Not great experience

[lunchinlewis]

Hi, first post. I'm relatively new to cigars, smoking regular for just about a year and a half, got my humidor up around 9 months ago.

Tonight had a not entirely enjoyable smoke and had a few questions. The cigar, which I've had many of this example, had a much darker ash than I had seen before and a somewhat bitter taste. Not unsmokable but not pleasant. The ash was also less than firm, falling easily after just over 3/4 inch. It had been in the humidor for two months (not an unusual length for me) and the humidor has always been stable right around 65%. I'm wondering if this sounds like a storage/condition problem or can I just write it off as a bad example. Like I said, I've had quite a few of these, bought from the same local store and it's a well known, good quality brand. Thanks in advance.

 

[Boudie]

It's not that unusual to get a bad cigar once in a while. Also consider it came off a shelf in a shop and there is no telling what happened to it before you burned it. Don't make big changes to your setup unless you continue to have problems but you might want to move your cigars around a bit just incase you have some uneven areas in the humidor

Welcome to the forum

 

[Capn_Jackson]

Agreeing with @Boudie, moving cigars around the humidor occasionally is helpful. Rotating cigars can be important depending on your setup, ensuring that all your sticks benefit from airflow. As for the unpleasant cigar, it does happen sometimes. I wouldn’t suggest any major changes unless the problem is consistently recurring.

Welcome to the group!

 

[Texican]

Oh I've had my share of cigars that smoke like absolute crap. For a while there it was due to me having tupperdors in a compressor wine fridge where the RH would sometimes shoot up to 80% due to wild temperature swings. Now that I have a wineador that holds things steady at a lovely 65 degrees/67% RH, the instances of such issues are MUCH lower. But, they still do happen. I'd say about one of every 15-20 cigars I smoke has some kind of burn/quality issue. Some of that is likely due to the hellish humidity around here, but other times I think it's just a dud. It happens. Even with brands/sticks you know and trust. I wouldn't worry about it until you start seeing a lot of those instances and they are the same issue over and over. That would tend to indicate storage problems.

 

[lunchinlewis]

Thanks for the reassurances. I will keep an eye on things, just this one really caught me off guard. I had bought 3 of these back in July, and the first two were much better/normal. I do rotate a little, my humidor only holds around 30-35 and can get a little tight. It's usually one rotation, from bottom where they go when new to top when I'm ready to smoke them.

 

[Thebutcher]

Also agreeing with @Boudie and rember these are a hand made product and $hit happens

 

[Growley Monster]

Hi, first post. I'm relatively new to cigars, smoking regular for just about a year and a half, got my humidor up around 9 months ago.

Tonight had a not entirely enjoyable smoke and had a few questions. The cigar, which I've had many of this example, had a much darker ash than I had seen before and a somewhat bitter taste. Not unsmokable but not pleasant. The ash was also less than firm, falling easily after just over 3/4 inch. It had been in the humidor for two months (not an unusual length for me) and the humidor has always been stable right around 65%. I'm wondering if this sounds like a storage/condition problem or can I just write it off as a bad example. Like I said, I've had quite a few of these, bought from the same local store and it's a well known, good quality brand. Thanks in advance.

Check your other sticks carefully for tiny holes in the wrapper made by weevils or beetles. Be observant for tobacco dust in the bottom of your humidor. Most likely though the problem is a bad filler leaf or binder, badly aged maybe. Foreign matter can get stuck to a filler leaf and make it through inspection. I roll my own, and always spread my filler leaves out fully before bunching, and I have on occasion found sticks, bugs, bird poop, all sorts of stuff. It's a natural product, and nature can be chaotic and messy. A cigar that gets wet does not always have obvious cosmetic damage, months later. Mold or fungus or just plain rot/spoilage doesn't always show on the wrapper.

Be sure to tell your tobacconist that you got a bad cigar. He needs to know. If you are a good customer he might even comp you one, but the point is for him to know that he had a bad one, and hopefully if there was another or others, he will hear about them, too. Quality control concerns need to travel upstream to the source.

 

[Rupe]

Where did you smoke it and what were the weather conditions like?

Something similar generally happens to me whenever I smoke in overly humid conditions. By that I mean when it's raining or it's so humid that it's foggy.

Just curious if that may have been the issue.

 

[lunchinlewis]

Where did you smoke it and what were the weather conditions like?

Something similar generally happens to me whenever I smoke in overly humid conditions. By that I mean when it's raining or it's so humid that it's foggy.

Just curious if that may have been the issue.

Not anywhere I consider unusual. We are getting rain from the edge of Ian, but no more humid than it is here in the summer, actually less so. The draw was fine, didn't seem over humidified.

 

[Boudie]

@lunchinlewis

Rupe makes a good point. I live in a swamp and I find dry boxing for a couple of weeks gives me a better, more consistent burn.

 

[Texican]

@lunchinlewis

Rupe makes a good point. I live in a swamp and I find dry boxing for a couple of weeks gives me a better, more consistent burn.

This. When I had RH issues, dryboxing was a necessity. Even now, it wouldn't hurt me to do it as I too basically live in a damn swamp.

 

[Monstertruck Will]

Based on the ash color, most likely a construction/ fermentation issue. Keep smokin, tinker with rotation or whatever if you like. Ash color will remain consistent pretty much no matter the temp or humidity it's smoked at- combustion temp remains pretty much the same.