I am a flight attendant on a German charter airline and have been flying to Cuba for many years.The good cigars i brought back easily and bought at the factories for way cheaper as in Europe are all gone. Prices insane. Your video info here is top notch
Not sure what this has to do with anything. Cigars are from Dominican too, Honduras too, mezico, brazil,.. And Nicaragua is nothinf like cuba and its communism
I found this fascinating. Thanks for breaking down all that you've read and discussed with well positioned people in the industry in such a digestible way, with salient points all covered and no irritating pointless tangents to confuse your viewers. Good stuff!
I got back into cigars at the start of the year, and besides one Romeo y Julieta, every Cuban cigar I had was a letdown. I even had a Partagas and another Romeo y Julieta, but both of them gave the impression that the tobacco wasn't properly cured or fermented for long enough (all from the German market). On the bright side, I feel like it's the most exciting time to explore new world and boutique cigar brands. Additionally, I find it more satisfying to support private companies rather than a socialist regime. Cheers!
I agree with a lot of your points.... was there last year and the sad reality is there were massive power cuts everywhere. Beyond everything you said - imagine not having a good night's sleep and then expected to perform well the next day and the result is the sub-par construction. I genuinely hope the situation improves for all of them or the exodus will wipe enough talent away that there is no going back. What Cuba needs and Habanos will not do is take a break for a year - just throttle back and rebuild from the ground up (literally and agriculturally) - once the product is back to levels - sell it and charge what they have to...
🙏🏼 Thank you for the insight. I have my stash of Habanos and have not purchased anymore since the price spike. Hoping things stabilize within the next few years before I have to replenish my supply 🤞🏼
Great video, living here in Southern California, we have a LCDH just across the border in Tijuana. An hour&half drive and i have Cuban cigars. But the quality of a Padron, a Fuente a Davidoff and so many new world cigars is hard to justify the price and drive just for a Cuban. Cuban cigars will always have their very own distinct taste and flavor, that will always be there and no one can duplicate it, but the New World cigars are amazing!!
@@ThePaintwurks with all due respect, a good Cuban beats a perfect NC. its something in the Cuban soil and the twang that comes with it, the Cubans know this very well.
@@waleed8530 Different doesn't equal better. New world cigars being better or worse than Cuban cigars is simply taste preference, and no indication of quality.
I wish you all in Europe had access to more new worlds beyond the typical Davidoff, Padron etc. the newer stuff coming out from the boutique brands is outstanding.
There is access. But people in Europe are blindly convinced that Cubans are miles ahead of new world, but unfortunately for them.....new world cigars have surpassed Cuban cigars in more ways than 1..... Cuban quality control is nowhere near the new world, the farms are over farmed, etc etc..... it's nowhere near what they once were.....
Hello from Canada. My friend went to Cuba in March. I gave her a long list of cigars to pick up at the government store. She wasn’t able to purchase any of the cigars on my list. The supply available in Cuba seemed very low. Quality was however very high on the cigars she did buy. I got lucky.
yes very low, i bought a whole box of h upmann no2, it was dry, and they purposefully took the original box away and give my a partagas box, don't know why they did that
everything you said is true , but your angry at 20$ a stick in europe , we in the middle east the same stick sometimes cost up to 150$ , that's why we now go for non cuban brands because of QC , when we pay a high premium we expect nothing but the best , now cuban cigars sometimes not worth paying for
I work in a cigar shop. I have rarely seen sunspots on those we carry. There are so many other manufacturers now that produce wonderful cigars that I don’t understand the whole obsession with Cuban cigars. Arturo Fuente, JC Newman, Perdomo, La Flor Dominicana, My Father, Drew Estate, CLE, AJ Fernandez, Oscar V, Camacho, etc. Just to name a few.
I smoked and loved cuban cigars for almost 20 years now, and I've seen a lot, brands being scraped and founded, historical vitolas being discontinued and new ones being introduced, price fluctuations of every kind, but I have to say it has come to a point that it's not worth anymore. the overall quality is in decline, the manufacture quality is in decline, and the prices on the wild rise, even before the pricing crisis. the sad thing is that there is almost nothing like a good cuban cigar but there are almost no good cuban cigars being produced anyway. I hope they can fix this whole situation in the coming years, but I'm really not sure of it. In the meantime I'll go with good quality new world cigars.
@@waleed8530 They're for lovers of full bodied flavour but the brand itself...I'm watching them with regards to quality and consistency. Once standards drop in ANY business, it's time to sound the alarm.
@@waleed8530 I'm in the UK where there are no issues with Cuaba being known for this 'plugged/tight draw'' thing. All Cuban cigars(not those of Dominican or Nicaraguan etc origin) destined for sale in the United Kingdom are inspected before import by Hunters & Frankau otherwise they are rejected. All boxes have EMS certificates/stickers inside. If you are outside of the UK, please do consider a glory run to ol' Blighty and arrive with an empty suitcase so you can fill it with the very best quality cigars on the global market. Hopefully you can disavow yourself from this received wisdom that Cuaba are 'known for very tight draws'-- certainly not those of Cuban origin and most certainly not those that make it legally onto the UK market. Where people clip certain cigar types makes a difference too when it comes to draw. I wonder what your favourite, most consistently great, most regularly enjoyed smokes are? 😊
Excellent video. Just found your channel and I'm also from Sweden(Stockholm). Looking forward seeing all your videos and listen to the podcast. I'm a huge Davidoff fan and started collecting last year :-)
I like you love Cuban cigars. I guess Habano's new credo is "take it or leave it" pretty much. Nothing compares to that flavor profile and Cuban "twang" but Habanos in itself is horrific. I've heard countless (credible) stories about their shady ethics and tactics. At the end of the day, it's a repressed island and they work with what they've got. It's appauling to see how something so prestigeous and exquisite as the Habanos brand has been totally tarnished, is losing it's glamour, and quality standards are headed out the window. Hopefully they will some how/ some way right this wrong.
And I thought it was me. I used to enjoy Cuban over 15 years ago and although I am not an expert I could notice issues now I got back to the sport. Also I am shocked at the quality other are putting forward now. Thanks for this video!
