Here's something I found -
The unusual physical appearance of this cigar is really
like no other. A Culebra is a 3-in-1 twisted cigar made with freshly rolled
panatelas that are five to seven inches long. Immediately after rolling,
the still-supple cigars are twisted into braids of three which are tied
together at each end to set the culebra's peculiar shape. (In Cuba, after
completion, culebras are usually packaged in tin foil instead of a box.)
Culebras can be smoked two ways: all at once (if you dare!) or separated
and smoked one at a time. These crazy-looking cigars actually originated
in the 19th century cigar factories to keep workers from stealing cigars.
One culebra cigar was given to each employee who would usually unbind it
to smoke separately throughout the day. By doing this the owners would
know which employees were smoking their allotment and which were smoking
the profits. Likewise, if you're going to smoke one of these, you should
unbraid the cigars and smoke them one at a time. On the other hand, it
might be more fun to take one strand and share the remaining two with
some friends.
I think i also remeber something in MRN about them aging differently, but i could be way off.
