Expert: James Yee - 6/24/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi James,
I am a novice cigar aficionado and I have a question. A client of mine gave me a 25 box of Esplendidos that were in a lacquered cedar box with a Plexiglass top. Does this mean they may be fakes. In all my checking on the net I have read nothing about a "clear top" Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Todd

ANSWER: Hi Todd,

Unfortunately, those Cohiba Esplendidos are indeed counterfeit.  Cohiba does not package any of their Cuban cigars in boxes with a clear top lid.  Even though the lid it made from Plexiglas (the most popular variation of this counterfeit), these counterfeit Cohibas are best known (and often referred to) as "glass tops" and are the most produced counterfeit Cuban cigar in the counterfeit cigar industry.  (NOTE: Cohiba is the most counterfeited Cuban cigar brand and Cohiba Esplendido is the most counterfeited cigar in the world.)

Genuine Cohiba Esplendidos are packaged in a clear lacquer box with a hinged lid with brass hinges and an ornate clasp closure.  Ironically enough, glass top Cohibas are still collected by cigar smokers/collectors simply because it is the single-most recognizable Cuban counterfeit cigar/box in the world and collectors want a complete box just for the sake of be able to say that they own one.

Unfortunately, glass top Esplendidos aren't worth as much as genuine Esplendidos.  Experienced cigar smokers/collectors usually pay between $50-$100 USD for a complete box of glass top Cohibas (knowing they're fake) while genuine Esplendidos sell between $400-$700 USD per box; depending on quality, supply and age of the cigars.  In Cuba, genuine Esplendidos sell for approximately $290 USD but the price is increased in the continental US due to supply and demand.  In other parts of the world, the price would vary due to the varying tobacco taxes enabled by each country.

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

Regards,
James

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks James,
Scored you a ten on all the questions. Very surprised at your reply time, sad about the answer. I knew when I saw over $700 online that something was up. My last question is are they still safe to smoke. I have heard horror stories of horse hair filler and such. Dont want to make anyone sick. Thanks again for the info. Todd

Answer
Hi Todd,

99.9% of the time, counterfeit cigars are safe to smoke.  The only difference between counterfeit cigars and genuine cigars is the quality of the tobacco and the quality of construction.  Counterfeit cigars often use lower-grade tobacco which means the cigars will not taste as good as the real thing.  Counterfeit cigars may also use short filler tobacco which is usually tobacco table scraps collected from cigar factories or independent cigar rollers.  This will result in crumbly ash when you smoke the cigar as opposed to genuine cigars with firm, solid ash that can hold up for two or three inches before falling off.  (Genuine cigars use long filler tobacco; long strips of tobacco leaf that is bunched together inside a cigar.)  The construction quality with counterfeit cigars can also be crude and appear less attractive when compared to the genuine cigar.  This would cause a counterfeit cigar’s wrapper leaf to unravel during smoking, appear not so attractive in general or impair the natural burn during smoking.  Also, because counterfeit cigars are mass-produced in large numbers, quality-control during production is not as thorough as the genuine cigar factories and a lot of these fake cigars are plugged (ie: rolled too tightly), burn poorly or inconsistent in appearance.

There are horror stories of counterfeit cigars containing everything from hair, paper, cloth/fabric, grass and even pencil shavings but these examples are extremely rare and often don’t appear in mass-produced counterfeit cigars.  These stories are often associated with poor-looking street vendors in Cuba that sell crude looking peso cigars to tourists in order to make a living.

If you’re concerned about what might be inside your Esplendidos, what you can do is cut one cigar open and see what’s inside.  If you don’t see anything out of the ordinary inside the cigar, then you can try smoking one.

Regards,
James