San Cristobal de La Habana

[atuck]

I am getting tired of cigars like this. I have smoked a few of this line and liked them very much. Today I went to grab one of the Oficios and it was plugged, so I put it back. I then grabbed a Muralla, a little bigger than I wanted but I was in the mood for this flavor profile. The draw seemed good on this stick. When I lit the cigar I was able to draw fine accept not much smoke was coming through, this makes for an unpleasant flavor. I kept trying though. The burn was very uneven with red cherry all the way through the inch or so that had burned. A lot of smoke was coming from the wrong end! More was going in the air than in my mouth. Not happy, I decide to cut the cherry off and re-light. It seemed to do better for a while and the burn was now straight. Now the wrapper starts to crack! I keep puffing. Kind of like puffing on a pipe in order to get smoke in my mouth. As I peeled off part of the loose wrapper I notice folds along the sides of the cigar. WTF? These were expanding and splitting the wrapper. I have never seen folds to this extent on a binder before, many little "folds", yes, but never 2 big ones. At this point I toss it in the ashtray!

I know my humidor is keeping them in the right conditions, so I would think that I would not be coming accross so many problems with the ISOMs. 1 out of every 5 or 6 have some kind of issue, usually being plugged.

Here are some pics of it.

 

[Snoozer]

Mine split like that if I'm outside in cooler weather. Makes winter smoking almost non-existent.

 

[Wurm]

At least when a Rocky Patel does this you can shrug, say WTF, and grab another without worrying about being out a lot of money.

That cigar line is one of my favorites. I only smoke them at the Casa however and if I'm not happy about how a cigar is performing I tell the staff and demand another. I also am able to draw test each cigar I plan on smoking and if its plugged I do the same.

One of the benefits of living over here I guess.

 

[Kingantz]

I had basically the same deal with one I smoked not long ago Alan. Very little smoke would come through for the first third, but then finally opened up further in.

 

[lordlister]

It's a shame how construction issues can ruin an otherwise good cigar. Bad experiences can put you off an entire marca for a while. Hope your next cigar smokes better!

 

[BigJake6904]

That's just nasty.

 

[cigarman1979]

A bad streak of luck atuck, first the RP's now the San Cristobal. From my limited experience with this marca no problems, but I've never attempted to smoke them in a cold dry climate.

 

[atuck]

A bad streak of luck atuck, first the RP's now the San Cristobal. From my limited experience with this marca no problems, but I've never attempted to smoke them in a cold dry climate.

I gave up on the RP's long ago. I have never had a problem with this brand before either. Today was a fairly nice day, atleast in the morning when I smoked this. I am sure the problem is related to the sloppy construction of this stick in particular. I think most of the plugged cigars are plugged due to construction, too much tobacco shoved into the press! I have compared the weight of plugged vs. non-plugged. The plugged cigars weigh more. Not by much though. I have a "special" scale! :laugh: