hey, guys -- just had my first truly bad experience with a cigar. 😮

i wanted to try a Hoyo de Monterrey excalibur that i'd been given awhile back, so tonight i took it from the humi. i noticed when it first arrived that it looked like it had some cracks along a couple of veins. took it out of the cello tonight, and sure enough that was the case.

fine. this is the ONLY excalibur i've ever had (or probably will have for many moons), so i didn't want to waste it.

anyway, good pre-light draw, so i light it up. got about 3/4 of an inch in before the wrapper just starts falling off -- the ends lit and glowing as they fall. i stamp that out and start to put it down to die when the thing EXPLODED!

i was already concerned about having some faint scorches on the carpet in my den from the shower of wrapper bits that had fallen -- now i've got about a dozen or so chunks of burning tobacco to contend with!

i wear house slippers all the time, so i dragged my good foot over and put those out, but there are deeper, black scorch marks on the carpet in here now. i can patch some of that up, but WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED HERE??

has anyone ever had a cigar "explode" like that?

what bites is that one of the flaming tobac chunks landed on my leg first -- what i do NOT need is another wound on my leg. i couldn't FEEL it burning; i SAW it there and managed to get it off of me, but it definitely scared the hell out of me!!

A dramatic change in humidity would cause the "explosion". It's usually the case when the cigar was too dry, and was put into a high humidity level before it had time to adjust. It would cause the split in wrappers, and then BAM!!

Tony,
Was that one that I sent you??? If so, let me know and I`ll make it up to you!

Happy herf`n
Rob

maybe there was a big fat beetle living inside and when he got too hot he popped....

sorry. I've only heard of what aznaries said. and that's only for cracking.. never heard of an exploding cigar...

*laugh* i mean, i've seen the trick cigars, but they explode 'coz they're supposed to! 🙂

rck_1: i don't think so. i can't remember who sent this one my way. it arrived before i started taking meticulous notes on who sent what so i could bomb 'em back if it was from a bomb package.

i wasn't looking for a "make it right" 'fess up, though -- just concerned about whether i should ever light another one with wrapper damage.

i've probably received a half dozen in PIFs/bombs, etc. that have cracked wrappers or other damage -- i keep them segregated. but i can't bring myself to throw away a cigar, even if it is damaged in some way. i don't want to pass it on to someone else, but i'll still eventually try to smoke it, esp. if it's one i've not tried (i'd not tried the excalibur).

ps - rck_1, i don't recall ever getting a bad cigar from you, bro, so i seriously doubt that it was one you'd sent. 🙂

i meant to add -- the humidity here last night was at 100% outside. the cigar had been stored for at least a month at 67-69%. before i lit it, i had it sitting out for about 20 minutes on top of my humidor and uncello'ed.