Additives

[MaledettoToscano]

...I've always thought that additives are something found mainly in machine made or flavoured cigars while handrolled long-fillers are tobacco and tobacco only, but I am slowly starting to think I might be wrong, so I was wondering what others thought and what experiences you have.

First of all, dyed cigars, especially on Maduro wrappers seem to be quite common. There's a few discussions out on the web about this (see here and here for example), where people observe getting dark fingers/lips after smoking dyed cigars. I must admit I have had one NC where I observed this myself. Now, I prefer for the things I like (be it 'gars, wine, spirits or human female mammary glands, aka boobs for the non-scientific among us) in their natural unadulterated state, so I don't really like the idea of someone coating my smokes with some gunk. Feels like cheating.

Having said that, I think that is not as bad as the next. When hot purging (see this discussion if you missed the purging video) most of the times with long fillers you get a short lived blue/multicoloured flame that should come from the tobacco by-products that don't completely burn-up while you smoke. Short fillers instead seem to always give huge flames (I had one going on for almost a minute, I looked like a dragon since I was in the dark ... ) in my limited experience, which I assume come from the additives in these plus the unburnt stuff.

Recently I've had 2 long filler NC where I got a slight chemical taste so I decided to purge and got... huge multicolured flames, just like a short filler. Additives? Who knows, but I can't get that out of my head. Considering that additives to cigars are unregulated (in the US for sure, not sure over here) I wouldn't be surprised...

anyone else had similar experiences? Maybe it is also interestig to note that I never had any of these issues with Cubans. Not to say that I think all NCs use additives, quite the contrary, but I suspect that at the lower end of the market that might not be too uncommon.

[daverave999]

Well consider me disappointed by this. The evidence in that video is quite surprising.
I'd noticed the outside of an Acid Kuba Kuba was sticky but of course that has additives as it is flavoured. I'd not even considered this might be done to 'normal' cigars too.

Perhaps this is why they suffer far fewer burn issues than Cubans? If they find it acceptable to colour the tobacco, it wouldn't surprise me to find they used other additives to control burning, etc.

[Lascaux]

i wouldnt be surprised. thats part of my issues with NCs, many use gimmicks and it seems now some use additives!

[kingcohiba]

ive found that darker cigars do tend to leave a bit of residue behind. id be tempted to believe that its just oils and such from the leaf itself. we tried this before several years ago when i heard a guy say macanudo dyed their maduro cigars. it only seems to happen big time when the cigar is as they said unnaturally black. i just tried it myself with a backwoods and the same thing happened. i dont think that backwoods cares much about how their wrappers look which is why i tried it with that cigar. somebody with a cohiba secreto or something should give this a try. if it is being done, and i think it is, then id say the cubans are surely in on it too? i cant think of any additives to put in a cigar to make it burn nice and even....that i think is something that happens in the rolling process. good work typically produces good results.

[Nuno Sa]

In pipe tobaccos there are some natural additives added in some brands and types of tobacco, natural additives that is.

[SeanP]

I've heard of 'painted' maduros but will hold my opinion on 'additives' until there is proof beyond speculation.

[G-man]

Some producers do dye their Maddy's but if you dye with tobacco dye made with colors pulled from other leafs there in my mind is no problem. As far as other additives maybe white owl Phillie use a powder to make their cigars burn even.As for the big names, I have been to multiple factories and Have never seen any of this happening.
It came to light years ago and has seem to stop. As far as using foreign dyes.If you smoke a maduro and it leaves a brown color that is translucent then its the oils. I you get a brown solid color then to me its dyed.
We talked about canoing and uneven burn many times,and if there were additives all NC cigars would burn perfectly! My $.02 and experience

[kingcohiba]

MIKEY!

you are back already! how ya feeling buddy? the knife cant keep a good man down!

