any difference between cigar in cab and box?

[yossie]

Let me know your opinion in the point of taste.

[matt14]

Let me know your opinion in the point of taste.

Cant say I have noticed a difference in taste, but I have got the palate of a goat with a cold.

I prefer cabs for aging over dress boxes for presentation also. Box pressed sticks I find sometimes annoying, cant put my finger on it. Had a box of Regios that where square, felt like i was smoking a piece of shortbread!!

[Tampa1257]

Let me know your opinion in the point of taste.

Yossie,

Through my personal experience, there is absolutely no difference in taste when you do a side by side comparison of a cigar from a Dress Box and a cigar from Cabinet within the first 5 years. Take a Dress Box and a Cabinet dated the same month, factory and year, place them side by side. The Dress Box cigar may have a "Box Press" making the cigar look square and a cigar from a Cab should be round. Each cigar is made with the same leaf, so the only difference a smoker could taste is the difference in the aging effect of the cigar between a Dress Box and a Cab.

I perfer aging in a Cab, which has to do with the O2 levels inside a Cab vs a DB. Each to their own, but unless you plan on aging a box of cigar for 5+ years, don't worry about it because the cigars will taste the same in my opinion.

[PigFish]

"none" -Piggy

[Ken Gargett]

Yossie,

Through my personal experience, there is absolutely no difference in taste when you do a side by side comparison of a cigar from a Dress Box and a cigar from Cabinet within the first 5 years. Take a Dress Box and a Cabinet dated the same month, factory and year, place them side by side. The Dress Box cigar may have a "Box Press" making the cigar look square and a cigar from a Cab should be round. Each cigar is made with the same leaf, so the only difference a smoker could taste is the difference in the aging effect of the cigar between a Dress Box and a Cab.

I perfer aging in a Cab, which has to do with the O2 levels inside a Cab vs a DB. Each to their own, but unless you plan on aging a box of cigar for 5+ years, don't worry about it because the cigars will taste the same in my opinion.

i have suggested to rob that it would make an interesting video, but as he rightly says, the box press shape of the dress box cigar would make identification easy and this might then lead to one's prejudices, if one has them, emerging.

[yossie]

Thanks guys. The majority opinion is the tastes are same but cab maybe aged well. right?

Since I'm a heavy smoker, I probably don't have the patience not to smoke them in young. XD

[aavkk]

While I havent had my cabs long enough to tell you they age better they offer a different benefit for me. I like seeing my collection evolve and change over time and having 50 cigars bundled and matched together allows me to see these changes over a greater period of time than a single 25 count dress box. I also just love a wheel of 50 cigars, theres something really masculine about a lot of spanish cedar, a ribbon and 50 great looking and smelling sticks. I always go for the cabs!

[armedak]

I also much prefer the cab presentation over the dress box. I really hate those friggin small nails on the dress boxes. It is just not as convenient opening and closing a dress box as it a cedar cabinet.

[Jimmy2]

No differance dress box look nicer with the pictures.Cabs are boring to look at also cigar is round or boxed don't matter to as long as the smoke is flavorfull that's all that really matters.More mis informed info going around ...

[laficion]

My only opinion would be that maybe the air flow would be better in a Cab then a dress box,

but that would be important if you plan to really age them, other then that , there's not much

importance.

[Ginseng]

I think there are sufficient anecdotal accounts to suggest that, initially, any taste differences between "identical" cigars packaged in dressed boxes versus SLBs, SBN, FBN (essentially any bare wood box) are most likely not due to the packaging itself. I say this having participated in a tasting of recent issue cigars of identical code, both date and factory, and found differences that could not have been accounted for by the relatively short time from boxing to tasting.

As for any longer term differences, the evidence is much, much more scarce and the serendipity of anyone owning 10-year old boxes and SLBs of, for example, Partagas Shorts or Bolivar Belicosos Finos of identical codes is vanishingly low. The experiment can be done to test the "aging in cab" hypothesis, but who would have the patience to do so and report results. No. This question remains purely in the theoretical realm not because of the inherent impossibility of confirming it, but because of human considerations.

Until it is finally demonstrated, it remains a reasonable possibility and I'd be loathe to dismiss it out of hand.

Wilkey

[Colt45]

I think there are sufficient anecdotal accounts to suggest that, initially, any taste differences between "identical" cigars packaged in dressed boxes versus SLBs, SBN, FBN (essentially any bare wood box) are most likely not due to the packaging itself. I say this having participated in a tasting of recent issue cigars of identical code, both date and factory, and found differences that could not have been accounted for by the relatively short time from boxing to tasting.

I think I'd be willing to attribute this more to production inconsistency than an intentional packaging quality differential.

[Ginseng]

I think I'd be willing to attribute this more to production inconsistency than an intentional packaging quality differential.

Absolutely. But remember that if any given box and cab are dramatically different, our tendency would be to attribute it to production (materials) variance. But strictly speaking, in the absence of a reasonable number of samples to establish some sense of the source of this variation, nothing can really be concluded with any confidence.

