Counter top Cubans

[STEVEYB112]

Hello again Guys,

A while since I have been on....

Since taking up "The Leaf" just over a year ago, I stopped buying boxes of cigars as I just could not leave them alone...I was lighting up at every excuse, I was going through boxes at a crazy rate so I stopped buying them...Buy the box load at least

I limited myself to ONE cigar every saturday evening, a chain of off licenses in my area have small perspex humidor type affairs that have a very small selection of Tubos - Monte 4's, RYJ No 3, Bolivar No 1, Upmann corona Junior & Villiger nonsense...

I have been picking one or sometimes two a week at two or three different shops depending on where I was - And the quality has been getting worse and worse each week, to the point that I have simply stopped buying them...It seemed to be every other one was plugged, badly constructed or just bad...I thought it was bad luck and kept buying, but yesterday as it was my first weekend off since November I picked up three - A Bolivar, RYJ and an Upmann....

I got to the car, decided to fire up the Bolivar for the journey, and I opened it to a handful of wrapper...Slipped it out, rock hard, crumbling and dry! I then checked the other 2 - The RYJ was solid, and the Upmann had gone the same and was the size of a Lambert and Butler!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!

I went straight back in, and asked the lady at the counter could she exchange them as they were dry and unsmokable?

NO...No returns with Cigars....




I opened the tubes and showed her, and she looked back and asked me what the problem was - I said "There rock hard" - Take another from the Humidor and compare them - She took a Monte 4 and removed it, I felt it and it felt just right, soft but firm...and had that "Humi" velvety feel off it...She then inspected the Boli and the rest and little by little it began to sink in....

Eventually after 15 minutes after phone calls, walks down the back and tutting, she agreed to take them back and let me have three Monte 4's and pay the difference.

Now, initially when I first went back I suspected they had not been storing the cigars correctly, but the Montes were all perfect and smoked lovely...So what has happened?

From looking over my small cigar book I keep, my results for the Counter Top Calamities are as follows:

BOLIVAR NO 1 - 10 out of 15 poor

RYJ NO 3 - 11 out of 20 poor

Punch Coronation - 2 out of 10 poor

Monte 4 / Tubo - All good

[ValeTudoGuy]

If the Tubo was sealed then it shouldn't be drying out extremely quickly, one of our members smoked one after a couple decades in an un-humidified desk draw if I recall correctly.

The fact that one was the size of a lambert and butler sounds strange to me too.

But my issue with all of this would be that a retailer who won't stand by the quality of their items is not worth supporting in any shape or form.

If I were you and assuming you don't have a local enough tobacconist, I would personally get in the habit of on a Saturday buying a couple singles from one of the decent online UK stores. They will be delivered and should be in excellent smoking condition for the following Saturday if you pop it in a clip and clip.

Sorry I didn't directly answer your question, but I tried to address it in a round about way.

[Sean]

Ye i agree with marc they don't seem to have a clue wouldnt you want to pay a bit more for with delivery to ensure you have great well looked after stick

[cigarmo]

The montes had not been in the shop as long, monte being the most popular brand probably sell a lot quicker so they were good.

[tippexx]

...So what has happened?

Time.

The Monte are possibly 'new in' while the others have been kicking around the shop for a while. Humidity shouldn't be too great an issue with tubes, but temperature is, storing them close to a heat source will dry them out. Temperature control in major Supermarkets is religious, neither hot nor cold and tubos from Waitrose are fine. Temperature control somewhere like OddBins is probably down to the staff, and a lot of units are doors open with overhead heaters blasting away like Hades.

[monkey66]

Consider how much time and experience we all put into trying to keep our sticks half-smokable. Now consider most small retailers know almost nothing of this.

One scenario ...the humi could be dry for months and then humidified. This could happen on and off over several years impacting different stock at different times.