I’m still quite new to the cigar world but ref prices of Cubans I don’t hate that they have had a serious price increase. If your product is being sold for a much higher prices over the world I can see as a business move you would want to as a luxury hand made brand consolidate prices globally. If you can afford to fly to say Spain and back and buy cubans and bring them back to say the U.K. and there still cheaper than buying cigars in the U.K. that’s a problem. My sincere hope was portions of these increases would hopefully end up in the hands of the rollers and help to create a more balanced and sustainable market. Do I feel like I’m getting ripped off when I hear all these stories and prices from old yes. But I’m the new guard and us new guard we will be used to this prices within a year or two and it will be the norm. What should have happened was smaller increases over the course of a few years rather than one massive one. But also if you don’t have rollers, don’t have raw material then what’s left has to be sold at a much higher price to support the business now or it won’t be there. I personally prefer new world as I prefer a better draw. I like the tobacco taste from Cuba but the draw mainly is rubbish. I’ve had at least 3 bad Cubans in the last 6 months and no bad new world ever. I also heard but don’t know how true it is that the Asian market has bought half the stock supply from Cuba. IF this is true by bets are the countries that supported Cuba all these years will get the lesser quality or uglier cigars as they are breaking into this massive new market. We all know that this price increases where matched to the Asian market in the first place. Also if we all flock to new world cigars and everybody stops buying Cubans do you really think the new world prices will stay where they are? Here in the U.K. the cheapest you can buy a handmade cigar is around £10.00. Taxes here are high I get that but I bought 5 AJ Fernandez robustos for £45.00 from turkey 2 months ago. U.K. price for the same pack £120. It’s only a matter of time before we have the same convo.
I'm over in the UK. You can see the drop in supply on websites. So many Cigars are out if stock. Punch punch are pretty much gone from the market. Very sad.
Try some of the regional stores - R Graham, Havana House etc in Brigjton, Cambridge, Oxford, up north. It's sad to see the price rises and crazy taxes.
Thanks for the inside baseball. Very articulate & knowledgeable. Was thinking of purchasing some cubanos via Switzerland, however I’m now reconsidering. Muchísimas gracias.
I noticed in my Bolivar Royal Corona there are sunspots. Past three years, Cubans have been awful in taste. Trinidad and Cohiba, I feel, are excellent still but paying a heavy price. I'm figuring out Costa Rican cigars taste very similar to older Cubans. I wonder why more people aren't speaking about it.
Eh, they don’t taste that similar but it’s close enough. There’s a certain other country that can match Cubans in complexity which I won’t mention here.
Fascinating stuff. I really enjoy your content, it is so interesting and informative. I’m sticking more to Davidoff cigars recently due to price hike and availability. I’m struggling to get some standard production Cubans. But seriously, I had to re wind your video twice as I couldn’t believe the wages in Cuba, disgraceful. Thanks for posting a great video!!!
Stick to Davidoff. That’s what I did. It’s nuts that’s box of partagas D4, for example, is about 50% more than my favourite Davidoff Dominicana Robustos. It’s insane as Davidoff is the better cigar in every regard.
You are 10,000% correct. Cuba’s process is self-imploding. But the European and Asian market continues to buy so wont really impact them. Give me a Davidoff or Fuente any day. They are obsessed with quality.
in many European markets, Non Cubans outsell Cubans. And the same thing is happening in Asia as well. Take Thailand and Malaysia for example. Even in Hong Kong there is an uptick in sales of Non Cubans. Pacific Cigars, the official Habanos distributor, is now selling Non Cubans in their lounges and stores all over Asia.
Cuba is beating a dead horse thats riding on their reputation as producing "the best cigars in the world". Not only are they facing serious crises on an agricultural level but my personal experience is that with the top tier brands like Trinidad and Cohiba 1/10 is plugged, while the general brands like Partagas about 1/4 or 5 are plugged or atleast super tight. Like everything in Cuba its extremely mismanaged. I live in a country with high levels of corruption and one cannot understand how non sensical such corrupt governments run until you've seen it and lived it. One would think Cuba would put all resources toward sugar cane and tobacco farming since that keeps them going(barely) but yet due to extreme mismanagemt and corruption this is not being done. Apparently medical doctors earn about $40 per month from the government and work extra jobs in order to make a living. A skilled and fast roller can earn 100x plus what they earn in cuba by doing the same job in Nicaragua whilst having better living and working conditions. When I started smoking cigars I only smoked cuban since it was very easily available at the time, now most tobacconists in my country stock about 70-80% New World brands and 20-30% Cuban. There is even one tobacconist near me that doesn't stock any Cuban brands. Why? Well its overpriced for what you get, it really sucks to pay top dollar for a plugged cigar and they are really not that special. Look I have a few Cuban favourites, but I don't like the idea of supporting Cuba in any way. And above all cuban tobacco is IMO not better, its different, and to your palate it might be better, but to my palate it just tastes like premium tobacco. Since the US trade embargo, so many different cultivars and methods of growing, curing etc have evolved outside of cuba. Meanwhile cuban farmers dont even have proper curing barns. I am fully convinced that the demand is so high purely because of the reputation Cuban tobacco has. If you are really smoking for the flavour, you'll find some amazing non-cubans!
Honduran Punch Pita = Box of 25 shipped to GA USA for $93 .... burn GREAT TAste good... Oliva O .... $130 shipped for box of 20 ... I'll stick w/ NIC, Honduras and DR !!!
Cigars are very expensive in Australia.A few years ago I ordered some from the USA which arrive in the mail tax free if border don't pick it up.Rocky Patel,Oliva,Arturo etc.My opinion, no way they are as nice as a good Cuban.
Take a $50 or $100 dollar bill and watch it burn, this is what you do every time you smoke an ridiculously overpriced Cuban cigars compared to a $9. Perdomo or Nicaragua cigar.
Not sure or familiar with Swedish shops but I can say from direct experience that the sticks received in London and the U.K. as well as the Nederlands were fine. Yes, the situation in Cuba is bad and hurracane Ian of Aug 2022 jacked them up, but i completely disagree with the quality you mention but my experience is far different than yours and you can opine on your direct experience but what you experience is 180 degrees different than what I am experiencing.
