Cigar Disaster Stories?

[MrDowse]

As a new member of the forum i can see folks here have tons of stories about cigars they have known and loved This last weekend i had a cigar disaster. I paid a visit to my usual shop a couple of weeks ago (a tiny little place located in the heart of the City of London) to pick up some supplies for the next weekend. I've never had a duff cigar from them and after having my usual pleasant chat with the owner, picked up a trini reyes, a partagas short and a PSD#4, the last one being a cigar which i had never smoked before and one that after reading many great reviews about i was really eager to try (I had planned on purcasing a HDM epicure#2 but changed my mind at the last minute).

So...last sunday night i have a cold beer in my hand and i decide i want to try the PSD#4 and pull it out of my Humi. I go to cut it...the cap splits....i manage to salvage it 'sort of' but it just won't light..i persevere for a good half hour and finally I get it lit...the draw is terrible..I can't smoke it. In the end, i try spiking it....the wrapper splits almost to half way up the cigar. I cry out...I shout at the wife...our 5 month old wakes up in tears you get the picture.

What i want to know is,what did i do wrong? Is this something i should just learn to live with smoking Cuban cigars? I know they are hand made items and therefore perfection is not guaranteed but i do wonder how often these things happen?

[NJP]

Me, I hate plugged cigars.I try the massage, no go. I try the spike always a boo boo. I would Pre clip at the humidor to check if plugged because when I'm seated, set up and lit you still think it might open up.(9 outa 10 don't) I would then place in a dryer desk top humi to see if it will open up.(sometimes)

Then, after purchasing a few boxes of the H. Upmann Half Corona I got an idea. I took out a Boli PC that was a plugged as a cheese taster after 3 days of competition judging. I cut the mother in half and actually smoked both pieces no problem. It's all a bit scabby I know but sometimes the 20 or so plugged cigars I have separated just have to be delt with.

[canadianbeaver]

Hey win some lose some. Move on and try again. A PSD4 is usually a reliable one. Tell your vendor and maybe he will replace it.

Welcome to FOH!

Lisa

[kevinfj]

A few lessons from your tale of woe......

1. PSD4 are terrible. Really disappointing. However, many people here continue to slurp that stick.

2. Cigars are a human creation. Some are sublime. Some are dog crap.

3. Keep trying. That is the joy of Cuban Cigars. If you don't understand what I mean, you soon will.

FJ

[dicko]

I once had a Dip 2, perfect consturction, or so I thought, and it just wouldnt produce any smoke. Literally was burning but no smoke at all. never seen anything like it before or since

maybe didnt have any 'velado' or whatver the leaf is that allows proper combustion

[Fuzz]

Found a tobacco beetle hole in one of my FOH Czar custom cigars the other night. No other cigars seem to have been affected, though. Does that count?

[El Presidente]

Ken went to Cuba and before he left he put too much water in his humidification section (old style pespex gas station humidor). He came back and all the bottom section was flooded/Ruined including Cohiba Double Corona LE.

He claimed $5000 on insurance. Property Damage. They knocked the claim back. He appealed to the Insurance Ombudsman. He won

Ken, myself, macho, greg, des, Marty all in Havana. We had just picked up 200 Hamlet Customs. Took them with us on a road trip to Las Salinas (2.5 hrs out of Havana in Zapata) for a bone fishing weekend.

Macho somehow managed to lose the 200 custom cigars He also left a $700 bottle of Château d'Yquem in the fishing canoe

[IcedCanuck]

Ken went to Cuba and before he left he put too much water in his humidification section (old style pespex gas station humidor). He came back and all the bottom section was flooded/Ruined including Cohiba Double Corona LE.

He claimed $5000 on insurance. Property Damage. They knocked the claim back. He appealed to the Insurance Ombudsman. He won

Ken, myself, macho, greg, des, Marty all in Havana. We had just picked up 200 Hamlet Customs. Took them with us on a road trip to Las Salinas (2.5 hrs out of Havana in Zapata) for a bone fishing weekend.

