Cigar Aficionado #5 Cigar of 2020, Punch Short de Punch

[NSXCIGAR]

57 minutes ago, gcman68 said:

This makes sense to me and since since they take into account consistency and quality control

I may be over my skis here a bit but honestly, I think the notion that NCs are head and shoulders above CCs in terms of QC is overblown and a myth to some degree.

I'm not a NC smoker, admittedly. But I do hear plenty of NC smokers complain about QC. Reading some of the reviews on Halfwheel I see QC issues brought up more than I would have expected based on the general feelings you see in the cigar world.

I personally think the knock on CCs being much worse than NCs in terms of QC is a remnant of the 99-01 period that CA in particular just can't seem to get over. People seem to forget that prior to 99, CC QC was exceptional. It's only since 2000 that CCs got the reputation for having poor QC.

Just putting out there that maybe what we hear isn't as true as what we've been led to believe.

[Bijan]

21 minutes ago, Lrabold89 said:

I whole heartedly disagree....cc QC is an absolute joke sometimes blowing through 3-4 cigars before I land a good one ....every time I have an Nc I undoubtedly say wow this construction is perfect WHY CANT CC GET IT RIGHT !?!? A buddy brought up an interesting point the other day about NC leaf being more robust and cc very delicate ...thoughts ?

I don't smoke much NCs but there are a few options, the one I think is most likely to me is that CCs are packed more densely, which leads to plugs/tight draw and construction issues. This would also explain why you need to store CCs with lower relative humidity (since tightly packed tobacco will need to be dryer to burn as well as lightly packed tobacco). This is also why George Burns wouldn't smoke CCs in his comedy routine, he said they were packed too tightly and they'd go out too fast and he'd have to relight all the time (though he may have been talking premium vs non-premium cigars, source: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/the-ultimate-cigar-aficionado-6004).

The other theories are that CCs are rolled terribly or by unskilled rollers, which would explain inconsistencies but wouldn't explain the difference in RH requirements.

Finally it could be that all the strains of tobacco mutated in the same way once they left Cuba (or that Cuba's unique micro-climate has a unique effect on the tobacco leaves' physical properties), which would explain the difference in RH requirements but not the quality control issues.

[NSXCIGAR]

@Bijan has some things worth considering.

I think there are a few possibilities. Yes, I do think NCs are constructed differently. 90% of NCs are rolled using the machine. CCs are 100% hand made, meaning yes, tighter bunching but also the human error factor enters.

I also believe CC leaf is far more hygroscopic than NC leaf. We already know CC leaf has a far lower nicotine content than NC leaf, so there are physical differences in leaf from different regions even using identical strains. You also have NCs extensively using chemical fertilizers while CCs use 100% organic.

Possibly because of this and other factors, CCs are much more sensitive to storage conditions than NCs.

From what I have experienced over the past decade is that CC quality seems to be in the cigar and time, not by factory. For example 99/100 LGR 18-20 SC La Fuerza have performed excellent for me. But not all LGR 18-20 cigars have been that reliable. We know La Corona is a reliable factory. I'm coming to believe that most of the QC issues are in the processing or before--not with the rolling. 

So I would put something like LGR La Fuerza or ARS/BSM Famosos up against ANY NC in the QC department. I don't think it's something inherent to CCs--again, as I mentioned before, pre-99 CCs had outstanding QC. I think it's something going on that can be fixed. Don't underestimate the role that technology and resources play in processing--something NC producers have plenty of but Tabacuba doesn't

[Bijan]

48 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

From what I have experienced over the past decade is that CC quality seems to be in the cigar and time, not by factory. For example 99/100 LGR 18-20 SC La Fuerza have performed excellent for me. But not all LGR 18-20 cigars have been that reliable. We know La Corona is a reliable factory. I'm coming to believe that most of the QC issues are in the processing or before--not with the rolling. 

This is an interesting theory and something I had never thought of or noticed, but I will certainly pay attention to this going forward.

One thing to note about this is that if official weights are to be believed cigar density is a function of vitola (and not just RG and length of the vitola, but varying between cigars close in size but of different vitolas). For example half coronas (44RGx90mm) are some of the least dense cigars and minutos (42RGx110mm) are some of the most dense by official weight and dimensions (I think it's about a 19% difference between these two). Also beyond this, the specific vitola will affect the ratio of different kinds of tobacco leaf.

That being said I think RG plays as much a role as density in tightness of draw.