I had my first sunspots on a cohiba siglo 2, bought in the uk, I live in the uk but fly through denmark for work and pick up duty free boxes of partagas 4 and Monte Opens and not had any with sunspots, my favourite i buy in the uk are EWS cubana and never has any issues, don\t know if EWS inspect the cohiba turbos
Extremely interesting to hear this talk from europe. I am in us and we only get new world stuff, but we have all of them at our fingertips. We still revere cubans here rationally or not, they are a rare delicacy! Sad to hear that our dream cigars have declined in consistency and quality.
Thanks for a very informative video. And just follow your standard for How people on the flor should be treated. Only the consumer Can change that. Thanks 🙏🏼
yeah the problem is many Cigars if you are struggling to get them, there is a chance the person selling them to you are selling Counterfeits.. or they are only able to get factory Seconds, (ones that failed Quality control) so they sell you what they can get, but selling to you at I am guessing at full Retail for QCP, that sucks have you tried to get them through a deferent vender????
I'm from a small town and my local cigar shop is selling me Cuban cigars from their humidor for retail prices from before the price hike 😅 I'm spending all I can to fill up my humidor before they're on to me. Hearing the sad news in this video only confirms for me that it's now or never
Don't buy the hype that Cuban cigars are good. But in the 1940's America Cigar makers went on a campaign to cheat America cigar smokers. They advertise that Cuban tobacco was great and that they should smoke cigars made with Cuban tobacco. When in reality it was a total sham. American Cigar makers at the time could get dirty cheap tobacco from Cuba and make expensive cigars. Well it backfired when President Kennedy put a ban on Cuban Cigars. Then all of sudden no one wanted to smoke cigars anymore if they couldn't get Cuban tobacco.
As a fan of Cuban cigars, I can say that sunspots are not a problem for me at all. Ramon Allones no. 3 tastes great, is difficult to obtain and quickly disappears from the shelves. The biggest problem with Cuban cigars is that they are currently quite expensive, difficult to buy even in countries where they are legal. Quality of CC went up IMO. Cheers from Poland.
Contrary to general opinion I tried my first Cuban ( relatively new to cigars) and was my best smoke yet. The only one I actually picked flavours from. Might have been lucky.
The dud rate is a deal breaker for me, i can not justify spending such high prices on cigars that have a 10%-20% dud rate. that is just silly. i have never had a bad Davidoff cigar.
Well said....I agree with you 100%. I am transitioning my cigar collection towards the best of the New World which are superior in many ways to Cuban cigars. I live in the UK so have always been banged on cigar prices but now it has become insane. Here's to New World cigars.
Lately some of my cubans have been rolled pretty tight. Also the boxes I have been getting kinda started to looked counterfeit. I tried to check the authenticy on the Habanos website and the website is not responding when I type in my barcode number. But yea I've been noticing it's hit n miss if you will with the new stuff I've been getting, I found your channel bc I was trying to see if my new stuff was fake, but it makes sense now.
All the sunspots mean is that they're growing faster then ever. The best cigars I've ever smoked were the ones I've smoked without blabbing. Yes. I've blabbed. Spell check won't even work on this. Turn your cam off and smoke. Oh yeah, keep on smokin'.. peace.
I just came back from Canada and after paying $60 CA, bought a cohiba siglo. It was a petite corona. The first thing I'm going to say is the flavor was terrible. It tasted like rotted eggs. Maybe that's the "cuban twang" I don't know, but I didn't care for it. The other thing is, the cigar construction was horrible! The thing fell apart once the band was gone. I smoked a 1964 Padron Presidente a day or so before, and I'll say that cigar blew the cuban out of the water. The flavor was amazing and complex and rich! Construction was impeccable and to top it off, I paid $25 dollars for that stick. Sorry, but Cuban cigars, in my book, are mostly hype. If they ever were good, they aren't anymore.
So what? We simply got into a period of low supply and high demand. Guess what: that means just higher prices. There is no issue. I smoke about 30 cigars per month mostly from cuba and a little bit from Nicaragua. Habanos positioned Trinidad and Cohiba as ultra premium brands. And there are certainly enough people willing to pay for it. And even if not: every afficionado knows some great alternatives in the second tier brands such as H. Upmann, Montechristo etc.
A fantastically informative clip. Thank you. Can you suggest a company who ships to Europe and uk? There seem a lot of dubious options out there that look like they may be supplying fakes.
Shame and bad situation for cuban workers. I bet that Castro still gets the best for himself and the cuban communist parties as well. Like any other communist country, let the workers pay the bill and the politician get the rewarding. Shame !!
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with Cuban cigars. If you can find them, the quality is lacking and they’re overpriced. I’ve got a good 100 in stock that I’m slowly smoking, but my focus is even more on new world cigars. Luckily, more and more of them are available here in Europe. Probably because they see an opportunity here with the hole Cubans are leaving.
Thanks for the video, I am in agriculture in the US and some of the fertilizer prices here have been insanely high, the same with many agricultural chemicals. It’s starting to come down but I doubt I’ll see prices like they were 4 years ago again. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be in Cuba, all their materials must be imported. It’s a shame the government is what it is and resists the changes that would improve the entire country.
bought in havana habanos store, the whole box of h upmann has damage on the wraper, is just bad, and expensive, plus the robinas and stuffs, was jist bad. I was there December, but still have hopr for them, but not recently. the non Cubans are packing better quality overall
If only the government would allow the Cuban people private ownership of business. I have a feeling quality and quantity would skyrocket in short order.
I tried very few cuban cigars, but the price is f*** ridiculous, now I smoke cheap and sublime dominican cigars and italian cigars, at last it depends on the taste of a person.
I recently bought two Bolivars and one had those spots and one didn't. I had no idea what the spots were. Both burned perfectly and good draw. Flavor was good and changed very little to the end. Good flavor but not great.
And I love Cuban Cigar but the way the quality Cuban went downhill it’s not worth the money. It a shame. And $15 usd a month for a roller is unconscionable.
Out of hundreds of H. Upmann cigars I purchased three out of five were plugged, while Partagas tasted wonderful, the burn was horrendous. Out of the hundreds of Padrón I have purchased they taste and burn wonderfully. When it comes to $100+ punches versus $30-$$35 purchases, I will stick to Padrón. Well-constructed, powerful flavor bombs.
