Some gross cigar stuff (NC related)

[Digi]

I post on a couple other boards, so I though I'd cross-post it here, just to give you guys and gals something to look at.

I thought, it wouldn't happen to me.

I thought, how could this happen to a nice cigar that had sheltered, pampered life.

I thought, if I gave it the tools to be a good cigar, it would use them and blossom into something the world would love

But alas, a bad seed can grow even in the nicest cedar tray neighborhoods of the friendliest humidors. I was sitting here in my desk chair, coding up a little thumbnail viewer for my website (Yes, thats how I spend my time. Yes, I'm a huge nerd. No, you can't have my lunch money), enjoying a cup of Peete's Sumatra blend and an AF King B. Suddenly, as I began building a sub procedure, what can only be described as THE WORST, MOST FOUL, OFF PUTTING taste that has ever, ever, ever crossed my palete entered my mouth. It was so bad I began gagging. Two mouth fulls of coffee didn't supress the god-awful bitter and pine taste that had my tongue at its mercy. A glass of water and a cup of coffee later, my big production was over and I went to investigate my little piece of heaven.

OH GREAT, I thought, my cigar has a tumor and judging by its size, its not benign.

If you want to entangle youself in the full on nastiness of this event, click these. They are the unsized and uncompressed versions of the pics above:

http://schnierer.org/images/personal/cigar...christ01big.JPG

http://schnierer.org/images/personal/cigar...christ02big.JPG

http://schnierer.org/images/personal/cigar...christ04big.JPG

I'm scared guys...real scared. I'm going to hide in my closet for a while with a foil hat on.

[Professor Twain]

Yikes!

So weren't these guys apparent when you clipped the cigar? Or did the heat send them crawling into your mouth?

Thanks for the public service in posting these.

[jadawin]

» Yikes!

»

» So weren't these guys apparent when you clipped the cigar? Or did the

» heat send them crawling into your mouth?

»

» Thanks for the public service in posting these.

Those arent beetles, they are big globs or tar i believe, very gross.

[Jimmy2]

Tar or nicotine you get that with alot of cigar's all kinds.

You get that alot with Opus X too that stuff will get you buzzed.

As far as King B's yuck they are gross smoked a handfull burn like crap and leaf always spliting.

Just had a little today with a Monte 2...

[Mark Twain]

The Fuente King-Bs have some major qaulity control issues. I've smoked three and had a mix of bad burns and general ashiness in the taste area on all of them.

Never seen tar on the end of a cigar. A lot of folks think these were shipped very young.

[sluggo819]

Have you sent these pics to Carlos Fuente yet?

I'd love to know what he thinks about it. Maybe if you tell him how distraught you are, and that you need to seek psychiatric help because of it, he might make it up to you by sending you a box of OpusX to ease your trauma. Just a thought.

[Digi]

» Have you sent these pics to Carlos Fuente yet?

» I'd love to know what he thinks about it. Maybe if you tell him how

» distraught you are, and that you need to seek psychiatric help because of

» it, he might make it up to you by sending you a box of OpusX to ease your

» trauma. Just a thought.

Haha, done and done. This is what I sent to their consumer PR guy:

Hi Karl,

I wanted to tell you about an experience I had recently with an Arturo Fuente King B. I’ve smoked several in the past and the Don Carlos and Hemmingway line are some of my favorite smokes. I truly enjoy the subtle complexity, body, and smoothness of those cigars and the King B’s I’ve smoked have been just as good. I recently purchased a 5 pack of the King B’s to do a bit more tasting before I went ahead with a box purchase and came across a problem with the first cigar I lit up. It started great, everything I was expecting but as the cigar continued it began to give off an extremely bitter, pine-like taste. Thinking maybe the cigar was just a bit young, I tried to smoke though it until I went in for another puff and a flavor landed on my palette that literally made me gag. It was easily the most bitter substance I’ve ever tasted, it took 2 cups of coffee to wash the flavor away and when I went to look at the cigar I found this (this is a directory of pictures on my website, you can click that link and click the picture titles to view the image):

http://schnierer.org/images/personal/cigars/GROSS/

Needless to say, I was a little surprised. I certainly don’t think this is any sort of consistent problem (definitely an anomaly), but I though I’d give you all a heads up in case you want to know about the bad as well as the good. I’m planning to let the other 4 sit in my humidor for a while and I’m going to light one up after the New Year, I’m sure they will be fine!

