AboutBill Finck Jr. Expertise I'm a fourth generation cigar maker and have spent 25+ years operating our factory as well as a mail order cigar company. I belong to cigar manufacturers associations as well as retail cigar associations so I'm usually up to date with current events relating to cigars. I've smoked the majority of brands on the market and would be happy to share my opinions of them with you. Since I live in the U.S. I have very little experience with Cuban cigars, but other than that I know a least a little bit about almost every brand of cigars on the market.
Experience In addition to growing up in and now managing our cigar factory for 25+ years, I've spent time in many factories in Honduras, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic and Mexico. BR> Organizations Cigar Association of America, Retail Tobacco Dealers Association
Question Hi. I recently acquired a dozen cigars from a friend who was going to throw them out because they were infested with tobacco beetles, I believe. He froze them to kill the beetles. I know not to intermix these with my good cigars. My question is this: is there any way to salvage these cigars and smoke them, despite the little holes bored through them by these critters? I thought that maybe wrapping them in something like a zig-zag cigarette rolling paper might help give them a proper draw. What do you think?
Answer Charlie,
As the cigarette beetle eats his way through cigar, he excretes residue that is deposited in and on the cigar. If you've ever had a box of cigars get infested, you've seen the powdery residue left in the box. If you smoked the cigars you'd be smoking this stuff. Hopefully that is enough to deter you from taking what was a great product and rolling it in a piece of paper.