I am from Canada. I bought a box of Partagas Mille Fleurs and I can tell you 7 of them are plug. I mean 7! Yes the Mille Fleurs is not Cohiba or Trinidad but common now I paid for a box. I understand may be 3 but for God sake 7!
as always great video and content... but answer this for me... why do they keep on churning out new limited editions and vitolas and create hype when supply of tobacco is so dire... why not focus on production of staple lines ... but all in all a very bad situation and all this fueling snobbery sadly to whats the supposed to be a brotherhood of cigar smoking,...
No thanks Cuba. We get way too many options and varities from new world to even bother w Cubans. And not to mention, awesome affordability. Gotta love the beauty of access too from the States.
@@sashidemedia defining the overpriced average price of a mass-market “new world” There are too many brands using the same producers and same factories.
I think until the community starts speaking out like this and stops glorifying the annual habanos festival, nothing will change. They’ll continue to produce crap and tell the world that they’re having “their best year ever”. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Loved your content Chief! Maybe it's time you round up these undercompensated veteran rollers, along with some serious cigar aficionados, willing to invest in tobacco farms outside of Cuba. Preserve the Cuban heritage, practice fair trade to make a positive impact, and reasonably mark up your final products with a Swedish twist ~ you'll have orders lined up beyond your borders!
That was already done decades ago after the Cuban Revolution with New World cigars in Dominican Republic…plus they won’t taste the same anyhow. There’s something about the minerals in the soil in Cuba.
A tight draw on a cigar is when drawing smoke into your mouth takes a lot of effort; it makes for an unpleasant smoking experience as it often leads to poor smoke and a bad burn. There can be many reasons for a tight draw, and from the manufacturing angle, it could indicate an under-trained roller. It could also indicate too many stems, or a big stem, in the cigar, which might be a quality control issue.
@MonkBitz thanks! I inherently hated cigars that smoked like that but I thought it was just me. Makes smoking feel like work and they seem to go out easy. I assumed a tight draw was a good thing. Glad to know the real reasons!
What's interesting to me and very off topic but I am surprised that here in the United States there aren't even more tobacco production than there currently is. The US has some of the richest cleanest farmland in the world that's why we have some of the best farmers in the world especially in PA we could probably grow some very very good tobacco and produce very high quality cigars.
I’m yet to smoke a decent Cuban cigar. I have about 40 Cubans in my humidor and once again today, I was let down. Even the H Upman magnum I had last night was rubbish. I don’t think Cubans are worth it at all.
Perhaps its a good thing. The illusion that cuban cigars are the best has to be shattered sometime. There are far superior offerings on the market these days. The only thing keeping cuban cigars elevated to this prestige status is nostalgia Its essentially an old wives tale at this point, its been said so many times that cubans are the best that people that dont even smoke cigars constantly ask if what im smoking is a cuban. Tell a lie often and loud enough, and it will become the truth.
True,things are going down in term of quality,because with the current prices you expect impeccable quality,and unfortunately Habanos SA has a mediocre quality control system !
The prices really have driven me away. Just not worth it anymore. Really a shame.
Do swich to dofrent ones.then Cuban ?or stop smoking ? I trying new word cigars and they taste really good they also hal a price 😊
New World cigars prices are the same with Cuban cigars
@phosphorusdaemon7 I don't know where you live but in the US New world cigars are much less money. Maybe not the case for you.
@@loungeisalivecigars I live in Greece
@@phosphorusdaemon7 Where do you order from?
I am a flight attendant on a German charter airline and have been flying to Cuba for many years.The good cigars i brought back easily and bought at the factories for way cheaper as in Europe are all gone. Prices insane. Your video info here is top notch
Very sad for the Cuban people let alone a massive shortage..i can’t imagine how high the prices will continue to increase 😢
Nicaragua lives under a cruel dictatorship.
Not sure what this has to do with anything. Cigars are from Dominican too, Honduras too, mezico, brazil,.. And Nicaragua is nothinf like cuba and its communism
This is really sad! I don’t think we’ll ever see Cuban cigars again
true, Ortega is a dictator and very cruel, but Nicaraguans are not as badly suppressed as the Cuban people.@@Varias_Variaveis
The people don’t see any of the profits. It all goes to the government.
I found this fascinating. Thanks for breaking down all that you've read and discussed with well positioned people in the industry in such a digestible way, with salient points all covered and no irritating pointless tangents to confuse your viewers. Good stuff!
I got back into cigars at the start of the year, and besides one Romeo y Julieta, every Cuban cigar I had was a letdown. I even had a Partagas and another Romeo y Julieta, but both of them gave the impression that the tobacco wasn't properly cured or fermented for long enough (all from the German market). On the bright side, I feel like it's the most exciting time to explore new world and boutique cigar brands. Additionally, I find it more satisfying to support private companies rather than a socialist regime. Cheers!
Same with me. I found Joya Red from Nicaragua to match my taste. Maybe you will like it too.
Quality is in steady decline, availability is in decline, prices are triple what they should be and still climbing. There's no reason to buy them.
I agree with a lot of your points.... was there last year and the sad reality is there were massive power cuts everywhere. Beyond everything you said - imagine not having a good night's sleep and then expected to perform well the next day and the result is the sub-par construction. I genuinely hope the situation improves for all of them or the exodus will wipe enough talent away that there is no going back. What Cuba needs and Habanos will not do is take a break for a year - just throttle back and rebuild from the ground up (literally and agriculturally) - once the product is back to levels - sell it and charge what they have to...
🙏🏼 Thank you for the insight. I have my stash of Habanos and have not purchased anymore since the price spike. Hoping things stabilize within the next few years before I have to replenish my supply 🤞🏼
Great video, living here in Southern California, we have a LCDH just across the border in Tijuana. An hour&half drive and i have Cuban cigars. But the quality of a Padron, a Fuente a Davidoff and so many new world cigars is hard to justify the price and drive just for a Cuban. Cuban cigars will always have their very own distinct taste and flavor, that will always be there and no one can duplicate it, but the New World cigars are amazing!!
