Expert: James Yee - 12/10/2007

Question
Hi James,

Thanks for your assistance on my last question (in regards to the storage of mass-market cigars), your answer was of inavuable help. I had one last question I hoped you could help me with. I checked the package of cigars I previously mentioned in my last question (bought from the behind-the-counter smoking section of a local pharmacy), and the package label claims that the cigars are long-filler, handmade cigars imported from Honduras (instead of the short-filler, machine-made cigars that are custom to such outlets). The band on each cigar simply says "Handmade Premium No. 700". So far, I've smoked one, and the quality is definitely better than a normal machine-made second rate cigar. However, since the cigars have gone about a week without being in a humidor and are still not dry as a bone, it leads me to believe that they're of the non-humidified type you told me about.

Seeing as I bought them in a plastic package that obviously had not been in the conditions normal for premium cigars storage (each of the cigars is inside an individual cellophane wrapper, but the clear plastic package they came in had probably been hanging behind the counter in un-humidified room temperature conditions for at least a week before I purchased them), it puzzled me. Also, the large size of the cigars (Lonsdale) leads me to believe that they aren't machine made or mass market, since most machine made cigars I've come across have been small. Then again, I got 6 of them for $10 bucks, which is a rather cheap price for any handmade cigar.

My question is this: Can cigar companies endorse labels such as "handmade, premium, long-filler", etc. on the packages of the cigars, when they really are not? For example, can a mass-market or machine-made cigar company simply place labels such as "handmade premium cigars" on the package of their cigars if they feel like it, when in reality the cigars are no such thing?

Answer
Hi Dominic,

While reputable cigar companies do tell the truth to maintain their brand(s) reputation, it’s not uncommon for smaller cigar companies/brands to “bend the truth” when it comes to their products.  I’ve seen a lot of machine-made, low-end “convenience store” cigars that are creatively labeled and while we think that these companies are blatantly lying, the way they carefully word their product labels helps them get around any legal trouble.

Machine-made cigars for example, can be machine-made BUT then hand-finished.  Hand-finishing a cigar could be anything from applying tobacco leaf caps to the cigar heads, hand inspection or packaging them into the boxes.  As a result, it’s technically not improper to call them “handmade/hand made” because at some point during production, human hands do come in contact with the cigars and help make them.  Yes, this is dishonest wordplay but these companies don’t see anything wrong with it.  To them, “Handmade cigars” sounds much better than “Machine-made & hand-finished cigars” because they know more people will choose “handmade” because it sounds more premium and high-quality.  (And they’re right.)

I’ve seen some cheap, generic cigars that use the word “Premium” in their brand names and while we automatically think the cigar as being a high-end premium cigar (as the name suggests), the cigar companies just see it as another word to entice buyers.  Unfortunately, technically what they’re doing isn’t wrong or illegal.  Yes, it’s still a dirty tactic but they probably won’t get busted for it.  Even now, there are some 100% non-Cuban brands that use the words “Havana”, “Habano”, “Cuba”, “Pre-embargo” and “Cuban-seed” and while inexperienced cigar smokers think they’re buying genuine Cuban cigars, they’re actually not.

I once visited a machine-made cigar factory for a tour and when I noticed that their cigars were advertised as “handmade”, I asked the tour guide what makes them handmade.  To my surprise, the tour guide couldn’t explain how they were handmade other than the fact that the cigars are handled by hand during inspection and packaging stages.  

As for the filler tobacco, the best way to determine if a cigar has long filler or short filler is to simply smoke the cigar and observe the ash.  If the ash is solid, firm and can hold up for 1 to 2 inches (maybe even longer) before falling off BY ITSELF, the cigar has long filler tobacco.  If the ash is crumbly, loose, full of gaps, flaky and can’t hold up for even a few centimeters, the tobacco is short filler.

Hope this answers your question.  As always, if you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask.

Regards,
James