Search the Community

Greetings dear friends! After much coaxing by my dear pal, Jason (@jay8354) over some time, I've decided to give video reviewing a 'crack' over the upcoming Australian summer holiday season. I thought the exemplary 2017 Xmas Sampler would be a good source to share some knowledge of these fine cigars offered by El Presidente for the benefit of our members. I'd like to say that speaking 'on-the-fly' about cigars is certainly a challenge and I will need to acknowledge errors throughout this series (so bare with me). Also, please feel free to share your thoughts on these cigars in this thread, especially as they are the best of 2017. If you have views or opinions contrary to what has been stated, please feel welcome to express your thoughts and say so, after all, my own views here is intended to serve as a guide. The main goal of this series is to look at the question, "Why would you as a cigar enthusiast reach for this particular cigar? Or, what circumstances or situation suits each particular cigar in the 2017 Christmas Sampler series?"

I did a few searches to make sure no one else had this question, so... Take a look at these cigars. Both are Montecristo Petit Edmundos. The darker one I bought several months ago, while the lighter one I bought just recently from Rob. I know there is some natural color variation even among the same brand and even the same vitola, but that strikes me as a very wide difference. It is even more striking in person. I have complete faith that the lighter colored cigar is legitimate, but I was wondering what people thought of the darker one. Its band is textured and gives every appearance of being legitimate, and I actually bought a box of 10 of those and the warranty seal checks out on HSA's website. I still have that box and again, it looks great and has all the components it needs to have. If I didn't have another markedly different cigar to compare it to, I would have no indication that this is a fake either. The construction of my PEs from several months ago was poor, with roughly half the box plugged, and several others of middling quality. I'd say I only had one or two decent cigars out of that batch, but they all had that very dark wrapper. What do you think? Is this a common occurrence for wrappers to be that different, or did I get duped with a real box containing fake cigars?