... and all you others out there eagerly grabbing up those boxes of ISOM's ...
***HOW TO MAKE SURE NOT TO BUY COUNTERFEIT CUBAN CIGARS***
With Cuban cigars growing in popularity, counterfeit cigars are booming as well.
Follow these easy steps to check your cigars, and you should have no problem in recognizing a fake.
---On the outside of the box---
Check for the Warranty Seal. On cabinets, it is placed over the sliding's edge on the upper right corner of the box. On dress boxes it is on the front left edge wrapping around the top and bottom. This seal has been applied since 1912 to guarantee the provenance of the cigars enclosed.
As of this year, new seals have been issued with a new updated seal, which has finer printing details that make them more difficult to counterfeit.
Check for the Habanos Chevron on the top upper right corner of dress boxes, and top lower left corner of cabinets. This seal has been on boxes of Cuban cigars since 1994.
Check the bottom of the box for the logos: "HABANOS S.A.". This is the name of the only Exporter of Cuban cigars. This image will appear on all boxes exported since October 1994. On boxes between 1985 and September 1994, Cubatobaco's logo would appear instead. As for "HECHO EN CUBA", this encircled phrase appears on boxes in 1960 to replace the same word but in English "Made in Cuba". "TOTALMENTE A MANO", this script was added in 1989. These seals are not applied, they are actually burned on the wood, you will be able to feel them with your touch.
---On the Inside of the box---
Upon opening the box, you will find a 4 1/4 x 2 3/4 rectangular piece of paper with the Habanos logo in brown. It reads "These Havanas have been made with the finest tobacco in the world" in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and German.
There should be no cellophane on handmade cigars except in the 3/5 pack Petacas style packaging.
Machine made cigars are typically packed in cellophane sleeves. Dress boxes and non-SLB cabinets will have a plain cedar separator sheet between the two levels of cigars. This thin sheet will have a small finger rounded notch cut out of its upper right hand corner.
Cabinet style boxes will have a cedar top sheet featuring a version of the brands logo. Dress boxes, except those containing tubos, will have a paper flap attached to the front edge of the box that flips up and toward the front to expose the cigars. It will typically feature a secondary brand vista. Rafael Gonzalez boxes have a unique four sided plain paper interior protection flap in place of the normal front flap. Boxes with tubed cigars have no such flap.
Cabinets with sliding lids will have the cigars tied in a small wheel or round with a yellow ribbon. The ribbon will be imprinted with brand and vitola names. It is important to ensure that the ribbon is made of a silky material and that it is tightly tied around the cigars. Look to ensure it has not been untied and retied the Cigars Themselves.
This is the best way to check your product and where most counterfeiters fail. The cigars will be of uniformed color and if there is any variation at all the cigars will be organized within the box with the darkest ones being placed on the left to the lightest one situated at the far right.
The cigars will be of the exact length as specified for the vitola. There is rarely greater than 1/16th of an inch of deviation from the published lengths of Cuban cigars.
The ring gauges of the cigar should be as specified also. However, you will commonly witness slight deviations plus or minus a ring size. This is particularly true of cigars that are box pressed - remember the ring gauge is determined prior to the cigars being box pressed.
All ringed Cuban cigars should have tight clean bands with good color and embossing, if applicable, and should have the word "Habana" on it. They should show no signs of wear, creases, or glue stains as these are common indicators of rings that have been re-banded onto other cigars.
Don't be over critical of the bands as misregistrations and imperfect embossings are not all that uncommon. In fact many of the mistakes are so common, they in themselves are proof the bands
are legitimate.