Macho somehow managed to lose the 200 custom cigars He also left a $700 bottle of Château d'Yquem in the fishing canoe

That has got to be the absolute worst thing I have heard ever happening! Macho must have been mister popular for the remainder of your trip!

[PigFish]

Ken went to Cuba and before he left he put too much water in his humidification section (old style pespex gas station humidor). He came back and all the bottom section was flooded/Ruined including Cohiba Double Corona LE.

He claimed $5000 on insurance. Property Damage. They knocked the claim back. He appealed to the Insurance Ombudsman. He won

Ken, myself, macho, greg, des, Marty all in Havana. We had just picked up 200 Hamlet Customs. Took them with us on a road trip to Las Salinas (2.5 hrs out of Havana in Zapata) for a bone fishing weekend.

Macho somehow managed to lose the 200 custom cigars He also left a $700 bottle of Château d'Yquem in the fishing canoe

On the other hand some days are just perfect.

One day I found 200 custom cigars and bottle of ripple in a boat I rented. The cigars were sublime and traded this bottle of booze with a name that I can't pronounce for a couple of lab dances!!! I wish I was always this lucky!!!

-the Pig

[Orion21]

My disaster story is now funny to me, but wasn't at the time.

I smoked very infrequently (Maybe 50 cigars a year), but when I do I cherish every second of every stick. So a few weeks ago when I had a completely free day I picked a lineup of cigars to enjoy -- Boli Gigantes, Partagas Churchill and Bolivar PC. Being early in the day I started with the Boli PC with my coffee and as soon as I clipped it and tried to light it I found it totally PLUGGED! I was bummed because that was the first Boli PC that I have ever found to be plugged. No big deal I just advanced to the Boli Gigantes figuring I would have 2-3 espressos and enjoy the great weather. I clipped the head and lit the foot -- PLUGGED!!! I wasn't having it so I clipped an inch down the head, still plugged. I got a needle and inserted it in the head to create a passage and the cigar became barely smokebale....my coffee was cold and morning ruined . . .

Fast forward a few hours after doing some chores and having made lunch I sit down to enjoy a beautiful looking Party Churchill. Clip the head and do a test draw and ZERO air comes through. Clip the head further and get a minuscule amount of air. This is when I get so frustrated I dissect the cigar to figure out the issue. What I find is probably twice the needed tobacco rolled so tight you can't believe it. Demoralized I go to my NC humidor and pull out a custom torp Squarehead had sent me months before. It smoked perfectly and my day is back on track

P.S. My humidors are at 65% and I dry box 1-3 days before I smoke. I just had rotten rotten luck with those cigars. It was truly a cigar disaster.

[Puros Y Vino]

My cigar disaster story was last fall. Oct/Nov timeframe. I was up on the Park Hyatt rooftop with a few fellow FOH's. I had an HQ Monte 4 and QdO Coronas Claro. Lit the Monte 4 first. A third of the way through, I got a real disgusting taste out of it. Looked at the head..black gold! Texas tea!! Basically bubbling sacks of tobacco juice. Tossed that sucker out, rinsed out my mouth with water and a Innis & Gunn ale.

Proceeded to light up the Qdo. At the halfway point. Same effing thing!!! Tar bubbles at the head! Rinsed out again and basically gave up lighting up another cigar that night. Not sure what caused it. It happened to be the first two times I ever hole punched my cigars. The Monte4 was from my humidor, the QdO from the LCDH.

Last week I had a HDM Palmas extra. That sucker did the same thing to me. Only I got a bigger dose of it. Just bloody disgusting.

[mk05]

A few lessons from your tale of woe......

1. PSD4 are terrible. Really disappointing. However, many people here continue to slurp that stick.

FJ

Wholeheartedly agree, but that's just my tastebuds.

