Expert: James Yee - 11/12/2008

Question
hi this is dan and due to me living in USA I have to order my cigars but did
Try a number of cubans purchased from tobacconists in Canada. I used two
mail orders one which is absolutecigars.com which I found highly reviewed
positive and bought some great cigars like bolivar gigantes and upman
churchills which looked and tasted perfect. Before ordering from
cigarsofhabanos.com I did some research and they said they are supplied by
pacificcigar. So I went to pacific cigars site and emailed their CEO dag
holmboe  which was listed in the pacificcigar site. I got
an email from dag a week after and he indeed told me that pacificcigar is
supplied by his copany which means they are legit. I ordered a box of San
cristoballs muralla and to my amazement when opening the box half of the
cigars had some minor imperfections while some had wrappers coming off
and such. And this is after the quality check that they say they do (don't know
where they were looking). Some cigars had green patches. It was definately
not mold but looked like the lead itself was green. I have seen this before
and in Canada I was told that this is sometimes commonplace in cuban
tobacco. What are those patches? . I was obviously very dissatisfied and
contacted the company about the bad shipment I got. They offered
immediately to give a full refund or replacement. I asked for a replacement
and my replacement came in flawless without any defect and looks and
smokes like I'm used to the muralla in Canada purchases. And I got a free
sampler for my trouble so ultimately I was satisfied. My question is how
common is a damaged batch of Cuban cigars and what are the green
patches which are not at all mold or previous mold growth but just looks like
the lead is green in that spot? Everyone loves cigarsofhabanos and pacificc
cigar along with alex from cigarbunch.com which is a Canadian company
recomended cigarsofhabanos so hopefully it was just a fluke. If you can
please send me an email adressing my questions and also heard anything
about absolutecigars.com? Email me at , thanks for
all you're help

Answer
Hi Dan,

When ordering cigars via mailorder, it's not uncommon to receive damaged or flawed cigars.  While many mailorder retailers do thoroughly inspect their cigars before shipping them out to their customers, some cigars may slip through unnoticed or the cigars may end up damaged during shipping.  Construction defects such as the wrappers coming loose or being split/cracked can also be a result of the harsh shipping conditions that your cigars may endure while in transit.  Some people also believe that some retailers don't care about shipping out the best-looking cigars to their customers so their inspection routine is not as thorough.  Regardless, receiving perfect-looking cigars via mailorder is not always a guarantee.

In regards to the green spots, these spots are not mold stains but actually aging abnormalities from the tobacco leaf itself.  These green spots are actually the result of the tobacco leaf not aging or curing properly during the cultivation and pre-production stages.  The most common cause for this is that the tobacco leaves may have come in contact with a liquid (usually mud) that left a spot on the leaf and prevented that spot on the tobacco to naturally age and oxidize.  As a result, the rest of the cigar naturally changed colour but that specific spot changed colours at a much slower pace or didn't change colour at all.  Fortunately, these natural green spots are purely cosmetic and do not affect the way the cigar tastes or burns.

Hopes this answers your question. If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
James