Has any noticed a decline in the quality of PLPC's

[JY0]

I recently bought a cab from our host and noticed that the color of the wrapper is very different than any other cuban cigar. It has almost a greenish color to them? Is this normal for this cigar?

I actually prefer the light wrappers and look for them. Taste is definitely subjective.

[maxcjs0101]

Just buy from our host and you'll have peace of mind.

[Ken Gargett]

Overall quality has taken a dip these past 6 months.

which wasn't quite what you mentioned when you talked me into a can recently!

in fairness, i did not take much convincing. i used to smoke these much more regularly than i have recently - it was pretty much the only little cigar in the humidor. not sure why i stopped - not overly fond of that size and was keen to add age. have a cab from 04 and one from 08. not sure what the latest is. might be time to check the 04s.

to the original post, given the one a day, it is obviously not a single cab issue. and presumably same source and no change in storage. could it be your tastes have changed?

[CaptainQuintero]

I can, but it is not likely exactly what you were asking.

I actually thought that the PLPC was very good when reintroduced, I cannot remember the year, I believe '03. Those cigars, as well as the cigars before they were discontinued were very good.

While I still buy the PLPC, it has been another cigar that has fallen fate to the Tabacuba practice of overproduction at the cost of quality. It is not that every cigar is now below par, but the variation in the sticks, not as in profile, but in overall smoking experience has somewhat declined.

Now in fairness, I am rating cigars that have run from '03 to '08 and one could make a more contemporary assessment of newer crops that could be more accurate to those years. Overall, from '03 to '08 I have seen the decline.

I don't really know that it is fair to judge cigars this way, while I do it all the time, due to the fact that there are likely ebbs and flows that cause these production problems (as I see them) that may be righted in short order. My experience could be a matter of chance and based on the boxes, and the time of year that the cigars were actually produced. I will never know.

I would say that there are likely fewer 'global trends' than what many of us experience as individual trends. Not all of us will agree on trends and therefore the argument that there is in fact no trend, is worth consideration.

When it comes to trends, I suppose I trust my own palate first, then would have to rely on someone like our host whose fingers run over 10's or 100's of thousands of cigars. Someone has to be closer to the market than I am really, to truly accurately assess trends!

Cheers! -Piggy

What was the story behind the disco/reintroduction? I remember it knocking any when I first got into cigars. It was something like 25 dress boxes were deleted, big uproar ensued and the 50 cab slb was brought in?

[BonVivant]

2006-7s are amazing

[joeruby]

I hadn't tried them earlier, I've just got a cab EML ABR 14 and they have been exceptional, with I'm sure some improvement to come.

If they used to be better than what I'm experiencing now in previous years, then the bar must have been set pretty high..

[PigFish]

What was the story behind the disco/reintroduction? I remember it knocking any when I first got into cigars. It was something like 25 dress boxes were deleted, big uproar ensued and the 50 cab slb was brought in?

Hopefully someone else can answer your question my friend. I am not really the Cuban cigar historian type. I am forced to look up vitola names all the time... -LOL

Remember, this is the cigar world that we are talking about, and the truth and myth are paths that rarely cross! News was not as easy to come by as it is today, and rumors about cigars were pretty wild and often inaccurate. My first of the re-released cigars from the this new run was a split cab with a friend and I want to say at that time the cigar was fetching about $300 to $350 a cab with the exchange rate. I seem to remember that we got them from Germany, but I could just be confusing this with the Gold Medal re-release as I just don't remember the details of the transaction. I will bet that some of my friends do, but a lot of them don't frequent this board.

That is all the memory I have of the those transactions. The cigar is what mattered and not really the circumstances that went along with the purchase. I want to say that within a year or 18 months they were showing up again at other retailers and the prices were going down as the stock levels increased. I remember the cigars were extremely good (I thought) while there was a share of those that would not admit that they were as good as the originals. There is always that group. I liked the re-released cigars but thought that they were too expensive. Some of my friends were thumbing their noses at them, but I have never been one for reliance on public opinion. They hovered around the $300 mark for awhile and once they broke down below that, the competition stepped in. During that period I was after more Churchills than PC's and my go to PC was the Partagas in cabs as well as the RAPC. I was also smoking a lot of the Partagas tres petit coronas, over the shorts.

Of course when I think of buying cigars back then, depending on exchange rates cigars were actually more expensive in many cases. The competition was not what it is now! There was one popular vendor known for good pricing, but spotty quality (depending on whom you asked). Don't ask me to mention names please!

Some, well, many of the vendors required an introduction or a reference to ship cigars off their shores. There were a lot of changes going on in the international cigar retail business at this point in time. It too was a lot different from today. There were no vendor sponsored public BB's. Discussing vendors online was 'verboten.'

Our friend Rob here wanted an introduction back when I first started doing business with him (as I recall). A lot of water under the bridge, that is for certain!

So now you know... If I get under your skin, blame Fred and Aaron! -LOL

Cheers! -R

[wabashcr]

I picked up a 15 cab here from one of the clearance sales end of last year. The wrappers aren't pretty, but they smoke brilliantly. I'm sure they age well, but I'll likely never know. They're so good now that I have no reason to age them.

[ElAbogado]

I picked up a 'clearance' box at the end of last year from Pres. Smoked one so far and it was amazing. Sweet cream for days. Hard to imagine them tasting any better! This was from a young box as well, JUL 15 I believe. Love them.

[ThePolskiOgorki]

I have yet to go deep on these with a cab. I usually buy 10 at a time from a vendor local to me and smoke them slowly. I really don't recall getting any with particularly nice looking or darkly coloured wrappers, but construction and taste wise they don't disappoint. So as far as quality decline in appearance I really couldnt comment. Taste and burn have been consistently good from what I am sourcing. I have always looked at the PLPC as a very "meat and potatoes" type of smoke. Deeply satisfying, but nothing fancy. I missed it last time, but I am going to be all over them the next time cabs come up on the 24:24. Hopefully that is soon.

[canadianbeaver]

Mr beaver and I are loving ours! They rested for 1.5 years (I think they are 2013?) in our cigar fridge. We dry boxed a few of them due to taking them on a trip. Fantastic! And we are very picky now... Smoke great or on to the next.