I believe your cigar was too moist if your cap squished and split on you.

On the other hand some days are just perfect.

One day I found 200 custom cigars and bottle of ripple in a boat I rented. The cigars were sublime and traded this bottle of booze with a name that I can't pronounce for a couple of lab dances!!! I wish I was always this lucky!!!

-the Pig

Pig wins

[Orion21]

My cigar disaster story was last fall. Oct/Nov timeframe. I was up on the Park Hyatt rooftop with a few fellow FOH's. I had an HQ Monte 4 and QdO Coronas Claro. Lit the Monte 4 first. A third of the way through, I got a real disgusting taste out of it. Looked at the head..black gold! Texas tea!! Basically bubbling sacks of tobacco juice. Tossed that sucker out, rinsed out my mouth with water and a Innis & Gunn ale.

Proceeded to light up the Qdo. At the halfway point. Same effing thing!!! Tar bubbles at the head! Rinsed out again and basically gave up lighting up another cigar that night. Not sure what caused it. It happened to be the first two times I ever hole punched my cigars. The Monte4 was from my humidor, the QdO from the LCDH.

Last week I had a HDM Palmas extra. That sucker did the same thing to me. Only I got a bigger dose of it. Just bloody disgusting.

I got my first dose of black gold a few weeks ago on a Monte 2. It wasn't that bad, but I got it all over my thumb. I cut the head a bit and the problem was solved. It was a fantastic Monte 2, so I wasn't going to throw it away

[Squarehead]

Just over 2 years ago I sat on the balcony of the cruiseship I was on and lit up a HdMEE and wouldn't you know it that fricken brise swirling around smoked 3/4 of it.

[Ophidion]

My only disaster till this point has been when I threw out some bgm and RASS out the window of a car because I thought the green spots on the wrapper were mold. Luckily I only noticed it on about 3 of each but... Yeah that was stupid.

[MrDowse]

I'm glad these things don't only happen to me..although a $700 bottle of wine kind of puts my £15 cigar into perspective

I have been on a roll recently..just a week before my PSD4 'issue' i attended a family wedding. I stuffed a couple of Non Cuban robustos in my suit pocket knowing that it was going to be a beautiful day (we've had amazing spring weather in the UK recently) and i would have the opportunity to smoke outside. So we get to the venue which is Uxbridge registry office, and i go to get the the wife, mother in law & baby out of the car. Meanwhile, the mother in law decides it would be a good idea to move my suit jacket from it's hanging place inside the car on a coat hanger, to hang loosely over the open car door. Not knowing this, I brush past said open door with the baby and car seat in hand....the door closes with a crunchy sound. Bye bye cigars.....Nooooooo!

I am now so p*ssed off i can't even speak. Then i realise why i love my iPhone (once i'm calm again). A little bit of googling and i find out that there is a store by the train station nearby that supposedly sells Cuban cigars...I run around the corner and into this tiny little shop with the usual array of crap machine mades and cigarettes behind the counter and i ask him..."Do you sell Cuban cigars?" He looks at me suspiciously "Only Singles Sir" says he...and pulls out a box of Upmann Corona Major and another box of Punch Coronations. Happy Days! Now i know that neither of these are considered great cigars, but honestly i bought one of each and smoked them both on the day and they were absolute nectar.

[mk05]

My only disaster till this point has been when I threw out some bgm and RASS out the window of a car because I thought the green spots on the wrapper were mold. Luckily I only noticed it on about 3 of each but... Yeah that was stupid.

So what youre saying is that you were littering.

[ajgagnon]

I had this one once. Humidifier block adjacent to the best cigars... to protect them. Then they touched

[Ophidion]

I had this one once. Humidifier block adjacent to the best cigars... to protect them. Then they touched

That brings a tear to my eye. Out of respect for the fallen, I will light up the only Cohiba Esp that I have (a gift from a great friend) the second I have a sunny day off of work.