Out of every 25 Cuban Cigars, What is your construction hit rate?

[El Presidente]

Keep in mind your experience since 2006. We are particularly focused in draw, in this case is a good/acceptable draw.

I have been asked to run the poll by people who would like to know

[anacostiakat]

Damn! We are batting 100%!!!!!!!!!

This cant last long.

[CaptainQuintero]

Since I stopped buying Fonseca Cosacos I've had a suprisingly low amount of poor construction issues!

From my experience it doesnt even seem to be down to price, I'm finishing off my third box of Quintero and have had two bad construction in total (both plugged) while I had no end of issues with Fonseca being almost exclusively unsmokable due to plugs/tight draw and Cuaba having real problems with extremely loose construction.

Monte for me has been generally good also.

[Lotusguy]

I've been pretty lucky. The only cigars with a significant percentage of construction issues that I've experienced were pre-2002 date codes.

[Nocoins]

I agree that draw has improved a lot. I don't often find plugged cigars anymore, and I've been able to avoid underfilling for the most part. If the poll is limited to that aspect of construction, then I don't have any complaints. The main thing I have noticed is that about two-thirds of the cigars per box are bunched correctly, and the rest aren't. I'd like little more consistency on that part of construction.

[sblevit]

I find that I have the most problems with dalias and so I try to stay away from that vitola.

[jedipastor]

I have yet to smoke boxes upon boxes for good comparison, but I can say that overall my "hit" rate is definately below the 4/5 mark. I'd say my "miss" rate is closer to 25%, sadly ... to include yesterday's BRC

[ramon_cojones]

Main problem is too loose a draw more so than plugged on newer cigars.

[dicko]

Voted ordinary. About one in 5 cigars gives me hassles.

Not really good enough. but i stil buy them i guess...

[BobKincaid]

The CCs that I occasionally had back in the dim mists of time may or may not have been real, so that had to factor. As such, I'm probably not a fit judge of cigars I had anywhere from five to fifteen years ago.

Having said that, the "good" rate in the seven boxes I've purchased since February have been quite consistent, with the exception of the truly horrifying tobacco beetle that came crawling out of a JLP Cazadores. Only one, though.

There have been some evenness of burn issues with my Boli RCs, but not many. My PSP2s have been consistently excellent.

[OZCUBAN]

On average a good 3-5 out of every cab no good and have to be chucked but what can u do

[mm12]

Ordinary would probably have been the best choice for me overall, but I went with appalling. The reason being, I have a handful of bad boxes, and with a bad box 20-25 cigars are damn near unsmokable. These boxes bring the overall average way down. I needed to make some room in my humidor, so I just now went through a cab of 05 Punch DCs. Over half of what I had left went straight into the trash. Of the 18 I kept, I'm sure some will be no good, but I'll have much better odds now that I removed all the wooden dowels. I have several other boxes where I could send the majority of their contents to the trash next time I need room.

[CohibaBehike]

Mine have been spotty depending on the box, but we all know that. And I have found that 06 and older have had better construction.

[soltino]

Definite improvement over the last 5 years. Box codes from 2000 to 2005 I would often have to chuck 5 or more smokes due to draw problems, but now it is more like 1 or 2 if any. I do prefer to store my smokes slightly dry though, between 60% and 65%, as I prefer my cigars to be ready to smoke

[melies]

back when I used to smoke none Cubans, (pre 06) I really had lot's of problems, specially with monte 4's. but now I have had an almost perfect run with cubans. (also 99% of what I smoke now)

[Loki]

I have always had the understanding that cigars are handmade and humans do make errors.

Since 2006 the amount of overfilled and underfilled cigars has dropped, usually 2-4 per box.

[Rogers72]

Since 2006, I average about 1 cigar in every three boxes that is poor/unsmokable. This takes into account that most boxes don't have any with poor construction but then you get that one box where half of them are poor. This includes both way too tight/plugged cigars and wind tunnels.

***I am not counting cigars that may be a little tight or loose but only ones that are to the point of being unenjoyable. I may be a little liberal with my parameters as I generally consider myself pretty easy to please in regards to draw.

[Habanos2000]

I'm at the point now that if I do get a cigar with draw/construction problems I am surprised. I've noticed great improvement since 06 and expect the quality to remain high.

[Van55]

I'd say I've had pretty good luck with construction overall. Maybe a dud ever 25 cigars or so.

Haven't had enough post 2006 cigars to have an opinion.

[frenchkiwi]

The poll results seem to indicate good news for Habanophiles!

you could follow this up on a survey of which cigars are constructionwise the worst offenders since 06.

imho, the cheap ones (what a surprise) and the smallest and/or thinnest vitolas.

Brands that i can single out for repeat offending:

- fonseca

- cuaba (which isn't that cheap)

(i don't smoke quinteros , JLPs etc so can't comment on those).

Without those skewing the results i would probably upgrade my average to "Good" 23+.

[jedipastor]

Ordinary would probably have been the best choice for me overall, but I went with appalling. The reason being, I have a handful of bad boxes, and with a bad box 20-25 cigars are damn near unsmokable. These boxes bring the overall average way down. I needed to make some room in my humidor, so I just now went through a cab of 05 Punch DCs. Over half of what I had left went straight into the trash. Of the 18 I kept, I'm sure some will be no good, but I'll have much better odds now that I removed all the wooden dowels. I have several other boxes where I could send the majority of their contents to the trash next time I need room.

Don't trash them! I have heard that a lot of pipe-smokers who happily buy up people's plugged Cubans. I don't know many pipe smokers, but that's what I've heard.

[Hugomarink]

I find that robustos, corona gordas, and figurados (torpedos/pyramids) are the only sizes where you can rely on a good draw most of the time. I've stopped buying thin cigars (panatellas, lonsdales), churchills, and double coronas because so many of them are tight/plugged. I've even found that too many petit coronas and coronas are too tight for my tastes.

[88keys]

My experience is that construction has definitely improved. Most boxes have few draw issues anymore and I have had about as much underfilling as over. However, I only voted ordinary since it is still possible to get an entire box of unsmokable cigars. That's outrageous. I have one right now -- LGC medaille 2 from 07. They have an impeccable provenance, since they were chosen by a certain ex-banker who lives in a flood-prone area (not to blame him, it's certainly not his fault). I've kept them at 65 for months, I use all sorts of prods and drills, I cut off enough to turn them into marevas -- nothing helps. My suspicion is that there are certain lines and even certain whole marcas which just don't get the same level of care. A few weeks ago Rob bemoaned the current state of Sancho Panza for example. The influence of smaller production may cut both ways.

[Dbone]

Granted I do not smoke a lot of cigars, but the last plugged cigar I smoked was last winter which was a PLPC. Out of the cab, there where 2 or 3 which where hard as a rock. Besides that experience, I have not had a plugged cigar since. I smoke 3 cigars a week, so according to my fuzzy math that more than exceeds the "good" mark on this poll.

I had just started to smoke cuban cigars in 2006, so I really can't comment on that question. Although I definitely remember a lot of talk about making sure when I order to have each box inspected for construction otherwise I could end up with a lot of plugged cigars. Now that I mostly order all through Czar - poor construction is even less found.

[Cambridge1]

Knock on wood, I haven't had a single unsmokable cuban cigar from any boxes dated 07-09. I have had a few with very tight draws.

I agree with a few posters that it's now a problem of under-filling.