And much better,,,,,for every Cuban blend there's a new world blend that beats it
@@ThePaintwurks with all due respect, a good Cuban beats a perfect NC. its something in the Cuban soil and the twang that comes with it, the Cubans know this very well.
@@waleed8530 Different doesn't equal better. New world cigars being better or worse than Cuban cigars is simply taste preference, and no indication of quality.
Watch out for Moises at LCDH TJ. Sells a bunch of fake Cubans
I wish you all in Europe had access to more new worlds beyond the typical Davidoff, Padron etc. the newer stuff coming out from the boutique brands is outstanding.
question about consistency and legacy
@@armen163 ?
There is access. But people in Europe are blindly convinced that Cubans are miles ahead of new world, but unfortunately for them.....new world cigars have surpassed Cuban cigars in more ways than 1.....
Cuban quality control is nowhere near the new world, the farms are over farmed, etc etc..... it's nowhere near what they once were.....
@cigar.alchemist any suggestions? I'm looking to try out other options
What brands are you recommending? 👀
Thank you for shedding lights on a very ambiguous situation with Cuban Cigars global shortage
Hello from Canada. My friend went to Cuba in March. I gave her a long list of cigars to pick up at the government store. She wasn’t able to purchase any of the cigars on my list. The supply available in Cuba seemed very low. Quality was however very high on the cigars she did buy. I got lucky.
yes very low, i bought a whole box of h upmann no2, it was dry, and they purposefully took the original box away and give my a partagas box, don't know why they did that
@@baba-vh7hb it's cause they're fake
It's because they are shipping the majority of boxes to China, they are willing to pay more.
everything you said is true , but your angry at 20$ a stick in europe , we in the middle east the same stick sometimes cost up to 150$ , that's why we now go for non cuban brands because of QC , when we pay a high premium we expect nothing but the best , now cuban cigars sometimes not worth paying for
In Europe they are 20 sterling not dollar
He's right to be angry at $20 cigars when the quality is that of a $10 cigar.
A very conscientious take on the current situation. Thank you for sharing.
I work in a cigar shop. I have rarely seen sunspots on those we carry. There are so many other manufacturers now that produce wonderful cigars that I don’t understand the whole obsession with Cuban cigars. Arturo Fuente, JC Newman, Perdomo, La Flor Dominicana, My Father, Drew Estate, CLE, AJ Fernandez, Oscar V, Camacho, etc. Just to name a few.
It's the mystique, plain and simple.
Smoked an Arturo Fuente Don Carlos today that had two huge sunspots.
I smoked and loved cuban cigars for almost 20 years now, and I've seen a lot, brands being scraped and founded, historical vitolas being discontinued and new ones being introduced, price fluctuations of every kind, but I have to say it has come to a point that it's not worth anymore. the overall quality is in decline, the manufacture quality is in decline, and the prices on the wild rise, even before the pricing crisis. the sad thing is that there is almost nothing like a good cuban cigar but there are almost no good cuban cigars being produced anyway. I hope they can fix this whole situation in the coming years, but I'm really not sure of it. In the meantime I'll go with good quality new world cigars.
I've got my narrowed eyes on Cuaba-- something is wrong with that brand.
@@ciganyweaverandherperiwink6293 smoked a Cuaba once, never again.
@@waleed8530 They're for lovers of full bodied flavour but the brand itself...I'm watching them with regards to quality and consistency. Once standards drop in ANY business, it's time to sound the alarm.
@@ciganyweaverandherperiwink6293 mine wasn’t a flavor profile issue, but Cuaba has a reputation of plugged cigars or VERY tight draw.
@@waleed8530 I'm in the UK where there are no issues with Cuaba being known for this 'plugged/tight draw'' thing. All Cuban cigars(not those of Dominican or Nicaraguan etc origin) destined for sale in the United Kingdom are inspected before import by Hunters & Frankau otherwise they are rejected. All boxes have EMS certificates/stickers inside. If you are outside of the UK, please do consider a glory run to ol' Blighty and arrive with an empty suitcase so you can fill it with the very best quality cigars on the global market. Hopefully you can disavow yourself from this received wisdom that Cuaba are 'known for very tight draws'-- certainly not those of Cuban origin and most certainly not those that make it legally onto the UK market. Where people clip certain cigar types makes a difference too when it comes to draw. I wonder what your favourite, most consistently great, most regularly enjoyed smokes are? 😊
Love your pronunciation man, really crystal clear.
Excellent video. Just found your channel and I'm also from Sweden(Stockholm). Looking forward seeing all your videos and listen to the podcast. I'm a huge Davidoff fan and started collecting last year :-)
Ramon Allones No3 typically retailing at £41.00 per stick in UK!
I paid €45 for an Upmann Magnum 46 tubo in Madrid. I consider it a collector’s item 🤣
I have been enjoying Cuban cigars since 1980. I totally agree with you. I moved to Nicarayua cigars. I won’t fall victim to this debacle
I like you love Cuban cigars. I guess Habano's new credo is "take it or leave it" pretty much. Nothing compares to that flavor profile and Cuban "twang" but Habanos in itself is horrific. I've heard countless (credible) stories about their shady ethics and tactics. At the end of the day, it's a repressed island and they work with what they've got. It's appauling to see how something so prestigeous and exquisite as the Habanos brand has been totally tarnished, is losing it's glamour, and quality standards are headed out the window. Hopefully they will some how/ some way right this wrong.
Thank you for this information. Very needed and helpful.
And I thought it was me. I used to enjoy Cuban over 15 years ago and although I am not an expert I could notice issues now I got back to the sport. Also I am shocked at the quality other are putting forward now. Thanks for this video!
The walkin humidors in the LCDH shops in Havana are about 5-10% capacity of what i have seen in the past and the Havana Melia humidor is empty.
