tobacco monsters

[rafa]

Hello everybody

I’m going to tell you an awful store if you have a pair of minutes and can apologize me for my bad english.

Last month i saw in a Estanco ( This is the name for tobacco shops in Spain) a box of Flor de Cano – Preferidos with code OSC – VC3 ( I believe that means year 1997 – Villa Clara factory) for only 25 € . I know that this isn’t a good brand and Preferidos is the worse vitola of this brand. But i thought 25 € for 25 vintage habano cigars is very cheap and i bought it ( My pocked is empty always).

When i arrived home i feel that they were slightly dry and i saw one cigar with a little hole. I know that it means tobacco beetle ( Lasioderma) , but i thought inside me “ Imposible, ten years after , they must be die “. I throw out this one and i put the rest of cigars into a little humidor. A bad idea.

Last Friday , one month after , when i opened the humidor i saw a little beetle in the top inside. It don’t fly , only moved awkwardly. I killed it with my finger. I think they must be latent , and with the humidor humidity and warm weather Autumm in Madrid they were alive again. I examined all cigars, there weren’t holes and i put all of them in the freezer.

Fortunately i have two humidors.One bigger for premium cigars and another smaller for little and cheap cigars.The better cigars are saved , but the others... Sometimes the cheaper is the more expensive

Now, while i’m smoking a Cohiba Robusto and drinking a Cardenal Mendoza (Jerez brandy, high quality) , my freezer is killing beetles. And i am remembering my old meditation “Imposible, ten years after , they must be die”...

[Tampa1257]

Rafa,

Sad story, but the tobacco beetle can live a very long time in a dormant stage waiting for the right conditions to arrive. Glad that you safeguarded the rest of your cigars and perhaps after the freezing process is completed and the cigars well rested you might find a gem from the remaining cigars you have.

[Colt45]

Hi Rafa, sorry to hear about the bugs, but at least you found them

early and have things under control.

As an aside, personally, I don't think you need to apologize for your

English. One of the things I enjoy about this site is that there are

people from all over the globe.

[anacostiakat]

Sorry to hear about the beetles. You are lucky to be able to drink that brandy though. Difficult to get in US. :-(

[Professor Twain]

Thanks for sharing your story with us. I too am a bargain hunter, and I can imagine myself doing exactly the same thing. You may have saved my stock with this story. If I ever get a bargain in this type of situation, freeze them first.

I will add that I could follow your story perfectly well, your English is much better than my Spanish.

Welcome to the Board.

[rafa]

» Rafa,

»

» Sad story, but the tobacco beetle can live a very long time in a dormant

» stage waiting for the right conditions to arrive. Glad that you

» safeguarded the rest of your cigars and perhaps after the freezing process

» is completed and the cigars well rested you might find a gem from the

» remaining cigars you have.

A lot of thanks. Now, i know that you are a clever cigars man. I believe that when you talk, you know what are you talking about cigars. Incredible, one month later, one freezeer , cigars ( i have smoked 6), are all fantastic . i can't believe it. And only 1 month in humidor. I will try to be patient, but i can't imagine the next months. i don't change this old cheap cigars for premium new cigars. the taste of old habanos!. I believe that will never get back the taste of that kind of habanos. Pure archeology.

[Well Armed]

» Pure archeology.

That cracked me up.

[12stones]

Beetles are never fun. The first box of cigars I ever bought had beetles and I didn't find out in time. :-(

[kjellfrick]

» » Pure archeology.

»

» That cracked me up.

Hehe, I enjoyed that one too. I'm a great fan of linguistic innovation, and that was the best one in a long time. I'm not making fun of you, Rafa - you just coined a very catchy phrase...

I've had a few holes in my cigars as well, but luckily nothing really bad happened. i always freeze my cigars when they arrive, and hopefully that will keep disasters away

[DrAlejandro]

tough break buddy... Ill agree with the other guys in saying you were lucky to discover them early before they wrecked the rest of your sticks though

[Deano]

Sorry to hear that.

I saw one university study a few years ago that measured beetle hatchings versus temperature. The result was hatchings were inversely proportional to temperature (humidity level was a minor factor) with maximum activity around the 80 degree range.

The most interesting part of the study to me was that a small percentage of eggs hatched even at temps in the low 60 degreee range.