Hello to all,

I've been smoking cigars for over 15 years and just this past weekend for my birthday, my wife gifted me with my first OPUS X, a Perfecxion #5. I've read all of your posts and experiences about the fabled OPUS line, but never had the opportunity to try one until yesterday. Everything about the cigar was as I had expected, except it would not stay lit. It went out on me 4 times and this is not a long cigar. As I said everything about the cigar seemed perfect, draw, light, flavor, body, wrapper, humidified right, just everything. Now, I'm not a fast smoker, I don't believe in seeing how hard and fast I can drag on a stick just to smoke it down. I really wanted to savor this moment slowly, so probably a pull on it once a minute or so. Anyway, there was a nice ash on it, an even burn line, but it would just go out. This kind of let me down on the whole OPUS experience, but I'll just chalk it up to some kind of fluke. Has anyone else had this happen with an OPUS???

See my review about the Opus PerfeXion No. 2 in the Group Cigar Reviews forum. I have always thought Opus X to be one of the best burning/drawing cigars...so no this hasn't happened to me yet. However yesterday afternoon I had a Hemingway Short Story that couldn't stay lit!

When you say right humidity, what do you have it at? The opus X line have a rather thicker wrapper being a rare dominican wrapper. It tends to burn better at a lower humidity. 65% is perfect IMO. Now if it was purchased at a B&M it could have been over humidified lets just say at 75%-78%. I've seen this in shops. Now you bring it home and set it in your humi. Here where my question is. How long did it sit in your humi and at what % is your humi at.
That could be the answer. Fresh Opus X in my opinion tend to burn bad and not smoke as well as one that has been sitting for 3 months, 1 year and so on. You also want to majke sure it sits at a regular humidity for a while. Even a couple weeks will work. If it goes through to many humidity changes in ashort period it can cause burn anf flavor issues.
I hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply,

I keep my humidor at 68% and it had been in there for the last 5 weeks. My wife had purchased the cigar in January and I let it sit until this past weekend. I don't believe it was over humidified, the burn was even and the draw smooth, not like a cigar would be if 'wet'. As for being 'fresh', that I don't know about.

I store my cigars at ~ 65-67% RH and have experience burn issues many times with FFOXs. I could try dry boxing, but usually I don't know what I'm going to smoke until I go to the dor.

Yep 68% is too high. Read the Opus updates in the editors forums for some interesting info.

Need lower % to burn correctly. I had the same problem, and followed the suggestion here and it solved the issue. Also, the lower % improves the flavor profile extensively.

This is wierd as I am smoking a Perfection #5 as I came across this post. Mine is burning marvelously and effortlessly. I've had it aging for 6 months at 69 degrees. I think you had a fluke. I love Opus but have a had a robusto that had a terrible burn issue. I would get glipses of how nice this cigar would taste then it would go out. Just stick with it, the XXX belis, Fuente-fuentes, and perfection 2s and 5s I have had were all awesome IMO.

CarolinaMan, some cigars burn poorly. It's just a fact of life. Even expensive ones. I'd smoke some more, see where you are then.

A properly rolled Opus X should smoke just fine at 68%, even if 65% is preferable (bamawrx's advice is good) - so you don't need to go change up your humi setup just yet. Try a few more, and remember that FFOX get even better as they age.

I have never encountered this with an opus. You might have just gotten a bad stick. I actually just smoked a perfexion #5 friday and it burned and smoked amazing as usual. Wonderful flavors, reminded me why this is consistently one of my favorite cigars. Hope you have better luck with your next one.

I have found Opus X smoke better at lower R H like Cubans do not store them any higher than 65% Rh.