Excellent! These are factory seconds. I've smoked a lot of RPs...Edge, Old Word Reserve, Decade, etc. These seconds looked good and smoked just like the banded stuff. Excellent draw, slow, even burn and they taste excellent, as well. If I were a marketing BSer, I'd tell you they tasted like fresh coffee beans, nutty, earthy, rum, cedar and even sex. But, my palate is such that all I know is: "I like 'em!"

OTOH, I also got two bundles of 20 (yeah, 40...I somehow double ordered, but that's another story) CI-Knock Offs Robusto La Gloria. Got 'em for $1.58 per stick. So what, you ask? Well, I'll tell you what. They look good. They draw like you wouldn't believe...big puffs of smooth, silky wafting clouds (see, I coulda been a marketing BSer, if I had chosen) of thick, full, white smoke...you'd think that that is what the Cardinals burned when they elected the new Pope.

Only one down side. I think the filler must be shredded newspaper. If I was a marketing BSer and was rating the competition, I'd tell you that the taste was like dog turd, vomit, burnt earthworms and corpse rot. But, my palate is such that all I know is: "Yuck!!!"

I think I'll mostly stick with banded sticks, with a goodly mix of factory seconds for everyday smoking. But "knock offs"...I think not...I'd rather smoke green Iguanas.

As an aside, to those of you who are hooligans and know of what I speak...I've decided that if it is down to 10 degrees F, I give up. I can tolerate it but the cigars can't...and, more importantly, won't. But, now that spring weather is upon us, that's a moot point. However, I am getting old and forgetful. So, I'm going to write this down on the palm of my smoking hand, in red felt-tip pen: NO KNOCK OFFS!!! NO 10F!!!

Have a nice day and a nice cigar...it's on me. 👻

Yeah, that sounds somewhat similar to my Cusano over run experience.

I like Cusano 18's, but the over runs are pretty meh.

I pulled one, to present to my brother next time we get together for a smoke. They say that payback is a bitch, and he is overdue for a practical joke.

The other 38? Since they have a great draw and great burn but a bland...shredded newspaper...taste (the other comments, I was just messing with y'all), I decided to age them, give them an earthy, peppery taste. I like a spicy, full, earthy maduro, anyway.

I removed the wrappers, punctured each exactly 20 times with an ice pick, soaked them in tabasco sauce and spent coffee grind marinade, slathered them with strawberry jam, gave them cedar splints, and packed them with garden dirt, then wrapped them in reused TV dinner tin foil and placed them in the produce bin in the garage refrigerator.

After about 6 months of aging, I'll post a follow up review. I'm hoping to get a toothy, earthy, coffee bean, cedar, fruity and hot as a chili-pepper fermented taste.

Waiting 6 full months for aging out in the garage vegetable bin, but getting impatient. So, I took one of the knock-offs out for a "dry run". Microwave-melted a Hershey chocolate bar in a Tupperware container, added in some beau monde (what the Hell, why not?) and rolled one of the knock-offs in to give it a thin, chocolate veneer (to plug those ice-pick puncture holes). Put the stick in the freezer for 5 minutes for the chocolate to harden (but not so much as to freeze and ruin the cigar).

End result? Hot Damn!!! I think I'm on to something.

The only thing chocolate should be melted for is Shroom bars.....

ha ha ha ha ha, what dumb ass's!

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489734/Nestor-Miranda-Special-Selection-Danno-Oscuro-Single/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489745/Graycliff-1666-Presidente-Single/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489793/Gurkha-Estate-Selection-Vintage-Shaggy-Lancero-Single/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489825/Asylum-13-Fifty-robusto-Single/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489648/Natural-by-Drew-Estate-Egg-Maduro-Box-of-1/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489367/Legends-Series-Camacho-20/ 

http://www.cigarbid.com/Auction/Lot/1489384/Camacho-1962-Pre-Embargo-25/ 

every one of these blends is a $2 smoke, maybe $3 if you are addicted.

ha you sound like a drunk uncle I had. 🍺 when he didnt have his booze he was in the kitchen blending s#it up( orange juice with sardines) 😰

Well, this experiment didn't quite come to fruition. For some unknown reason, the damn thing wouldn't light.

And, I even tried a welding torch.

So, I'm going to Plan B.

But knock offs? Nyeh. You just don't know what the Hell you are getting. Even these CI "knockoffs" of La Gloria Cuba (a fine cigar) are nothing more than poop tubes. Who even made 'em? Probably some unknown sub-contractor with a sweat shop in his garage.

I tried to return them. But, customer service laughed in my face and then hung up the phone.

I offered some to my friends and neighbors, but they all said "No, thanks...I'm gonna be eating dinner later and I don't want to ruin it."

I did give the one, as mentioned above, to my brother. He took a couple of puffs and hauled off with a roundhouse aimed at my eye socket. Fortunately, I had anticipated this possibility so I quickly picked up the big stainless steel ashtray and placed it in front of my face. You shouda heard the "clang" and seen the surprised and pained look on his face...a true Kodak moment.