow you managed to join, bid win, receive and smoke a couple dozen in a matter of weeks.

did Victor convince you to use his technique...send a pic of your junk to CS?


Who's Victor? Confused

No Pictures of the Bully but if you want to see my Rocky Patel Decade issues I have some of them. They don't burn the best, but a couple touch ups each smoke and now punching them so the cap doesn't come off, I can still enjoy them.
Palama Offline
#21 Posted:
Joined: 02-05-2013
Posts: 23,627
I don’t know if there’s a better answer than the PerfecDraw tool.
Sunoverbeach Offline
#22 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,650
There's not. Never had a smoke the Perfecdraw couldn't correct. I remember Puddin said it had limitations, but I haven't encountered them to date
corey sellers Offline
#23 Posted:
Joined: 08-21-2011
Posts: 10,359
I have had a few that it would not help mostly older cigars. Then I have poked a hole right out the side a time or two. Then it was time to move on.
Sunoverbeach Offline
#24 Posted:
Joined: 08-11-2017
Posts: 14,650
OK, I did have one drill out the side. Chalked that up to user error
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