I remember it a little differently. The 'OR' maroon bands from 5+ years ago were generally well regarded. The yellow bands that showed up in shpos were generally thought to be inferior to the maroons.
About 15 months ago a couple small lots of maroon bands showed up on cbid for the first time in years. I won a fiver - hoping they were old and not re-issued. I smoked one that had some promising flavors before it completely exploded about one inch from the start. (I think there's a photo posted....I'll check.) I tried a second one with similar results. The rest of the fiver was promptly discarded.
dstieger wrote:
