Montecristo Quality Control

[TLS]

Trusted source so I'm confident these are real. I've had mixed luck with montecristo in the past but he good ones keep me coming back for more. This is difference in appearance surprised me though.

 

Let me know if you've seen anything this different come out of the same brand and pretty close ages.

 

The lighter ones are UBM JUL 17.

the darker ones are TEO JUN 17.

[prodigy]

Nice first post.....

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[Wilzc]

I have a box of darker coloured, oily wrapper M2's.

 

Three of them so far tasted like turd.... :/

[Philc2001]

I prefer the lighter wrappers on the right, but in my experience wrapper color is not correlated to flavor or quality. 

[TheGipper]

Are you suggesting wrapper color is a quality control issue?

Or are you disappointed the cigars were put in the boxes upside down, the printing was upside down, the lids opened downward...etc?

If the latter, don't worry, these types of boxes are simply boxes targeted for export to the southern hemisphere.

[garbandz]

That's right, these are "left handed" Monte 2s.

When you smoke one the smoke always circles counter clockwise.

If you open the boxes under the Aurora, you can read the secret message written on the box seals in micro letters:

" Return This Box to Canadian Beaver" ..........

[oliverdst]

if you mix all the cigars you will have 2 perfect legit boxes of 2 diferent colors.

[garbandz]

Cuban Quality control motto:

"we always put 25 cigars in every box"    

 

 

"when there's anyone watching."  

[retrofail]

Here ya go:

They’re sorted into “68” shades within the same marca/vitola. That’s a lot of shades! 

[TLS]

1 hour ago, retrofail said:

Here ya go:

They’re sorted into “68” shades within the same marca/vitola. That’s a lot of shades! 

thanks. Looks like I was ignorant to this. I've noticed more slight differences between boxes before, but never seen such a stark difference like these. Guess I need to apologize to them for my quality control comment and have an open mind on both of these after they get some aging.

[LordAnubis]

Yep. Huge problem with quality control. I mean HSA appears to be incompetent. But it must be hard to control the seeding process, the heat, the rain, the growth of plants, the picking of the leaves, the bundling, the fermentation, the humidity, the heat, the stripping, the sorting, the colour sorting, the quality separation, the bunching, the rolling, the resting, the colour sorting, the package manufacturing, the sorting into boxes, the shipping, the storage in stores and the sale to the consumer.


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[shlomo]

Not sure why so many pissy responses...ppl having a bad day?

Very common to find huge colour variation from box to box especially among the more highly produced cigars. Doubtful even 1% of the ppl can tell the difference in a blind smoke going on taste, feel and odour alone.

[canadianbeaver]

Hey, @garbandz thought the upside down box was good to go to Canada, @shlomo, 

That’s you and me, and tons of others on FOH 

Of course, we have seen lots of colours of Siglos, over various years @TLS. It is the task of the rollers to separate the various colours so the cigars match in the box. Only when you are reviewing boxes in person at a B&M can you choose your preferred leaf colour.

Welcome to FOH,

CB

 

[Cubadust]

Yeah, non witty answer. I have two boxes of Partagas D4s, one month apart, different shade, looks pretty much like yours there. Nothing to worry about.


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[CaptainQuintero]

I've learnt over the years that it's best to ignore what a cigar looks like and concentrate on how it smells. I've had countless dry and tatty cigars that looked like they never saw any sun and were rolled in the dark, but the smell had been spot on; pungent and rich. They almost never disappoint.

  Conversely I've had plenty of perfect looking cigars that smoked like cardboard.

 

[Danimalia]

I believe that Monte 2 are rolled in many factories across the island, and that fact seems like it would lead to more variation. Montecristo is a brand I prefer to have handpicked just because quality can be variable. That said, I have had delicious (and crappy) Montecristo with both lighter and darker wrappers, so that alone wouldn’t bother me much.

Really, both of your boxes look good. The lighter ones have smooth wrappers with some gloss to them.

[SOFLO88]

Both wrappers look good to me.... And if its from a trust source. Then your good to go. Smoke Up.

[HarveyBoulevard]

13 hours ago, shlomo said:

Not sure why so many pissy responses...ppl having a bad day?

 

I think I can explain why...I'm not condoning it, but I can explain it.

...probably because it was his first post and verged on calling them fakes due to color variations...

Possibly why, but again, just a possible explanation.

I agree though that they were witty instead of pissy

[Fugu]

The burden of a newbie, @TLS. Be assured, no harm intended, just a little jesting by the nasty boyz.

As others mentioned, wrapper shade is - mostly - not a quality token. Once you've smoked your fare share you'll know for yourself. Both boxes look very fine to me.

Cheers and welcome to the forum!

[TLS]

Thanks for the info and humor. @TheGipper wins best joke. I'm splitting these boxes with coworkers so I'll try to get some of both. 

 

After I posted this I opened a set of 3 that I had kept sealed for a few years and they looked dark and similar to the dark box in the picture. I didn't intend to imply they were fake. I've bought multiple boxes of different CCs in the past, but I hadn't seen a difference like these. I'll keep an open mind and hope for the best out of both boxes.

[El Presidente]

Wrapper quality is far more important than shade. 

outside of that....the lads have covered the rest 

[TheGipper]

2 hours ago, TLS said:

I'll keep an open mind and hope for the best out of both boxes.

Indeed!  Some of the best Monte #2 I've ever had (I'm thinking of one particular 2002 box) were very light in color, so let's hope you get a pleasant surprise.