If you have a moral quandry with Cuban cigars, then don't look into how your smartphone was made. Or your shoes, car, computer, shirt, etc...
dont make it right regardless
Well my boots, car and shirts were all made in UK but if I can't fix everything, may as well fix nothing
I’m still quite new to the cigar world but ref prices of Cubans I don’t hate that they have had a serious price increase. If your product is being sold for a much higher prices over the world I can see as a business move you would want to as a luxury hand made brand consolidate prices globally. If you can afford to fly to say Spain and back and buy cubans and bring them back to say the U.K. and there still cheaper than buying cigars in the U.K. that’s a problem. My sincere hope was portions of these increases would hopefully end up in the hands of the rollers and help to create a more balanced and sustainable market. Do I feel like I’m getting ripped off when I hear all these stories and prices from old yes. But I’m the new guard and us new guard we will be used to this prices within a year or two and it will be the norm. What should have happened was smaller increases over the course of a few years rather than one massive one. But also if you don’t have rollers, don’t have raw material then what’s left has to be sold at a much higher price to support the business now or it won’t be there. I personally prefer new world as I prefer a better draw. I like the tobacco taste from Cuba but the draw mainly is rubbish. I’ve had at least 3 bad Cubans in the last 6 months and no bad new world ever. I also heard but don’t know how true it is that the Asian market has bought half the stock supply from Cuba. IF this is true by bets are the countries that supported Cuba all these years will get the lesser quality or uglier cigars as they are breaking into this massive new market. We all know that this price increases where matched to the Asian market in the first place. Also if we all flock to new world cigars and everybody stops buying Cubans do you really think the new world prices will stay where they are? Here in the U.K. the cheapest you can buy a handmade cigar is around £10.00. Taxes here are high I get that but I bought 5 AJ Fernandez robustos for £45.00 from turkey 2 months ago. U.K. price for the same pack £120. It’s only a matter of time before we have the same convo.
So true, my last Cuban cigars have been so poor, especially my last Bolivar was not smokeable… Davidoff never a issue.
Got a Punch 48 a couple days back and it has sunspots. Fun and games for £35.
My friend passed away and he left me all of his cigars and humidors. Lol! Now I have to figure out what to do with all of these cigars!
Honor his memory by smoking some of them!
I'm over in the UK. You can see the drop in supply on websites. So many Cigars are out if stock. Punch punch are pretty much gone from the market. Very sad.
Try some of the regional stores - R Graham, Havana House etc in Brigjton, Cambridge, Oxford, up north. It's sad to see the price rises and crazy taxes.
Thanks for the inside baseball. Very articulate & knowledgeable. Was thinking of purchasing some cubanos via Switzerland, however I’m now reconsidering. Muchísimas gracias.
I noticed in my Bolivar Royal Corona there are sunspots. Past three years, Cubans have been awful in taste. Trinidad and Cohiba, I feel, are excellent still but paying a heavy price. I'm figuring out Costa Rican cigars taste very similar to older Cubans. I wonder why more people aren't speaking about it.
Delete your comment. When you find a nugget of gold don’t tell anyone.
Eh, they don’t taste that similar but it’s close enough. There’s a certain other country that can match Cubans in complexity which I won’t mention here.
@@Viewer-ld5rcno there isn’t
Fascinating stuff. I really enjoy your content, it is so interesting and informative. I’m sticking more to Davidoff cigars recently due to price hike and availability. I’m struggling to get some standard production Cubans. But seriously, I had to re wind your video twice as I couldn’t believe the wages in Cuba, disgraceful. Thanks for posting a great video!!!
Stick to Davidoff. That’s what I did. It’s nuts that’s box of partagas D4, for example, is about 50% more than my favourite Davidoff Dominicana Robustos. It’s insane as Davidoff is the better cigar in every regard.
You are 10,000% correct.
Cuba’s process is self-imploding. But the European and Asian market continues to buy so wont really impact them.
Give me a Davidoff or Fuente any day. They are obsessed with quality.
in many European markets, Non Cubans outsell Cubans. And the same thing is happening in Asia as well. Take Thailand and Malaysia for example. Even in Hong Kong there is an uptick in sales of Non Cubans. Pacific Cigars, the official Habanos distributor, is now selling Non Cubans in their lounges and stores all over Asia.
Cuba is beating a dead horse thats riding on their reputation as producing "the best cigars in the world". Not only are they facing serious crises on an agricultural level but my personal experience is that with the top tier brands like Trinidad and Cohiba 1/10 is plugged, while the general brands like Partagas about 1/4 or 5 are plugged or atleast super tight. Like everything in Cuba its extremely mismanaged. I live in a country with high levels of corruption and one cannot understand how non sensical such corrupt governments run until you've seen it and lived it. One would think Cuba would put all resources toward sugar cane and tobacco farming since that keeps them going(barely) but yet due to extreme mismanagemt and corruption this is not being done. Apparently medical doctors earn about $40 per month from the government and work extra jobs in order to make a living. A skilled and fast roller can earn 100x plus what they earn in cuba by doing the same job in Nicaragua whilst having better living and working conditions. When I started smoking cigars I only smoked cuban since it was very easily available at the time, now most tobacconists in my country stock about 70-80% New World brands and 20-30% Cuban. There is even one tobacconist near me that doesn't stock any Cuban brands. Why? Well its overpriced for what you get, it really sucks to pay top dollar for a plugged cigar and they are really not that special. Look I have a few Cuban favourites, but I don't like the idea of supporting Cuba in any way. And above all cuban tobacco is IMO not better, its different, and to your palate it might be better, but to my palate it just tastes like premium tobacco. Since the US trade embargo, so many different cultivars and methods of growing, curing etc have evolved outside of cuba. Meanwhile cuban farmers dont even have proper curing barns. I am fully convinced that the demand is so high purely because of the reputation Cuban tobacco has. If you are really smoking for the flavour, you'll find some amazing non-cubans!
Way too expensive for non-wealthy people.
Honduran Punch Pita = Box of 25 shipped to GA USA for $93 ....
burn GREAT TAste good...
Oliva O .... $130 shipped for box of 20 ...
I'll stick w/ NIC, Honduras and DR !!!
I dont Care for Cuban Cigars for 2 Years now, got some Reserves, but the Quality is to low, for the Prices. Im now going with Davidoff.
Giving the soil a break so it can recover is biblical thousands of years ago 🤙🇺🇸
Nearly love cubans, except for the price. What are your top "Cubanesque" Non-Cuban cigars?
Bought two Lusitanias a year apart in London. £42 - £91!
