On a scale of 1-5, how good do you believe you are at spotting a good CC fake?

[El Presidente]

Looking at my emails this week to date.....it is "Fake week". It is like "Shark Week" on Discovery 

The absence of much sought after stock has seen members look far and wide for their favourite sticks. Most situations turn out well but a few have been stung. 

Poll: On a scale of 1-5, how good do you believe you are at spotting a good fake? 

 

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

Pre-2022, 4.9. 2022 on, maybe a 2. 

A good fake in 2022 is glass top level in 2023. 

[smokeyjoe01]

Not long ago I had a (refilled genuine) box of fake montecristo cigars. I didn’t notice the wonky bands until after lighting up & realised from taste that the cigars weren’t Cuban. On closer inspection the bands were poor attempts, clearly fake. Need to get a uv torch but even that’s no guarantee when the box is refilled.

[El Presidente]

I want to point out that there is no right or wrong answers to the question. 

Let's face it. All of us (well at least most) live busy lives. We shouldn't have to worry about genuine product. The cigar world has plenty of passionistas bordering on OCD. God bless them  for it is them who deserve the credit for alerting the rest of the cigar loving community to the pitfalls. 

The majority however just want a genuine bloody cigar that they paid for. 

In terms of genuine CC cigars, if you assume hand rolled production numbers out of Cuba at 40-50 million currently, the fake market is estimated at near 2-1. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Implicit Trust 😞

I am so dependent and trusting of the vendors I use online, duty free, and occasional Habanos authorized stores.  Anyone one of them could pull the wool over my head and I'll think it was just a crappy Habanos product.  Never considering it a fake. 

[MrBirdman]

It’s almost a given there are Cohiba fakes out there now that, without lab equipment, are effectively indistinguishable from the real McCoy, at least without actually smoking them. If you get the boxes from the actual manufacturer in China, all you need to do is slap some real bands on some convincing looking NC and not f up the spelling on the inserts. 

Outside Cohiba I think I know the basics of spotting a fake and could do a decent job with a black light in hand. 

[Bijan]

Poor quality fake, probably. Good quality fake with real bands and/or box, I probably wouldn't know until I smoked one.

[Nocoins]

The last questionable cigar I smoked was a 2018 Siglo II from a trusted third party individual, and all the cold box aroma/packaging/labels/code/etc checked out.  Just the cigar itself tasted not like a Siglo II, and I've smoked plenty from 2018 and 2019 that I know the profile.  So I thought about simply asking the seller about the provenance of the box, curious if we could be sure that the cigars themselves were in fact Siglo II.  But I didn't.  I let them sit for a while and I smoked some from other boxes that I'm 100% on provenance.  Then smoked another from this particular box, and decided they're legit, it's the first one was underwhelming.  And so the rest of them have been fine from there.  I answered 2 for my view in 2023, because that's my main question these days about open boxes -- are the cigars themselves what they purport to be.

[Rushman]

It’s almost a given there are Cohiba fakes out there now that, without lab equipment, are effectively indistinguishable from the real McCoy, at least without actually smoking them. If you get the boxes from the actual manufacturer in China, all you need to do is slap some real bands on some convincing looking NC and not f up the spelling on the inserts. 
Outside Cohiba I think I know the basics of spotting a fake and could do a decent job with a black light in hand. 

Yeah it’s those super high end fakes that are bordering on impossible. I think pre 2015 I would catch most if not all. Now who knows. Less for sure.


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[LizardGizmo]

I thought I was pretty damn good until that box of Cohiba Robustos got me last year. Now I am much less confident and, if I have a serious question, I punt it to one of the few experts I know (Rob, Alex Groom, Dan C.) Like others have said, the fakes are just too good now. Provenance is the foundation of trusting a box to be legit.

 

[Cigar Surgeon]

Better than picking NFL teams to win football games at this point ...

[Greenhorn2]

Considering most of my cigars come from FoH, LCDHs or one other online vendor that has always supplied me with some great boxes, I don't really worry about it. About 75/80% of my smokes came from here, so why should I worry?