2020 Underfilling Cigar Poll

[El Presidente]

The Plugged cigar poll brought up the question of underfilling as a significant issue to many. 

The question 

What's your underfilled cigar rate? 

Underfilled being defined as "a cigar lacking the required amount of tobacco leading  directly to an unpleasant experience (e.g. hot cigar). 

Use the poll for us. 

 

 

[HDGSN]

Unfortunately, like 30% here this past month. I am running high humidity right now (69 RH Boveda packs) and it is the strangest thing. I am buying Heartfelt Beads for better, lower RH passive humidity.

ETA:

I have had the issue with:

Reynaldo Robusto (circa Dec 18) despite my hand picked ones being perfect until now

JL1 MOL JUN 17 (despite this box being tent pole duds until this year)

Nudies N3 (had 3 or 4 become wind tunnels at halfway)

HUC1 BRE AGO 17

Cohiba Genios ALT OCT 13 (granted this has been a dud box from the start)

PLMC LGR OCT 17 (past couple have been wrecked despite this box being one of my favorites in a while)

HURR BRE MAR 18 

RA Superiores MSU MAR 18

Arturo Fuente Robusto (?)

Padron 2000 Natural Circa August 2019

 

[JohnS]

Thankfully, this is rare for me. However, I'd much rather have a plugged, overfilled cigar than an underfilled one, which I equate to a 'kiss of death' (On account that a truly underfilled cigar is most often irredeemable!)

[jvd1291]

I never get under filled cigars! Only overfilled lol.

[SmokyFontaine]

10-20% for me, which is the same for plugged. I think I'm skewing high on the underfilled though, as there are a couple of really crap boxes I'm intentionally burning through, and coming in understanding that if I get 2/10 to be pleasant, I'll be thrilled (thanks RyJ Short Churchill, you absolute turd). I'm still fighting a RASS box that is just a gremlin's butthole. Every cigar is like Goldilocks and the 3 bears, if they sent baby bear out and threw all his stuff away. They're either plugged or underfilled. No hint of "just right" out of 10+ from the box. 

For me though, you can pinch an underfilled cigar and get a little bit of time out of it, but if it's a real bad plug, I'll either try and fail to get any amount of reasonable smoke out of it, or do such violent things with a PerfecDraw that Rod himself would call the police on me for how I treated that cigar and at that point it's just pitch-worthy. It's also unfair for me to compare the NC experience to the CC because I'm not mucking around with crappy NC cigars and trying my luck. Thinking back to when I purchased volume over quality, I'd say 10-15% were discarded early. Now I'm lighting an Oliva V, Padron, or Arturo Fuente. Strong brands, great QC, and I honestly can't remember the last time I had a construction issue with any of them. For CC's, I'm  in the 10-20% for both plugged or underfilled. 

[TheGipper]

56 minutes ago, JohnS said:

I'd much rather have a plugged, overfilled cigar than an underfilled one, which I equate to a 'kiss of death' (On account that a truly underfilled cigar is most often irredeemable!)

Seems lots here agree with John on this sentiment and good on ya!  But I am completely 180 degrees opposite.  I am beginning to think I am an outlier on my draw preferences.

Underfilled, I can smoke slowly and make it a good experience.  And they usually produce a good amount of smoke and flavor.

Overfilled for me are usually completely irredeemable.  Usually no smoke coming through, no flavor, and a miserable experience.

[smitte3]

17 minutes ago, TheGipper said:

Seems lots here agree with John on this sentiment and good on ya!  But I am completely 180 degrees opposite.  I am beginning to think I am an outlier on my draw preferences.

Underfilled, I can smoke slowly and make it a good experience.  And they usually produce a good amount of smoke and flavor.

Overfilled for me are usually completely irredeemable.  Usually no smoke coming through, no flavor, and a miserable experience.

Amen. For Cubans I’ve learned to check if they’re underfilled vs. overfilled & will go for the “underfilled” ones every time for fear of a tight / bad draw and poor smoking experience. Ultimately I’m trying to relax and not suck my own brains out. 

 

[cigaraholic]

 Under filled  Cuban cigars have driven me to the scales.  I swear the problem started when they introduce those effing draw machines, I guess the penalty for not getting a cigar to pass the machine is they cut off your hand. Boxes average about five badly filled cigars per box, once in a while I get a very well filled box, occasionally I get a nightmare.  I always joke that the cigar gods have been good to me, in 50+ years I’ve probably had less than 10 plug cigars. I also joked that if I get to Cuba I’ll be the one throwing the f ing draw machines into the Caribbean.....I’m not sure if I’m really joking about that.

[Monterey]

I smoke a lot.  Like 2-3 cigars a day.  In the many years of cuban cigars, I have never ONCE had an under filled Cuban.  Plugged, yeah, that is another story.

[Habana Mike]

Seems to me the underfilling isn't as frequent as in the past few years.

[Sandman]

1 hour ago, Habana Mike said:

Seems to me the underfilling isn't as frequent as in the past few years.

Totally agree. I absolutely hate under filled cigars. I won’t smoke them. I stopped buying for a while because of all the under filling. The past 2 years has seen the opposite problem becoming more prevalent. For the most part that’s fine with me, as I would rather have a tight draw than a loose draw. At least that way I can use a Perfect Draw if it’s too tight. I find I get way more flavor from a tighter draw than a loose draw. I do find it interesting the amount of tighter draws I’m seeing though. Some have been straight up plugged, and I haven’t really seen that problem for quite a long time. 