More reason to smoke Davidoff, Fuente, and Padron. If you want to get the Cuban taste smoke My cigars and Tatuaje
Cigars are very expensive in Australia.A few years ago I ordered some from the USA which arrive in the mail tax free if border don't pick it up.Rocky Patel,Oliva,Arturo etc.My opinion, no way they are as nice as a good Cuban.
Take a $50 or $100 dollar bill and watch it burn, this is what you do every time you smoke an ridiculously overpriced Cuban cigars compared to a $9. Perdomo or Nicaragua cigar.
Not sure or familiar with Swedish shops but I can say from direct experience that the sticks received in London and the U.K. as well as the Nederlands were fine. Yes, the situation in Cuba is bad and hurracane Ian of Aug 2022 jacked them up, but i completely disagree with the quality you mention but my experience is far different than yours and you can opine on your direct experience but what you experience is 180 degrees different than what I am experiencing.
Same for me (in London)
The only bad cigars I have had have been from abroad- maybe the EMS is still the way to go
I had my first sunspots on a cohiba siglo 2, bought in the uk, I live in the uk but fly through denmark for work and pick up duty free boxes of partagas 4 and Monte Opens and not had any with sunspots, my favourite i buy in the uk are EWS cubana and never has any issues, don\t know if EWS inspect the cohiba turbos
Very Nice, mate
Extremely interesting to hear this talk from europe. I am in us and we only get new world stuff, but we have all of them at our fingertips. We still revere cubans here rationally or not, they are a rare delicacy! Sad to hear that our dream cigars have declined in consistency and quality.
Thanks for a very informative video. And just follow your standard for How people on the flor should be treated. Only the consumer Can change that. Thanks 🙏🏼
Nothing will change with the Cuban government.
yeah the problem is many Cigars if you are struggling to get them, there is a chance the person selling them to you are selling Counterfeits.. or they are only able to get factory Seconds, (ones that failed Quality control) so they sell you what they can get, but selling to you at I am guessing at full Retail for QCP, that sucks have you tried to get them through a deferent vender????
I have full box H. Upman . All of them got tight wrap. I bought draw tool just for that box. This is quality control issue.
I'm from a small town and my local cigar shop is selling me Cuban cigars from their humidor for retail prices from before the price hike 😅 I'm spending all I can to fill up my humidor before they're on to me. Hearing the sad news in this video only confirms for me that it's now or never
Don't buy the hype that Cuban cigars are good. But in the 1940's America Cigar makers went on a campaign to cheat America cigar smokers. They advertise that Cuban tobacco was great and that they should smoke cigars made with Cuban tobacco. When in reality it was a total sham. American Cigar makers at the time could get dirty cheap tobacco from Cuba and make expensive cigars. Well it backfired when President Kennedy put a ban on Cuban Cigars. Then all of sudden no one wanted to smoke cigars anymore if they couldn't get Cuban tobacco.
There are massive conflicts btw Habanos and LCDHs. LCDH chain isn't paying Habanos. Now I think they paused all supply to LCDHs at least in Cuba.
As a fan of Cuban cigars, I can say that sunspots are not a problem for me at all. Ramon Allones no. 3 tastes great, is difficult to obtain and quickly disappears from the shelves.
The biggest problem with Cuban cigars is that they are currently quite expensive, difficult to buy even in countries where they are legal. Quality of CC went up IMO. Cheers from Poland.
Contrary to general opinion I tried my first Cuban ( relatively new to cigars) and was my best smoke yet. The only one I actually picked flavours from.
Might have been lucky.
The dud rate is a deal breaker for me, i can not justify spending such high prices on cigars that have a 10%-20% dud rate. that is just silly. i have never had a bad Davidoff cigar.
Well said....I agree with you 100%. I am transitioning my cigar collection towards the best of the New World which are superior in many ways to Cuban cigars. I live in the UK so have always been banged on cigar prices but now it has become insane. Here's to New World cigars.
Lately some of my cubans have been rolled pretty tight. Also the boxes I have been getting kinda started to looked counterfeit. I tried to check the authenticy on the Habanos website and the website is not responding when I type in my barcode number. But yea I've been noticing it's hit n miss if you will with the new stuff I've been getting, I found your channel bc I was trying to see if my new stuff was fake, but it makes sense now.
Thank you for video and honesty.
I'm having issues with mold and unravelling with newer ones. My older ones are fine so I know it's not my storage conditions
I've had Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas , and H Uppman recently and haven't seen any sun spots .
Excellent report!
All the sunspots mean is that they're growing faster then ever. The best cigars I've ever smoked were the ones I've smoked without blabbing. Yes. I've blabbed. Spell check won't even work on this. Turn your cam off and smoke. Oh yeah, keep on smokin'.. peace.
Great to see you still around. So many learned so much from your channel. I know I certainly did. Wish we could have a chat, Anthony
I just came back from Canada and after paying $60 CA, bought a cohiba siglo. It was a petite corona. The first thing I'm going to say is the flavor was terrible. It tasted like rotted eggs. Maybe that's the "cuban twang" I don't know, but I didn't care for it. The other thing is, the cigar construction was horrible! The thing fell apart once the band was gone. I smoked a 1964 Padron Presidente a day or so before, and I'll say that cigar blew the cuban out of the water. The flavor was amazing and complex and rich! Construction was impeccable and to top it off, I paid $25 dollars for that stick. Sorry, but Cuban cigars, in my book, are mostly hype. If they ever were good, they aren't anymore.
So what? We simply got into a period of low supply and high demand. Guess what: that means just higher prices. There is no issue. I smoke about 30 cigars per month mostly from cuba and a little bit from Nicaragua. Habanos positioned Trinidad and Cohiba as ultra premium brands. And there are certainly enough people willing to pay for it. And even if not: every afficionado knows some great alternatives in the second tier brands such as H. Upmann, Montechristo etc.
A fantastically informative clip. Thank you. Can you suggest a company who ships to Europe and uk? There seem a lot of dubious options out there that look like they may be supplying fakes.
$15-20 seems insane. Quick search shows a very high cost of living by comparison.
Shame and bad situation for cuban workers. I bet that Castro still gets the best for himself and the cuban communist parties as well. Like any other communist country, let the workers pay the bill and the politician get the rewarding. Shame !!
Fidel is dead and Raul retired. Which Castro are you talking about?
