Cohiba Siglo VI “fake”

[Malt]

I’ll post this here where it’s supposed to be instead of the code thread. Still learning the navigation of the site.  I am so far away from being an expert or aficionado of cigars I’m at the bottom of the heap looking up.  Having said that as I go along I’ve learned a bunch, smoked a bunch of different cigars and have leveled out on the “fat” ones that are about 6” long. The Cohiba Siglo VI fits in this world and I like them. I was fortunate enough to get hands rolled ones at a corporate event and they were even better.  

I bought 2 boxes from a vendor in Jamaica who I’ve bought from before and the cigars were really good. Taking the band off and out of the box I’m not experienced enough to know the difference of “fake” and real but were nearly as good as a “real” one (I’ve had 2 real ones as well as multiple hand rolled) 

The pics are what I bought, the comments on the other thread were; fake, band not right, code not right, serial number not right, cigars not right etc which I’m 100% on board with. My question on these are, if they smoke good, ash right, taste is good, burn slow and even,  could they still be Cuban cigars? Seconds? Is that a thing? Graded different and the non code the trigger for vendors?  I don’t believe they are genuine Siglo VI because of price and the flaws but does it still mean fake? Or is it just all the representation fake to market seconds.  
I'm asking all this so I can be better at buying.

Sorry if this is repetitive because I'm sure these type of posts have been beat to a pulp.

[gormag38]

Yes this is certainly the appropriate thread to post in. The cigars you have are without a doubt are not genuine Habanos. By that I mean, they are not Cohiba Siglo VIs. (Which are roughly $100+ a cigar). In terms of how fake yours are, there's really no way to truly know. I will say that there's a lot about your box and labels that look much better than 90% of the fakes out there today. But just because the quality of the materials of the box/bands is 'better' than most fakes by no means mean the quality of the leaf in your cigars is 'better' than most fakes. If I was a betting man I'd say they are most likely a Dominican or Honduran farm roll. (As that would likely be the most profitable for the counterfeiters.) It could also be possible that they used a Cuban farm roll and slapped the Cohiba bands on them. It really is hard to say. If you pick up some of the undeniable Cuban 'twang' then I'd assume there's at least some Cuban leaf in them. It sounds like you've smoked these and you don't mind how they taste; all power to you. I personally would be weary of smoking any known fugazi smokes as counterfeiters have been known to use basically anything to roll those. (E.g. banana leaves, string, etc.) Hope this response has helped some. And welcome to this little hobby of ours, get ready for your wallet to hurt! 😁

[Malt]

10 hours ago, gormag38 said:

Yes this is certainly the appropriate thread to post in. The cigars you have are without a doubt are not genuine Habanos. By that I mean, they are not Cohiba Siglo VIs. (Which are roughly $100+ a cigar). In terms of how fake yours are, there's really no way to truly know. I will say that there's a lot about your box and labels that look much better than 90% of the fakes out there today. But just because the quality of the materials of the box/bands is 'better' than most fakes by no means mean the quality of the leaf in your cigars is 'better' than most fakes. If I was a betting man I'd say they are most likely a Dominican or Honduran farm roll. (As that would likely be the most profitable for the counterfeiters.) It could also be possible that they used a Cuban farm roll and slapped the Cohiba bands on them. It really is hard to say. If you pick up some of the undeniable Cuban 'twang' then I'd assume there's at least some Cuban leaf in them. It sounds like you've smoked these and you don't mind how they taste; all power to you. I personally would be weary of smoking any known fugazi smokes as counterfeiters have been known to use basically anything to roll those. (E.g. banana leaves, string, etc.) Hope this response has helped some. And welcome to this little hobby of ours, get ready for your wallet to hurt! 😁

This is the best answer!  Thank you for that. For the cost, these will be good “golf” sticks. I have friends that are as ignorant as I am about what’s good or bad but these actually smoke well so I’ll be the hero on golf day bringing these along!

For me, I know sort of what to look for and will get better at recognizing the non real. I’ll start buying real but different ones to figure out the “twang”. It’s a learned craft knowing the difference in taste but it’s coming and I’m sure there’s other cigars that are just as good as the “Taj Ma Hall” Cohiba. 

Lesson learned!  As for the wallet, quality cost which I’m okay with.  

Tim 

[Malt]

Out of this box I finally smoked one. A bad smoke? Not really, the aroma was nice, it smoked well and stayed lit the whole time without having to push it. It had some caramel and woody taste but I’m not the best at pulling all the tastes out. It burnt evenly and the ash hung on until I bumped it and knocked it off .

I'm still waiting on my Canonazos to arrive so I know what a good cigar is!