Thanks for listening,

Brandon Schnierer | brandon AT schnierer.org

http://schnierer.org/contact.asp

[Jimmy2]

You will see that alot trust me nothing new but i hope you get somthing out of it.

I smoke 5 to 6 cigars a day see it with Cubans once in a while but alot in NC..

More age less Tar build up its a natural process wellcome to the club.:-D

[Jimmy2]

Opus X's and Anejos are the one's you will see it everytime Funete's are the kings of the tar build up.

1. The nicotine content of harvested tobacco leaves bears a direct relationship to the levels of nitrogen in the soil.

2. Nicotine levels in harvested tobacco leaves diminish with successive curings/fermentations and ageing.

3. Tar precipitation occurring during combustion of tobacco leaves can be heightened owing to internal moisture and/or hygroscopic levels (the latter also includes oils). Author Jazznut

Hope this helps..

[Digi]

I know this is CC forum, but I feel its my duty to update the thread so as not to leave any bad taste (no pun intended ) around in regards to Fuente. I'll try and make as much of a timeline out of this as I can, also I'll be pasting stuff in from another forum, so excuse the quotes. It all happened quite fast, but I have to say, I'm truly amazed at the Fuente Company's ability and want to service their customers and stand behind their product...very stand-up group of cigar dudes.

I sent the following email in on Tuesday the 26th:

Hi Karl,

I wanted to tell you about an experience I had recently with an Arturo Fuente King B. I’ve smoked several in the past and the Don Carlos and Hemmingway line are some of my favorite smokes. I truly enjoy the subtle complexity, body, and smoothness of those cigars and the King B’s I’ve smoked have been just as good. I recently purchased a 5 pack of the King B’s to do a bit more tasting before I went ahead with a box purchase and came across a problem with the first cigar I lit up. It started great, everything I was expecting but as the cigar continued it began to give off an extremely bitter, pine-like taste. Thinking maybe the cigar was just a bit young, I tried to smoke though it until I went in for another puff and a flavor landed on my palette that literally made me gag. It was easily the most bitter substance I’ve ever tasted, it took 2 cups of coffee to wash the flavor away and when I went to look at the cigar I found this (this is a directory of pictures on my website, you can click that link and click the picture titles to view the image):

http://schnierer.org/images/personal/cigars/GROSS/

Needless to say, I was a little surprised. I certainly don’t think this is any sort of consistent problem (definitely an anomaly), but I though I’d give you all a heads up in case you want to know about the bad as well as the good. I’m planning to let the other 4 sit in my humidor for a while and I’m going to light one up after the New Year, I’m sure they will be fine!

Thanks for listening,

Brandon Schnierer | brandon AT schnierer.org

http://schnierer.org/contact.asp

Karl returned fire the very next morning with this note:

Brandon,

We are sorry to hear about the negative experience you had with our cigars.

Thank you for the photos, I will forward them to Carlos Fuente Sr. and Carlito so they can have their supervisors follow up.

Please send me your address so I can send something your way.

Again we are truly sorry for your negative experience.

Karl Herzog

Brand Manager

A. Fuente Cigars USA, Inc.

"Only Fuente is Fuente"

I sent him the pertiant info and a thank you for wanting to send something my way. On the 29th, Karl sent me this:

Brandon,

Thank you for your address. I would also like to give you a call regarding this matter, would you please send me a number where you can be reached.

Again we are truly sorry for this inconvenience.

Karl Herzog

Brand Manager

A. Fuente Cigars USA, Inc.

"Only Fuente is Fuente"

I was a bit surprised by this, as I wonder what particular question he had so I responded with my phoner and mentioned that Mircosoft was 'closed' that day (sno!) so he was welcome to call me whenever.

I spoke with Karl on the phone this afternoon, very nice guy. Apparently Carlito is interested in seeing the offending cigar, as well as the others that came with them; he also mention Carlito had a few questions for me and would get in touch when the cigars got there. According to Karl, they have heard about this particular problem before but noone has been able to get photographic evidence.

I was even MORE surprised at how interested they were in my expierence with the cigar and that Carlito was going to call. To my amazement about 2 hours later my phone rings:

"Hello"

"Hi, is this Brandon?"

"Yup"

"Hi, this is Carlito Fuente from the Dominican Republic"

""

I'm totally blown away by this, Carlito just gave me a ring to apologize for the cigar and say how embarrassed he was for what happened. He mentioned that his dad was going to look at it when he was in the office and they are planning on sending it off to the tobacco institute. He ended the phone call by saying that he'll give me a call next time they are out this way so we can sit down and have a cigar and that he hopes I enjoy what they are sending me. That is way cool, I would never expect this type of service from an organization as large as Fuente, if I ever had a doubt about how much they cared for their product, it has been totally washed away.

