I have been fairly underwhelmed by most of the Fuente products I have tried so far. Have an ok box of cubanitos, a tolerable cuban corona, a double chateau that had a wisp of a wrapper that split apart and unrolled,an 8-5-8 that smelled like a field of manure (overfertilisation?)and had no real appeal, a Cuesta Ray centenarios #60 that tasted "off"- not good, and an Aston Monarch that was the worst tasting cigar I have smoked- like sucking stale smoke through an ashtray. I have had one Hemingway Signature that was really good, and it should be for the price.

I realise that I havn't had much experience with them, but I am not very tempted to try more. I get the impression that the non Hemingway, Don Carlos, and Opus X cigars are being overproduced. The Gran Reserva line has been very dissappointing, and I am not interested in smoking another cigar that tastes as poorly as the Ashton.

I normally wouldn't bring it up because cigars are so subjective, but Fuentes' have really been consistently the least enjoyable cigars of all the ones I have tried.

Is it just Me?

Eric1989

I'm on board with you on the fuentes, maybe I'm not a seasoned smoker, but I smoked an Opus x the other day and was not impressed especially for about $30 a stick! I can't say I'd ever go for one again. I'm more impressed with the IT maduros and IT gorilla cameroon legends, for that price you can't go wrong!

Fuentes are very popular so they are often sold when they need a lot of aging. I wouldn't touch one without putting it away at least eight months.

That should not be a problem for the tiny Cubanitos though. I really like those with just a month or so of age.

I know I am committing sacrilege in the eyes of most Fuente fans, but this needs saying;

Fuentes NEED TIME before you smoke them!

In the past year and a half, I've noticed the acidity of the wrappers and the acrid taste of rushed tobacco in Fuente's green line (and even my beloved Don Carlos line), the Opus line always DESERVES a minimum of 6 months resting time but the Hemingway line is ready to smoke.

Hope that helps.

I'll be the dissenter here. (excluding the $50 a stick 'the king has no clothes' type cigars) I really really enjoy hem. short stories for a quick smoke. There's a lot of flavor in that little stick compared to other nasty tasting shorts. And I have no complaints with the box of Don Carlos I bought, it's quite clearly a good satisfying smoke for me each and every time. These two cigars are moderately pricey but worth it IMO. Occasionally nothing satisifes like a blow your taste buds out Chateau Fuente maduro, which is fairly inexpensive. I can think of no other brand where I've been able to find so many favorites in, with the exception of perhaps MCs. If I were going to complain about over-hyped brands that consistently fail to deliver (again, excluding 'the king has no clothes' delicacies like PAMs) I'd single out Perdomo and CAO. They're the McDonalds and Burger Kings of mainstream cigars.

Primate, I totally agree with you on the CAO's I've probably smoked five of the different selections including the Brazilla, Cameroons and Italia and I can't say I enjoyed any one of them, they just don't have a good flavor ...to me at least. Maybe I need to try a few more AF, but if there is one thing I can't take is smoking a nasty tasting cigar. But as you have alluded to before, taste is in the eye of the beholder.

These have all been really good points. I did mention that I enjoyed the higher priced Fuente Hemingway. My observation, I believe, is being affirmed by the first three replies. Fuente may be "Rushing the Hands of Time", to paraphrase what Carlito says so often.

I often feel like "price to quality" is possibly the most important criteria when judging my enjoyment of a product. If product A and Product B are very close in quality, but product B is 50% less expensive, which is better?

I havn't tried the Perdomo or the CAO, so I will trust the previous oppinion about them. I wouldn't be surprised if they are the "Burger King and McDonalds of cigars" One must always wonder when you see more money being spent on advertisements and packaging than are being spent on raw materials. One also must question a cigar maker who bends over backwards to impress famous clientle with free merchandise, in hopes that they will be holding said merchandise when a flashy publication needs a famous person holding a cigar for this months cover.

To me, cigars are for enjoyment. I realise that some feel status or power associated with the brand that they are smoking. That is a different criteria than flavor, quality and enjoyment. Maybe the "50 dollar a stick" cigars are made for that type of client. I tend to get a little dissenchanted when it gets above three or four dollars a stick without delivering an extra amount of flavor and enjoyment. After all, we are burning money here folks!

I don't have hardly any money to burn, That is why I LOVE CBID!

Sounds like you have a productive outlook. It's like any other enterpise; marketing marketing marketing. Show smiling girls with engorged mammaries holding product 'X' and the masses will pretty much buy poop and be grateful. The marketplace does have it's rules however, and I've found the $3-$5 range to be slim pickings, with one or two plums to be had. The $5-$10 range too is crowded with dyed, flavored crap that would gag a maggot, but with a few more plums to be had, as have been touched on in this thread. The $10-$20 range is a bit more fruitful, but then for some of us, these are strictly special occasion luxuries. Speaking of another over-hyped, fancy packad brand, all the Toranos I've been suffering through lately...might as well be smoking Marlboros. And those cedar wrappings and colorful bands looked so yummy. It's a jungle out there, fortunately, I'm just about to the point where I know what box I'll buy next when the humi runs low.

To be fair, after having trashed so many cherished institutions here, the one brand, besides some A. Fuentes, that consistently offers some decent quality smokes at workingman's prices is Gurkha. I've been working on a box of both Regent and Expedition and repitition has been good to them.

Another good example of differing tastes, I have never had a bad AF cigar, and I loved every CAO and Tornao I've tried. But I have never had a Gurkha that I liked. I've had about a half dozen different ones and none of them impressed me. I did a trade for a couple XXs that I haven't tried yet. Maybe those will be the ones that make me a beliver.

John L

JDlizard - have you tried the Gurkha Legend? I have never had a Don Carlos that I didn't liek - having said that - I find for my taste that the rest of the Fuentes don't do anythng for me....

i am a fuente maniac......

however, i do agree that some fuentes need proper aging prior to lighting up. i find more consistant the higher end fuentes like anejos/woams, etc.

love fuentes, never had a bad one. but i've had others that got rave reviews from some botls but i thought they smoked and tasted like freshly-****ted goat dung.

I'm a fuente ho. Consistant, and, up and down the line they fit my flavor profile.

I like most of Fuente's sungrown wrapped cigars, that's about it.

JSD,

I have had a Gurkha Legend from a sampler and didn't care for it, then bought the two six pack (matzos) special awhile back (I think they were legends) and didn't care for them again so they got traded. Just not my thing.

John L

Never had a green label cigar that didn't suck. Most of the Don Carlos that I have weren't that good either. The Short Story and Classic Hemingway have been good to me.

Their other stuff (Cuesta Rey, Ashton VSG) have been good.

J

The Gurkha Legends are good. They do need some age though. You have to let them rest for awhile, atleast 4-6 months