Exactly what happens to us, we just don't realize it
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with Cuban cigars. If you can find them, the quality is lacking and they’re overpriced. I’ve got a good 100 in stock that I’m slowly smoking, but my focus is even more on new world cigars. Luckily, more and more of them are available here in Europe. Probably because they see an opportunity here with the hole Cubans are leaving.
Thanks for the video, I am in agriculture in the US and some of the fertilizer prices here have been insanely high, the same with many agricultural chemicals. It’s starting to come down but I doubt I’ll see prices like they were 4 years ago again. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be in Cuba, all their materials must be imported. It’s a shame the government is what it is and resists the changes that would improve the entire country.
Wonderful video, well-spoken. Bravo.
bought in havana habanos store, the whole box of h upmann has damage on the wraper, is just bad, and expensive, plus the robinas and stuffs, was jist bad. I was there December, but still have hopr for them, but not recently. the non Cubans are packing better quality overall
Honduras cigars are my vibes anyway.
Very informative.
If only the government would allow the Cuban people private ownership of business. I have a feeling quality and quantity would skyrocket in short order.
Excellent video & great information.
I tried very few cuban cigars, but the price is f*** ridiculous, now I smoke cheap and sublime dominican cigars and italian cigars, at last it depends on the taste of a person.
I have 16 cubans,8 behike,,8 upmann #2,,,I'm super blessed as I feel they are gonna be really rare soon
I recently bought two Bolivars and one had those spots and one didn't. I had no idea what the spots were. Both burned perfectly and good draw. Flavor was good and changed very little to the end. Good flavor but not great.
The solution is opening it up to the USA for their agriculture and letting in the big cigar makers in like Davidoff, Padron, Pepin Garcia etc
100 % with you brother with everything .
Cuban cigars are still a great way to flex your expendable income on social media.
And I love Cuban Cigar but the way the quality Cuban went downhill it’s not worth the money. It a shame. And $15 usd a month for a roller is unconscionable.
Out of hundreds of H. Upmann cigars I purchased three out of five were plugged, while Partagas tasted wonderful, the burn was horrendous. Out of the hundreds of Padrón I have purchased they taste and burn wonderfully. When it comes to $100+ punches versus $30-$$35 purchases, I will stick to Padrón. Well-constructed, powerful flavor bombs.
I am from Canada. I bought a box of Partagas Mille Fleurs and I can tell you 7 of them are plug. I mean 7! Yes the Mille Fleurs is not Cohiba or Trinidad but common now I paid for a box. I understand may be 3 but for God sake 7!
I bought a Hoyo De Monterey 2021 edicion limitada that has a sun spot on it lol
as always great video and content... but answer this for me... why do they keep on churning out new limited editions and vitolas and create hype when supply of tobacco is so dire... why not focus on production of staple lines ... but all in all a very bad situation and all this fueling snobbery sadly to whats the supposed to be a brotherhood of cigar smoking,...
No thanks Cuba. We get way too many options and varities from new world to even bother w Cubans. And not to mention, awesome affordability. Gotta love the beauty of access too from the States.
$12 for an average cigar stuffed with leaves sourced from all over Latin America. What a bargain 🙄
@@johnnymetallica1039 thanks for defining a cigar. Buy according to your budget!
@@sashidemedia defining the overpriced average price of a mass-market “new world” There are too many brands using the same producers and same factories.
I think until the community starts speaking out like this and stops glorifying the annual habanos festival, nothing will change. They’ll continue to produce crap and tell the world that they’re having “their best year ever”. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Loved your content Chief! Maybe it's time you round up these undercompensated veteran rollers, along with some serious cigar aficionados, willing to invest in tobacco farms outside of Cuba. Preserve the Cuban heritage, practice fair trade to make a positive impact, and reasonably mark up your final products with a Swedish twist ~ you'll have orders lined up beyond your borders!
That was already done decades ago after the Cuban Revolution with New World cigars in Dominican Republic…plus they won’t taste the same anyhow. There’s something about the minerals in the soil in Cuba.
Id like to hear more about a term you used. tight draw. You made no mention if that is good or bad. Do you have a video on that?
A tight draw on a cigar is when drawing smoke into your mouth takes a lot of effort; it makes for an unpleasant smoking experience as it often leads to poor smoke and a bad burn. There can be many reasons for a tight draw, and from the manufacturing angle, it could indicate an under-trained roller. It could also indicate too many stems, or a big stem, in the cigar, which might be a quality control issue.
@MonkBitz thanks! I inherently hated cigars that smoked like that but I thought it was just me. Makes smoking feel like work and they seem to go out easy. I assumed a tight draw was a good thing. Glad to know the real reasons!
Very informative video, thank you!
10 out of my 50 cuban cigars are Un-smokeable, a simple pre check before packaging could have avoided the issue, PICK IT UP CUBA THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE
What's interesting to me and very off topic but I am surprised that here in the United States there aren't even more tobacco production than there currently is. The US has some of the richest cleanest farmland in the world that's why we have some of the best farmers in the world especially in PA we could probably grow some very very good tobacco and produce very high quality cigars.
PA broadleaf is already used by Multiple cigar brands actually
The embargo needs to end. If Cuba received outside investment, so much would be possible for the people and economy.
There's nothing in the world like a cuban cigar.
I’m yet to smoke a decent Cuban cigar.
I have about 40 Cubans in my humidor and once again today, I was let down.
Even the H Upman magnum I had last night was rubbish.
I don’t think Cubans are worth it at all.
Perhaps its a good thing. The illusion that cuban cigars are the best has to be shattered sometime.
There are far superior offerings on the market these days. The only thing keeping cuban cigars elevated to this prestige status is nostalgia
Its essentially an old wives tale at this point, its been said so many times that cubans are the best that people that dont even smoke cigars constantly ask if what im smoking is a cuban.
Tell a lie often and loud enough, and it will become the truth.
Cheers thanks for the info…
True,things are going down in term of quality,because with the current prices you expect impeccable quality,and unfortunately Habanos SA has a mediocre quality control system !
The cost is outrageous and the quality is horrible for Cubans. The reputation of the ‘Cuban’ brand is at risk.
Important conversation