Terribly rolled CC. What was your worst?

[Christophe]

This. Boxcode EPO Abr 25. Tubos.

How do you even do this? Like physically, how do you get the band stuck under the wrapper? I figured it was a result of shoving the cigar in the tubo, but that seems unlikely though I'm not sure what the procedure is? 

Can you do worse? Do you have pictures? 

[El Presidente]

I think that is the worst example of CC QC I have seen in 2025. God damn awful. 

Tubos can be brilliant. They can also be the mechanism where the worst from the sorting table go to be hidden. 

[Capn_Jackson]

I don't have pictures, but have had at least two tubos with the same issue. One was a Punch Punch, the other was a Cohiba. Both smoked alright, but it was pretty disheartening.

I can also remember one box of Connie 1, back in mid-2010's maybe 2014 or so. Two of the sticks were vastly underfilled, and in putting them in the box, those two were squashed to about two ring gauges smaller! Both of them smoked horribly, involving many relights.

[rcarlson]

My first box JL2 years ago. Every stick was a slightly different ring gauge. Strangest damn thing ever.   

[Chibearsv]

I don’t know how they did it, but I had 6 or 7 cigars in the bottom layer of a box of Edmundos where the wrapper was folded up on one side like an accordion. They smoked fine but had a nasty looking scar down the side. 

[JPark3]

Box of Partagás Mille Fleurs 2018.

Only one has had a good draw. To be fair, that one was an amazing smoke, but the others weren't able to be rescued with a perfecdraw.

[loose_axle]

When the Punch Short de Punch arrived, I got a 10 count box, whereby the majority were so plugged it felt like cement being sucked through a straw. 

[Christophe]

16 hours ago, El Presidente said:

I think that is the worst example of CC QC I have seen in 2025. God damn awful. 

Tubos can be brilliant. They can also be the mechanism where the worst from the sorting table go to be hidden. 

Well, "Worst QC 2025 - CC category" is a dubious honor I wasn't hoping for my purchased sticks this year. 

Yeah, I got a pack of 5 X 3 packs of these, most look a lot better than this, but consistency is definitely not what they were going for with these
 

[gormag38]

Both sticks below are surprisingly CoRos. Both purchased from one of the 'legit' grey market vendors years ago. Stick on the left from a cab circa 2017 and stick on the right from a 5X3 petaca circa 2019. There was a few of really small CoRo in that 5X3. Others that were more traditional robusto size. The difference in the RG size is stark to say the least. Think this is an example of rollers 'hiding' their mistakes in a petaca/tubo. 

[Christophe]

How common would you all say this is in tubos?
I'm fairly new to CCs, never experienced this sort of issue with NCs. This is turning me off of buying more CCs in tubos to be honest. 

[El Presidente]

5 hours ago, gormag38 said:

 Think this is an example of rollers 'hiding' their mistakes in a petaca/tubo. 

 

You nailed it on the head 

[El Presidente]

7 minutes ago, Christophe said:

How common would you all say this is in tubos?
I'm fairly new to CCs, never experienced this sort of issue with NCs. This is turning me off of buying more CCs in tubos to be honest. 

You can have great Tubos! 

Say there is a 40,000 production run of R&J Churchill Tubos at Fabrica ABC. There will be no QC difference to a R&J Churchill run for boxes of 25 non tubos. 

However let's say there is a 40,000 run of R&J Churchill's of which final packaging will be 30,000 into boxes of 25 and 10,000 into Tubos. You know that every mongo (colour/size/wrapper marked) cigar will end up in the tubo pile as well as plenty of great cigars. 

[Lucas Buck]

Once upon a time (2005-2020) I bought Tubos with extreme prejudice. If I could find them I bought them even if they weren’t favorites. They’re just such eye candy and so convenient to pop one or two in a pocket, wife’s purse or valise, etc. I don’t know how many hundreds I’ve smoked across the whole Habanos range but they have with rare exceptions been some of the best Havanas I’ve had. There are of course always exceptions. Bands do tend to get scrunched here and there so I wish Tubos were unbanded. Problem solved. 

[helix]

eso es cuba .🤨

[Puros Y Vino]

2000 RyJ Cazadores. Bought them on a Paris 2009 trip. Took it to the nearby park. Lit it. Couldn't get one molecule of air through it. It was a miracle it even managed to catch fire. Total tent peg. No exaggeration. Pitched it into a rain puddle and lit up something else. I still have 2 of the 3 I bought from the trip. 😐 One day I'll try another. At least now I have a draw tool. But to be honest, it wouldn't have helped that first one.

[Li Bai]

8 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

2000 RyJ Cazadores. Bought them on a Paris 2009 trip. Took it to the nearby park. Lit it. Couldn't get one molecule of air through it. It was a miracle it even managed to catch fire. Total tent peg. No exaggeration. Pitched it into a rain puddle and lit up something else. I still have 2 of the 3 I bought from the trip. 😐 One day I'll try another. At least now I have a draw tool. But to be honest, it wouldn't have helped that first one.