[G-man]

Only if they cut off my hands! Thanks King

[jdawg]

Some producers do dye their Maddy's but if you dye with tobacco dye made with colors pulled from other leafs there in my mind is no problem. As far as other additives maybe white owl Phillie use a powder to make their cigars burn even.As for the big names, I have been to multiple factories and Have never seen any of this happening.
It came to light years ago and has seem to stop. As far as using foreign dyes.If you smoke a maduro and it leaves a brown color that is translucent then its the oils. I you get a brown solid color then to me its dyed.
We talked about canoing and uneven burn many times,and if there were additives all NC cigars would burn perfectly! My $.02 and experience

I agree with G-man. Some producers use a natural dye on their wrappers. It is not a chemical dye by no means. Besides, who is to say that the Cubans are not doing the same on their Cohiba Maduros. Those are some beautiful wrappers.

As far as additives go, that is pure speculation in my view. I do not think any reputable cigar manufacturer is going to stake their reputation and business by doing shady practices. If one was doing such, and it became public knowledge, that person would be out of business quickly. Then again, I am sure anything is possible. Especially, for the really low cost private label brands made for vendors. Not all of course.

If burn agents were used, then non-cubans would burn perfectly, and of course, that is not the case. In addition, burn agents would allow a cigar to burn like a cigarette without puffing on it, that is just not the case either. If you leave a non-cuban sit for awhile, it will go out.

I have been smoking cigars for 15 years and have yet to taste any chemicals, with the exception of ammonia in young cigars. Anyway, I am sure these discussions will continue on in the cigar world, but this is just my opinion on the matter.

Cheers all

[MaledettoToscano]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Just to be clear, I am not saying I think NCs use additives in long filler cigars as a rule, just that I had the odd cheap long filler NC where I got some really odd chemical taste (acetone in one, something like gunpowder in another and now that I think about it matches in a Chinchalero). All in all, in the past four months I must have smoked about 50 odd NCs and out of these I only had some odd taste in 3, to put things into the right perspective.

My question stemmed more from wanting to see if mine was an isolated experience or not. It could be that the "chemical" notes come not from additives but from very poor quality tobacco fillers that maybe have been sprayed with excessive chemicals during growth.

One the dyed wrapper I have to admit I still don't like that as idea. I accept makers who do this use natural dyes (I've heard tobacco oils, molasses and similar as possible dyes) but I have to ask myself if dyes ar eused to hide less then perfect wrapper colours and hence fetch a higher price.

Never had a Cohiba Maduro myself but it would be interesting to see if the colour washes off these too. Not sure though; I've had some pretty dark maduros (Indian Tabac Cameroon maduro springs to mind) that definitely did not wash off, so you can get those hues without dyes.

[jdawg]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Just to be clear, I am not saying I think NCs use additives in long filler cigars as a rule, just that I had the odd cheap long filler NC where I got some really odd chemical taste (acetone in one, something like gunpowder in another and now that I think about it matches in a Chinchalero). All in all, in the past four months I must have smoked about 50 odd NCs and out of these I only had some odd taste in 3, to put things into the right perspective.

My question stemmed more from wanting to see if mine was an isolated experience or not. It could be that the "chemical" notes come not from additives but from very poor quality tobacco fillers that maybe have been sprayed with excessive chemicals during growth.

One the dyed wrapper I have to admit I still don't like that as idea. I accept makers who do this use natural dyes (I've heard tobacco oils, molasses and similar as possible dyes) but I have to ask myself if dyes ar eused to hide less then perfect wrapper colours and hence fetch a higher price.

Never had a Cohiba Maduro myself but it would be interesting to see if the colour washes off these too. Not sure though; I've had some pretty dark maduros (Indian Tabac Cameroon maduro springs to mind) that definitely did not wash off, so you can get those hues without dyes.

I realize that you were not suggesting all NC use these sorts of methods. It is possible that I have never experienced the sort of chemical taste that you mentioned, because I tend to stay away from the really low budget smokes. There are too many quality smokes out there at good prices to smoke these. I am sure there are some hidden gems within this range, however.

I understand your displeasure with certain manufacturers that use dyes. I am in agreement with you that we smoke fine handrolled cigars because we do not want our tobacco tampered with. Otherwise, we would just smoke chemically induced crap, like cigarettes. The NC market is a highly competitive business, so I guess some manufacturers feel the need to do this sort of thing.

I have some Secretos, but have not smoked any yet, so this may give me an excuse to spark one up. Like, I need an excuse.

Cheers