2020 Underfilling Cigar Poll

[sw15825]

On 6/1/2020 at 10:30 AM, ndhaon91 said:

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%. 

That is an interesting question, "what constitutes an un underfilled cigar ?" I think it can be somewhat of a subjective answer based on preferences. I agree too on the NC cigars that I smoked a lot of early in this hobby to usually be filled  more often and consistent overall with very little underfilling and better consistency of construction for sure. Not sure that I remember an underfilled NC and experience with Cubans at about 10 to 15 %, even in some of the "mother" factories, that said E.L. has been more consistent with good construction overall imo. Sometimes it's like a stick also has underfilling in only part of the cigar in CC's too. I guess it's just part of things Cuba, but it has improved overall greatly since 06/07 from my experience. I'm also in the lower humidity camp with a sweet spot for me at around 63 %. 

[Monterey]

23 hours ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

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.

Underfilled means wind tunnel.  Any time that I believe that the cigar is missing tobacco.  Anytime I would have to slow down how often I puff or fear overheating. I have maybe seen a handful of cigars over the years where it was SLIGHTLY underfilled.  But never an obvious underfilled cigar.

Having said that, my plugged rate seems to be higher than others experience.  So in the end, I probably have the same amount of issue cigars, just all of issue cigars are of the plugged type.

I have had many underfilled non-cuban cigars though.  But almost never a plugged one.  For example, all padron anniverario are wind tunnels.  Hate that.  I now use a paperclip to make my cigar cut.  Tiny hole.  Seems to work great.

So I don't know what to tell you, it is just what I have experienced.  I have no reason to make things up.  Especially given my record of bashing cubans for plugged cigars.  Does seem odd given that I smoke 30-35 boxes of cuban cigars a year.