I sent the smokes off to Karl on the 29th via next-day, he recieved them on the 30th and sent me an email saying thank you for the promptness and that he'd have some stuff on my door step on the 1st. Lo-and-behold

Karl recieved my shipment of one half-smoked and 4 yet torched King-B's yesterday and I recieved his extremely generious shipment of (too many to list) AF cigars, and a very nice note 8-)

Pics:

Just...amazing. I'm not sure I could thank Karl and the dudes at Fuente enough for that. I will certianly be supporting their company even more after this expierence, talk about total confidence in your products.

So get out there and support em'

...and there you have it. Really I'm can't believe how much they cared about my expierence. I'm still shocked that Carlito took time out of his day to give me a ring, considering the size of their company, that's a pretty big deal!

[jqmunro]

That's awesome! Thanks for the update. It's a no brainer for companies to treat their customers like this, because it makes them a customer for life. Unfortunately not all companies operate like this. It was like the other day when I was on line at Whole Foods, and the woman told me to go into another line, which I did.... I waited for literally 60 seconds on the other line and she came up to me and gave me everything I was going to buy for free. She said she felt bad that she had told me to go to another line and I made me wait because of it... Definitely a customer for life after that!

[Mike33]

All I have to say is WOW!!! That is truly amazing, what great customer service!!!! The Fuente family has just earned even more respect from me thanks to your story, classy organization all the way !!!

By the way, what a sweet "make-up" package they sent you. What is the dark cigar to the far right? Anejo???

[Digi]

» All I have to say is WOW!!! That is truly amazing, what great customer

» service!!!! The Fuente family has just earned even more respect from me

» thanks to your story, classy organization all the way !!!

»

» By the way, what a sweet "make-up" package they sent you. What is the

» dark cigar to the far right? Anejo???

Indeed it is. #77, aka The Shark. Those are cool cigars, hard to find on this side of the States.

[genevapics]

Kudo's to the Fuente Company for making right on your cigars. Very nice gesture on their part. It is nice to see a company take care of its customer base.

[DrAlejandro]

digi's experience shows that not all horror stories end badly ;-)

[genevapics]

» It was like the other day when I was on line at Whole Foods, and the »woman told me to go into

» another line, which I did.... I waited for literally 60 seconds on the

» other line and she came up to me and gave me everything I was going to buy

» for free. She said she felt bad that she had told me to go to another line

» and I made me wait because of it... Definitely a customer for life after

» that!

Whole Foods is a great company. Stock is down, but it is time to load up in my mind. Good to hear your experience was a positive one. Keep shopping at Whole Foods.

[new2habano]

» Whole Foods is a great company. Stock is down, but it is time to load up

» in my mind. Good to hear your experience was a positive one. Keep

» shopping at Whole Foods.

Geneva, I am not buying stock in a company where the employees give away their employers product for FREE when the customer only had to wait in line for 60 seconds, LOL. I'll give you my #1 recommendation for FREE its YAMANA GOLD INC. symbol AUY trades on the NYSE @ 12.85 PER SHARE. Send me a box of Cohiba Robustos when you make 50% in the next 6 months.

[Jimmy2]

I'm still shocked that they sent you all those goodies good for you.

The reason is because this is a normal thing and Fuente is the king of the Tar jucie coming form the cigars..

I just smoked a Opus Torp on Thursday and it did the same as your King B...

[Smokin Bulldog]

Good to hear, this is what to expect from a quality company!

[tigger]

Good on the Fuentes! :-)

I've experienced that tar build up before - most often on Fuente smokes. Usually recutting the head a little farther down has fixed it for me.

[Bubba -NJ]

I've only ever had the tar problem with Padron Anniversaries , never with a Fuente cigar . It's a shame when it happens because it usually ruins a good smoke .

[mr.harten]

I had this exact thing happen with an Ashton VSG a few months ago. It happened very early (just after a few puffs) and I was able to reclip it about a 1/2 inch closer to the foot than the original clip and it was fine after that.

That is really awesome that they handled the situation with such attention.

[ironman]

Mmmmm a chocolate cigar!!!

Glad everything worked out!!!

[new2habano]

Fuente that cheap bastard he could've sent you some

"God of Fire" for all of your trouble, LOL.

[Jimmy2]

God of Fire one of the most overrated cigars i ever smoked.