Your experience with counterfeits(from that island- south of Miami)?
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:52 pm
So here's a touchy subject- What's been your experience with counterfeit CC's? For obvious reasons, sources need to not be named, I think... But I'm looking to hear from our more experienced members here- how they've bumped their heads pursuing this hobby of ours.
My experience: I bought my first box from a source in late 2006. Boli CE's. I forget what reasons I had for choosing this source over the rest, but out of the 5 or 6 sources I had dug up, I figured this was the safest bet. They were not the cheapest- but their pricing did figure into why I chose them first. I received my sticks in about a week. Everything went off without a hitch. And, as it turns out, they have been solid ever since. However, at this point in '06, I was still experimenting, so...
I figured I would try another source. December of '06. I bought two boxes, I believe at different times. Monte #2's, and VR Clasicos. The Monte's were a mixed bag, some smoking quite well, but quite a few plugged. Towards the end of this box, I encountered 2 or 3 cigars that were bitter and flat. Which got me wondering. As far as the Clasicos were concerned, I never did get a good stick out of that box. Still have more than half a box in the humi today. All plugged, save for one or two, but none with rich flavor I remembered VR to have. So that got me really wondering...
After a couple of months pondering this, I did some homework and inspected my boxes. I began with looking for the Habanos emblem to be branded into the box. Both boxes were stamped, not branded. And while I could not find anything conclusive regarding the Monte #2's, I did notice other peculiar things about the Clasicos box. The color of the wrappers of the cigars were neither consistent, nor were they laid in order from dark to light(or light to dark) wrapper. Just laid at random, a few darker, then a couple lighter, and a couple lighter colored sticks alone amongst darker colored sticks.
But the kicker for me was that the VR bands were not embossed. I had smoked others that I thought had embossed bands. So began more research, and I discovered that while there are other brands of CC's that use bands which are not embossed, the VR line happens to use bands that [u]are[/u] embossed.
So, while the Monte #2's were certainly suspect, I found the VR Clasicos to most likely be counterfeit(In my inexperienced opinion). I have since only used my one first source, with the exception of one other source, whom I've also found to be reliable, if not a little more expensive.
So, I don't know. That's my admittedly inexperienced experience ::) with CC counterfeits.
Anyone else?
My experience: I bought my first box from a source in late 2006. Boli CE's. I forget what reasons I had for choosing this source over the rest, but out of the 5 or 6 sources I had dug up, I figured this was the safest bet. They were not the cheapest- but their pricing did figure into why I chose them first. I received my sticks in about a week. Everything went off without a hitch. And, as it turns out, they have been solid ever since. However, at this point in '06, I was still experimenting, so...
I figured I would try another source. December of '06. I bought two boxes, I believe at different times. Monte #2's, and VR Clasicos. The Monte's were a mixed bag, some smoking quite well, but quite a few plugged. Towards the end of this box, I encountered 2 or 3 cigars that were bitter and flat. Which got me wondering. As far as the Clasicos were concerned, I never did get a good stick out of that box. Still have more than half a box in the humi today. All plugged, save for one or two, but none with rich flavor I remembered VR to have. So that got me really wondering...
After a couple of months pondering this, I did some homework and inspected my boxes. I began with looking for the Habanos emblem to be branded into the box. Both boxes were stamped, not branded. And while I could not find anything conclusive regarding the Monte #2's, I did notice other peculiar things about the Clasicos box. The color of the wrappers of the cigars were neither consistent, nor were they laid in order from dark to light(or light to dark) wrapper. Just laid at random, a few darker, then a couple lighter, and a couple lighter colored sticks alone amongst darker colored sticks.
But the kicker for me was that the VR bands were not embossed. I had smoked others that I thought had embossed bands. So began more research, and I discovered that while there are other brands of CC's that use bands which are not embossed, the VR line happens to use bands that [u]are[/u] embossed.
So, while the Monte #2's were certainly suspect, I found the VR Clasicos to most likely be counterfeit(In my inexperienced opinion). I have since only used my one first source, with the exception of one other source, whom I've also found to be reliable, if not a little more expensive.
So, I don't know. That's my admittedly inexperienced experience ::) with CC counterfeits.
Anyone else?