Wilkey

[Colt45]

Absolutely. But remember that if any given box and cab are dramatically different, our tendency would be to attribute it to production (materials) variance. But strictly speaking, in the absence of a reasonable number of samples to establish some sense of the source of this variation, nothing can really be concluded with any confidence.

Wilkey

You are, of course, correct. But why let facts (or lack thereof) and science get in the way. I prefer hearsay and eleventh-hand information.

[tigger]

I prefer hearsay and eleventh-hand information.

I knew there was something I liked about you.

I've wondered in the past if the draw on cabbed cigars might be less prone to tightness than those packed in dress boxes. Somewhat moot point, with the advances in production and testing that have been made. Not something I ever tested. nor am I likely to. But I've wondered...

[PigFish]

axiom |ˈaksēəm|

noun

a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.

Cuban cigars are inconsistent; an axiom, regardless the packaging.

Judging consistency box to box is as random as interbox. Without visual clues there would be no way to tell them apart. I offer no proof, just experience, empirical evidence worthwhile to me and to those who wish to accept it on faith without firsthand knowledge.

If there were a difference there would need to be a concrete method of either evaluating a cigar without smoking it... a concept I rebuke, or the belief that cigars are intentionally constructed at different benchmarks of quality and sorted and stored as such. When the construction of a cigar is so simple with the highest quality component being the wrapper, one component needing to withstand a visual quality element, I find no market driven reason to construct cigars of lesser quality by design. This is of course when comparing only totally hand made cigars to other totally handmade cigars. -

[Colt45]

I knew there was something I liked about you.

You mean beside my wit, charm, good looks?

Oh yeah, and modesty......

[yossie]

Piggy, Are you a math researcher or something like that?

[thechenman]

In my limited experience, I have not tasted much of a difference between cigars aged in cabinets or dress boxes. No official study conducted, just my recollection from having smoked from the collections of a few friends. For me personally, I don't think there would be that much of a discernable difference. The general belief is that cigars age better in cabinets becasue of better O2 flow, but wouldn't the cigars in the dress box reach the same stage in the aging process eventually...it would just take longer. Then again, as KG points out, how many would really be able to tell the difference? Of course, I don't have the answer, but my personal preferences are such that I prefer the visual appeal of the dress boxes (cabinets look drab, despite the nice ribbon), but I hate the boxed press feeling and look of the cigar in my hand. Therefore, I would opt for the cabinet (when I can part with the cash without the wife coming down on me) because I buy the cigars for the cigar itself and not the box.

[thechenman]

By the way...is it just me, or do two 25 ct. dress boxes cost less than a half wheel cabinet? The difference is miniscule, but something I have noticed. Maybe its just the cigars I have been looking at...anyone have any idea why? Is it just the notion that cigars age better in cabinets, despite this not being a proven fact? One would think more labor and cost goes into a dress box than a cabinet or SLB.

[tigger]

By the way...is it just me, or do two 25 ct. dress boxes cost less than a half wheel cabinet? The difference is miniscule, but something I have noticed. Maybe its just the cigars I have been looking at...anyone have any idea why? Is it just the notion that cigars age better in cabinets, despite this not being a proven fact? One would think more labor and cost goes into a dress box than a cabinet or SLB.

Ribbons ain't cheap?

My guess is that it's a combination of better quality wood and volume produced. Just a guess though.

[frenchkiwi]

Some of the dress boxes illustrations are nice but has anyone noticed a slightly "weedy" smell coming from them?

I've put it down to the ink/paper, and i don't like it. Same with Cabs that are too newly varnished - then you get the full on Varnish smell which can't be good for the cigars (noticed NCs do a lot of this shame on them - that's prob why they cellophane wrap everything!!). Or even unvarnished cabs with glue smell - i'm guessing because of glue used when they're put together.

These varnish/ink/glue smells can't do the humidor any good...

So overall i prefer unvarnished cedar cabinets. If i had a big enough wooden humidor - or walk in room!! - i would take all cigars out of their boxes.

[interestingly and prob completely unrelated, i have had the odd dud box of flavourless cigars that have some of this same aroma pre-light and even some associated flavour when smoked - yes that weedy smell. Anyone else get this?]

[MontrealRon]

I have experienced so much variation within boxes, both in construction and taste,

to make any such comparison impossible, at least for me.

As well, a few times I purchased multiple boxes, same codes, same source, that varied greatly from box to box.

If they had been packaged differently, it would have been too easy to put the differences on the packaging.

Perhaps cigars were more consistent in the "good old days" pre-'95.

If so, maybe there were genuine variations between dress boxes and cabs that a experienced smoker could distinguish.

It comes down, these days, to a question of Einstein's relativity;

when there is no place to stand that is not also moving, when there is no stable base point for comparison,

how can we make any valid judgement?