Expert: James Yee - 2/29/2008

Question
Hello James.

I was recently in Cuba (I'm Canadian) and puchased 25 siglo III and 25 siglo IV. I have been researching the internet to try and figure out if my cigars are fake.

They came in individual stick boxes that were inside a pack of five that were 5 packs of five in a box. The govenment and factory stickers came with, but not affixed to any of the packs of 5 in the box.

The bands seem exact to the specs I've researched including the millimeter size of 15mm, colour, 3 rows of squares above the logo, raised gold letters etc. The dimensions are exact to the specs for length and ring size. There is the triple lined cap and the cigars smell great before being lit (kind of sweet, a bit like honey)and after they are lit I can smell a bit of vanilla. As for taste, I enjoy the smoke but I am fairly new to cigar smoking and not an expert by any means and cannot really identify any tastes.

Because some of them burn a little uneven about halfway through and occationally need to be relit, I was suspecting they might be fake. The ash holds well and is dark grey.

I dissected one of each and found that the wrapper and almost all the leaves were intact, large pieces, supple though not damp and quite fragrant in earth tones,a little spicy, a little sweet and a little horse farm like smell. I thought the whole mixture smelled great. Some of the leaves have a V space where I assume large veins were removed, but I also found a large vein in one of the cigars. The very center of the cigar had smaller pieces of leaves about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length. Not a lot but certainly not large rolled leaves like the rest of the cigar. I'd say the small pieces equaled about 2% of the cigar filler.

Okay, my question is: can I send one of each cigar to anyone you know that could give me their expert opinion as to whether they are fake or not?

Thank you very much for your time and feedback.

P

Answer
Hi Peter,

The packaging sounds spot on but I tend to overlook the packaging details now because counterfeiters (especially with Cohiba cigars) are now smart enough to steal genuine cigar packaging (boxes and bands) from the factories and recycle discarded packaging from cigar shops in order to make their cigars look as authentic as possible.  The only sure-fire method of discerning a cigar's authenticity now is by a thorough examination of the cigar, the filler tobacco and smoking the cigar itself to examine the aroma, flavour and smoke quality.  Counterfeiting Cuban cigars have now become so sophisticated that it's usually hard to judge a cigar by appearance alone.  However, no matter how convincing a cigar looks, the proof of authenticity is always in the tobacco.   

Based on your description, the cigars sound convincing but some things about the aroma, filler tobacco and burn quality seems suspicious.  If you're interested, I would be willing to examine your cigars and give you a thorough assessment.  

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

Regards,
James