That is mold I am sorry to say.

PadronMan

O.K. Since it wasn't green I assumed it was bloom. My mistake..Oh well stuff happens 😉 After the broohaw that was raised I sent the company an email with the concerns about the mold and the bands. We had gotten 2 boxes of the Esplendidoes. The first box was excellent, the bands were right (gold letters and 3 rows of boxes above) and they had the triple cap. And the 'gars were really great.

The picture was from the second box. All bands had 2 rows of boxes above the gold lettering although you can see some of the 3rd row on some. All had the triple cap. There was 6 cigars with the "mold" problem.

Anyway, I sent the following email and got the reply.

If anyone wants the Name of the company send email to RNL712 at hotmail dot com. P.S. We got a good deal on them so "wiping off the mold and enjoying right now!" If they is they is and if they ain't then "that's some dam fine smoke"...69

I recently received my order for 2 boxes of Cohiba cigars. The first box seemed to be alright. At least the cigars had the right bands. Gold letters and 3 rows of squares.

But the second box was terrible. The bands were wrong, ie. gold letters but only 2 rows of squares above the name. These are usually signs of counterfeit Cohibas. But the real problem was the MOLD. Several cigars had masses of mold on them. Not a good sign. Especially for Esplendidos.

I have not had any problems with your business in the past so I would like to see what can be done about this as soon as possible.

Could you explain the discrepancies with the bands

I have attached a zip file containing photos of the problems. Please let me know what decision you come up with as soon as possible.



Reply from XXXX

First: As for the problem of the moudly it is for an excess of humidity so that the cigars arrives fresh and not dry.

So alone with passing a finger it disappears.

It is totally normal that there are differences between some boxes and others, in our warehouses we have hundred of boxes of the same brand and many differences can be seen in the production of the box, in the stamps, in the stickers even in the cigars.

For example, sometimes some boxes arrive from the factories with the vitola orange of COHIBA in a tone clear due to the disinfectants that they receive to avoid the scarab of the cigars or simply for an excess of humidity.

The control of quality in Cuba is quite faulty and for they all the boxes are not same. The crops vary every year according to the rains, humidity, temperature of that year, etc and this will have a great incidence in the cigars of manufactured in that year.

The Cuban cigar is a handmade product for "Torcedores" and for that the cigars they are not always exactly same some of others. For they exist it the "miradores" that have the responsibility of to "choose" the cigars of more resemblance and to select them for each one of the boxes. The purpose is that the appearance of the cigars of a box will be the most similar possible. But they will never seem same. On the other hand Cuba is a communist country and the controls of quality are quite bad and insufficient

This matter is completely normal and suppose a big headache for us.

We want to give you our better prices, service and products but if you are not confortable, we will refund your money or we change immediately the cigars.

If you want to change them, let me know and I willgive you datas of our DHL import account for send us back the cigars.

Very sorry for all the inconvenient and thank you very much for your time and your understanding.

Email Sent!

Regards,


B

Uh . . . I hate to break it to you, but that ain't bloom; it's mold.

e-mails sent. If you didn't get a reply to your e-mails let me know..69

Yes, of course, it is clearly mold. Allow a loaf of bread to sit in a plastic bag at room temeprature for just a couple of days, and you'll get mold. It can grow very rapidly in an enclosed environement.

The vendor is correct in repeating the often heard, "quality control is deficient in many Cuban factories."

It doesn't explain why he didn't examine the cigars before they were shipped to you.

The cigars were obviously very wet when rolled, then not given any aging time before being placed on the market. That's pretty standard for Cuban cigars. That's why some folks wait years to smoke a "fresh" box. The longer you wait; some say five years and longer, the better the smoke.

The misperceived notion that most Cuban cigars are stronger than non-Cubans, I believe, comes from people smoking them far too soon. They misconstrue immature harshness for power. A mature Cuban cigar has an incredible well rounded, complex flavor that has yet to be replicated with tobacco from any other country. It's not better; just different, and not always powerful.

As for the bands. I've seen some pretty crummy inconsistent bands come out of Cuba. The first thing people tend to look at when trying to ascertain authenticity is the band...then the cap....etc.etc. It's a he11 of alot easier to replicate the band than the cigar. Cuban bands, compared to those like La Aroma de Cuba and Opus X, look like crap and are easy to reproduce.

You have to smoke the cigar; know what to expect; and then make an educated determination as to whether it's authentic.

If this vendor makes good in a timely fashion, you have no gripe. Just ask him to check your boxes before he ships them.

^

plumb or mold ?

Mold