Its been about 7 years since I smoked a CC, until last night. The few that I had smoked in the past, I don't remember well simply because I didn't have much interest in cigars at the time. Now that I've taken an interest in smoking cigars, I had been eagerly anticipating a chance at smoking a CC. Well. I was not disappointed!
I spent a little over an hour last night with a Cohiba Robusto and at some point during the smoke I think I had an epiphany and realized that I would enjoy smoking these far better than the other cigars I've had access to. Of course, I still think some of the NCs I've been smoking are quite good, but I wouldn't mind having a lifetime supply of Cohiba Robustos if they are consistently as good as the one I had last night. I often read cigar reviews and then try to detect all the different flavors mentioned, but I seem to lack the ability to detect much of what others seem to detect. However, I must say that I finally understand the reference to cigars tasting of leather as I got a serious dose of leather out of this robusto. I thoroughly enjoyed the cigar and expect that this will be one that I will go back to many times in the future. Also, because this was a fresh cigar..box code of Oct. 08, I'm wondering how much more incredible this cigar will be if allowed to age a while? I intend to find out!
On another note, and as a question to those of you with experience. Is it likely that Siglo I would be a commonly counterfeited cigar? The reason that I ask is because I had the impression that something larger, such as Esplendido or Robusto or Siglo VI were more commonly faked due to their higher value. However, I think I have come across a box of fake Siglo I. The cigars were purchased in Germany and the box (five pack) certainly looked authentic. It had all the appropriate stickers in place and seemed quite legit. When the inner boxes were opened to reveal the cigars, I was a little shocked at what I saw. The wrappers looked quite dry and seemed to be coming unattached in spots. One of them actually had a hole in the wrapper. They have triple caps, but they don't seem as skillfully applied as those on the authentic Robustos I was comparing them to. Also, one of them has a wrapper leaf with a large vein with a dark green coloration around it. Odd looking! Then when I compared the rings to the known authentic, they looked identical except for the fact that the embossed gold lettering on one of the letters on one of them seemed to be a little flaky and rough. Also, a little spattering of the gold color on the white part of the ring. In addition, the rings were not nice and tight like the rings on the robustos and could easily be slid up and down the cigar. One other thing I noticed that makes me sure they are fakes is that the black lettering 'habana, cuba' is not crisp and dark like that on the known authenitic. I'm convinced that they are fake even though I haven't smoked one of them, but it seems to be a really good fake and may have fooled me if I had not had an authentic to compare it with, side by side. Is this common, to find even the smaller ring gauge Cohibas as fakes and quite professionally packaged?
I recently posted pictures of fake siglo IIs in a petaca in this thread: Fake Thread So yes, they do counterfeit the smaller Cohibas. Post some pictures and you'll get more input on whether or not they're fakes. Light green splotches on the wrapper are water spots and actually a sign they could be genuine. Check out the tax stamp on the outside of the package, if the printing on it is made of dots like a dot-matrix printer, you definitely have fakes, the tax stamp should have solid ink with a lot of detail. Show us the bands and you'll get feedback on how those look.
I'm at work right now and will be busy after work today, so it may be tomorrow before I can post pics, but I'll try to get some on here as soon as I can. thanks.