[Meklown]

I don't think I've ever had an underfilled cigar. Or maybe I have, but just didn't know it. I do sometimes notice that certain cigars heat up too much, at which point I'll simply slow down. I have no idea if that is that a sign of it being underfilled?

[Str8BlkCoffee]

The most recent underfilled cigar I have had was an OdQ 50. prior to lighting one could see large gaps in the foot.

I moistened the head of the wrapper as I knew the pinch was going to be required and I didn't want to have the wrapper cracking before it softened up. It still cracked and I tossed it early. It tunneled horribly burning hot, acrid and bitter. All the rest I have sampled have been very nice flavor wise, still a touch loose @ 65%Rh.

[ndhaon91]

I'm curious how the perception of what constitutes an underfilled cigar is different for those who come from a predominantly CC vs NC smoking background. As someone who was exclusively NC for the first several years of regular smoking, I would say that easily 50% of the CCs are "less than ideally filled." And easily 20% are underfilled to the point of needing constant relight attention, balanced with trying to smoke slow enough that the cigar doesn't turn to mush in the last third, where ultimately the constructing is greatly affecting the smoking experience.

I basically just assume the only point of the last third of Cubans is to hold up the smokable first 2/3. 

For the record, I keep my cigars at 61%. 

[Ry27]

21 hours ago, HDGSN said:

Unfortunately, like 30% here this past month. I am running high humidity right now (69 RH Boveda packs) and it is the strangest thing. I am buying Heartfelt Beads for better, lower RH passive humidity.

ETA:

I have had the issue with:

Reynaldo Robusto (circa Dec 18) despite my hand picked ones being perfect until now

JL1 MOL JUN 17 (despite this box being tent pole duds until this year)

Nudies N3 (had 3 or 4 become wind tunnels at halfway)

HUC1 BRE AGO 17

Cohiba Genios ALT OCT 13 (granted this has been a dud box from the start)

PLMC LGR OCT 17 (past couple have been wrecked despite this box being one of my favorites in a while)

HURR BRE MAR 18 

RA Superiores MSU MAR 18

Arturo Fuente Robusto (?)

Padron 2000 Natural Circa August 2019

 

Any reason you’re running high rh right now? Weather?

[Ry27]

20 hours ago, SmokyFontaine said:

thanks RyJ Short Churchill, you absolute turd).

Such an inconsistent marca 

[bbguardsp]

Next time anyone smokes a Cuban I suggest you squeeze the cigar near the band at about halfway through and see if there's alot of give.  This seems to be the main area where underfilling occurs for me.  1 out of 5 for me I have to use the trusty "smash technique" from @PigFish

[StogieSteve23]

On 5/31/2020 at 6:44 PM, TheGipper said:

Seems lots here agree with John on this sentiment and good on ya!  But I am completely 180 degrees opposite.  I am beginning to think I am an outlier on my draw preferences.

Underfilled, I can smoke slowly and make it a good experience.  And they usually produce a good amount of smoke and flavor.

Overfilled for me are usually completely irredeemable.  Usually no smoke coming through, no flavor, and a miserable experience.

I'm completely with you on this.  Overfilled cigars irritate the hell out of me when I cant get enough smoke production and flavor.  Trying too hard to draw on a cigar to me is the bane of my smoking experience. For me, its extremely unenjoyable.  I've found that the PD can only do so much sometimes and even after using it, still not so much luck.  I'll take a wonky burn of an underfilled cigar if its producing good amounts of smoke any day. 

[Hammer Smokin']

Unfortunately I feel for sure, 2 or more out of 10 cigars smoked are underfilled.

(whereas I'm under 2 out of 10 that are plugged).

But at least an underfilled cigar can be enjoyed (sorta). Plugged (truly tent pegs) are useless.

[Monterey]

7 minutes ago, Lrabold89 said:

this has got to be sarcastic ..

No.

[PhilB]

No.

I'm with you. Have had several plugged, but never under-filled.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

[SigSauer516]

On 5/31/2020 at 5:44 PM, TheGipper said:

Seems lots here agree with John on this sentiment and good on ya!  But I am completely 180 degrees opposite.  I am beginning to think I am an outlier on my draw preferences.

Underfilled, I can smoke slowly and make it a good experience.  And they usually produce a good amount of smoke and flavor.

Overfilled for me are usually completely irredeemable.  Usually no smoke coming through, no flavor, and a miserable experience.

Agree with you.  At least you can smoke an Underfilled cigar.  A plugged one (even after Draw tool) is unsmokable and they only remedy is to throw it out.

[Euripidespants]

I have a handful of monte petit edmundos....about half are fantastic...the other half underfilled...starts well. Tons of smoke...then gets hot. Set it down for one minute. Then fighting to keep it lit. Goes out. Relight. Rinse repeat. Luckily I have another...no issues.
 

Have had more issues with underfilled cigars, particularly with the short fat cigars they’ve been pushing. No issues with the old trusty Coronas and petit Coronas.

[Monterey]

22 hours ago, SigSauer516 said:

Agree with you.  At least you can smoke an Underfilled cigar.  A plugged one (even after Draw tool) is unsmokable and they only remedy is to throw it out.

oh how many cigars the perfect tool has fixed.  Maybe 1 out of 25 plugged cigars aren't fixable with the tool.  Though annoying, most plugged cigars can be fixed.

[Hammer Smokin']

i guess underfilled is more subjective than plugged is.

because it would literally be impossible to smoke two or three cigars a day for years and not smoke an under filled cigar.

I've started weighing cigars (more out of curiosity) and it's amazing how many underfilled cuban cigars are out there.