2000-ish RyJ Churchill, same. Almost gave up on cigars back then.

[Christophe]

On 12/11/2025 at 6:32 AM, loose_axle said:

When the Punch Short de Punch arrived, I got a 10 count box, whereby the majority were so plugged it felt like cement being sucked through a straw. 

I just performed some major surgery to enjoy an H. Upmann Half Corona.

 

[joeypots]

Probably a box of H Upmann Monarchs around 2000. I think every cigar was plugged.

I had a cab of BCG around '05 that had a lot of plugged cigars but the ones that were good, were very good.

[Arabian]

I had two Lusitanias next to each other and one was a bit longer than the other. Maybe i got the +10% free offer.

[ElLoboLoco]

2021 was my last purchase of Cuban Cigars. A box of Punch Punch that was rolled like bricks and were unsmokable. That was breaking point…there were many inconsistent boxes up to that but it was the final straw.

Now with terrible prices and availability in the US…guess who is curious again? 🤣😭😅

[Fugu]

On 12/12/2025 at 7:15 AM, Lucas Buck said:

I don’t know how many hundreds I’ve smoked across the whole Habanos range but they have with rare exceptions been some of the best Havanas I’ve had.

I am to a hundred percent with you on that there! Rarely have I been disappointed in a tubo in a way I have been in non-tubed packaging. I’d go so far to even say, for some, the A/T-version is the consistently better cigar. But, hey, surely as anecdotal as El Prez’ narrative (sorry Rob, have to challenge you there 😄). So or so - and perhaps all purely by chance - following my personal experience I am particularly searching out certain cigars in tubo. Among those are, and stocked up even very recently on A/Ts of: RyJ Churchills, Sig 2 and 3, CORO (yes I did…), D5, D4, E2, Epicure Especial (dream cigars! and still fairly fair priced in the tubed version), Mag46.

To the original question: I’ve never witnessed a ring damage such as in the OP in a tubed cigar, and I am fairly certain that this is deriving from a second-hand manipulation (cigars are wrapped in the cedar before slipping them into the tube - protection of the wrapper, that’s the whole idea of the cedar sleeve there). Cuba may be Cuba, still not everything we get to see must have its origin there. I’ve seen my fair share of cut-open wrappers from shop personnel or even importers damaging when cutting seals, or swapping cigars erroneously. Happens.

[Christophe]

13 hours ago, Fugu said:

I am to a hundred percent with you on that there! Rarely have I been disappointed in a tubo in a way I have been in non-tubed packaging. I’d go so far to even say, for some, the A/T-version is the consistently better cigar. But, hey, surely as anecdotal as El Prez’ narrative (sorry Rob, have to challenge you there 😄). So or so - and perhaps all purely by chance - following my personal experience I am particularly searching out certain cigars in tubo. Among those are, and stocked up even very recently on A/Ts of: RyJ Churchills, Sig 2 and 3, CORO (yes I did…), D5, D4, E2, Epicure Especial (dream cigars! and still fairly fair priced in the tubed version), Mag46.

To the original question: I’ve never witnessed a ring damage such as in the OP in a tubed cigar, and I am fairly certain that this is deriving from a second-hand manipulation (cigars are wrapped in the cedar before slipping them into the tube - protection of the wrapper, that’s the whole idea of the cedar sleeve there). Cuba may be Cuba, still not everything we get to see must have its origin there. I’ve seen my fair share of cut-open wrappers from shop personnel or even importers damaging when cutting seals, or swapping cigars erroneously. Happens.

Don't know who shoves them the tubo, as I said, but this 3-pack of tubos (and all the others in the box) was sealed. Assuming the packs are sealed in Cuba, I have no reason to assume it was tampered with after leaving Cuba. 

[SUP8333]

Diplomaticos Italia, this tops the list. It was overfilled at the cap, so super tight draw. I used a Perfecdraw to no results, which I then proceeded to make a second cut but the cap came off entirely and the top burst after a couple of puffs. I managed to pull out a whole stem after. I kept smoking and the wrapper exploded on one side and started unravelling. What a disaster. I gave up, which is rare.

[Fugu]

1 hour ago, Christophe said:

Don't know who shoves them the tubo, as I said, but this 3-pack of tubos (and all the others in the box) was sealed. Assuming the packs are sealed in Cuba, I have no reason to assume it was tampered with after leaving Cuba. 

No, you’re right they are packed in Cuba. If they came still originally sealed, then there’s no other explanation indeed, other than that someone probably had a bad day. (e.g. stick slipping up a bit before applying the cap, whereupon the band caught the edge of the cedar, or something like that).

[Stevieboy]

2003 and the very first box I ever bought. Punch Black Prince from 2001 and every one was plugged or really, really right. What a disappointment. I was naive to the fact that cigars from '99 to '01 were a risky purchase.