Factory Codes

[Tstew75]

17 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. The post just above is praising SOU. UEB & MOL came in in the top 5. No idea what factories they are. Many provincial factories have received high praise in the past. RAE and BUM come to mind in recent years. 

As I've said before I think that date and the cigar is just as important as factory. What Cubatabaco has done to standardize quality across Cuba since the early 2000s has been impressive. If there's a rough patch for a code I think it's more about the time period and what cigar it is. Bad product coming out of a particular factory is usually very limited. Limited to a specific cigar or a 3-6 month time window.

A perfect example of this is LGR El Principe. LGR 17 was great. LGR 18-19 was off. Late 19 it got back on track right as LGR transitioned to RAT in DIC 19. But LGR 18-19 La Fuerza was outstanding during that whole period. So in this case the problem was limited to one cigar albeit for a long period of time. Does that mean La Corona is a trash factory? Not at all. 

You really need all three to be able to make a determination about code hunting.  

 

I'd argue that it is indeed at least partially true...Prez's experience showed that 3 of the 4 mother factory codes were Top 10 in BOTH 18 & 19...the only exception was Upmann missing in 18. Those stats are above in chain (thx @Bijan for digging them up).   And you're right, vitola does matter for factory, but that still doesn't diminish the results of Prez' mastercase-opening efforts (aka they show consistency). My own experience comes into play here- I've been lucky to open hundreds of boxes over the past 3-4 years- at the very least I know MSU/TUA & UAO/MAR are & have been top-of-the-damn-food-chain FIRE. Upmann & LC are seeingly a tier below.

Of course there's exceptions, as some LGR examples you list above...some Upmann in 18. But beyond that...blind...I'd choose a mother factory code over any other random code every time.

And of course there's fire codes outside the big 4...UEB/SOU, REG/SOP, MOL, ARS all come to mind for me.

[NSXCIGAR]

On 8/11/2021 at 8:38 AM, Tstew75 said:

I'd argue that it is indeed at least partially true...Prez's experience showed that 3 of the 4 mother factory codes were Top 10 in BOTH 18 & 19...the only exception was Upmann missing in 18. Those stats are above in chain (thx @Bijan for digging them up).

Well, first we need to discount El Laguito because it's the only factory that is actively pursued and can be considered a cut above. Only high skilled rollers and managers work there so I don't think it can be lumped in with the other Havana factories. 

So we have 3 factories (EL, LC and Partagas) that are in the top 10. HU didn't even make the top 20. Based on ranked position within the 10 it's just as likely a provincial factory is in the top 10. Seeing as how there are dozens of provincials and not all can be in top 10 that wouldn't convince me to choose a Havana code over a provincial with a track record. Sure, I would probably pick a Havana code over an unknown provincial but plenty of provincials put up quality matching or exceeding Havana factories. 

Also, we have a few peculiarities on this forum. The top code from 18-19 was Partagas. Bolivar (BBF, BRC) are big sellers here. Almost all made at Partagas. The majority of RASS is made at partagas. That's going to skew Partagas higher. Then we have La Corona. La Corona pumps out a ton of very popular cigars and is generally very consistent. It is a good factory. But La Corona makes a lot of popular cigars here--PLPC/MC, Hoyo SJ/RS/PR, all San Cristobal. So again, you're going to have a lot of weight on La Corona. 

Conversely, you have some of the most popular cigars being made everywhere with no consistency. PSD4/5, pretty much all Monte have no predominant factory, so you can't ever get high marks on most provincials. And HU didn't even make the top 20. This is because HU has much smaller output. They concentrate on Connie 1/A, HUHC, Noellas, Monte 1935 and some duty free stuff. Not exceedingly popular stuff. So HU gets buried in the rankings despite quality being just fine there IMO. 

The bottom line is that I don't think there's any evidence that Havana factories are any more reliable or consistent than the best provincials. I look for what's smoking best whether it be Havana or provincial. If it's all the same, I don't care. Flip a coin. I really have no inherent bias towards Havana factories (El Laguito excepted of course).

[smbauerllc]

Thankfully, I'm ignorant enough about factory's that it makes no difference what one I receive, and don't have the hassle of trying to seek out certain ones for certain Cigars.

I already have enough trouble choosing what to order as there is a long list of bookmarked cc's that i enjoy on my phone .

There have honestly very few cc's that I wouldn't buy again, and most of those are because they were good, but not good enough to justify the price

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[FireDigger]

@El Presidente Did you ever publish a list of your top factory codes for 2020 and 2021? I looked around and could only find the 2018 and 2019 versions. Thanks!

[Enduin]

I think so far he said SOU has been fantastic but I don't believe there is a full list yet.

[Dimmers]

Chasing box codes can be fun if you’ve the time / inclination. I have a few boxes of MUO RyJ Churchills that look and taste spectacular …but they don’t smoke like RyJ but instead rather like another stick and rumoured to have been incorrectly boxed  🤣

[coug28]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:37 AM, FireDigger said:

@El Presidente Did you ever publish a list of your top factory codes for 2020 and 2021? I looked around and could only find the 2018 and 2019 versions. Thanks!

https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/150834-from-your-2021-boxespost-the-code-of-your-top-3-standouts/

that should help at least a little bit…knew it was around here somewhere…

[FireDigger]

11 hours ago, coug28 said:

https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/150834-from-your-2021-boxespost-the-code-of-your-top-3-standouts/

that should help at least a little bit…knew it was around here somewhere…

@coug28 Thank you for finding that thread! I do remember seeing it, but couldn't find it myself. I added up all the mentions and posted the list within that thread. Let me post it here as well for 2020/2021 most popular codes according to members here:

*Disclaimer: this won't be as good a list as the ones from El Prez since there could be one good batch of RAT and several members got a box, so the numbers could be skewed that way. Also, I don't know if any of the codes were mistyped since GLE, GEL, GEM, GRM could easily beem mixed up for each other.

RAT	15
TUA	11
BSM	11
SOU	9
MAR	5
TUE	4
LTO	3
OER	3
MTS	3
SOR	2
TLU	2
SOP	2
GLE	2
REG	1
GLU	1
AMP	1
TAO	1
EBO	1
GEL	1
GEM	1
GRM	1

[Silverstix]

On 8/10/2021 at 3:30 PM, Jonboy4074 said:

I agree.
A couple of side notes:
-Am I the only one that finds it strange Sir Winstons are never rolled at the mother factory?
-I'll add that, along with the BCJ, I have never seen a box of BPC rolled anywhere but Partagas factory.

I have an ETP ABR 16 box of BCJ and an ETP ABR 2017 box of BPC's.  Definitely very unusual to see anything other than Partagas factory for these vitolas 

[Jonboy4074]

I have an ETP ABR 16 box of BCJ and an ETP ABR 2017 box of BPC's.  Definitely very unusual to see anything other than Partagas factory for these vitolas 

Yep. ETP=Partagas.

[NSXCIGAR]

13 hours ago, FireDigger said:

Also, I don't know if any of the codes were mistyped since GLE, GEL, GEM, GRM could easily beem mixed up for each other.

No, those are all accurate codes. GLE is a Pinar factory and GEM is Upmann. I haven't seen GRM but there's a lot of Monte with GEL and it's very high quality. 

I will say it is fairly unusual to have so many codes so similar at the same time. 

 

[jonahs_whale]

I'm curious to know if there is any trend for the factory codes on the limited edition and LCDH versions? 

[Silverstix]

7 hours ago, Jonboy4074 said:

18 hours ago, Silverstix said:

I have an ETP ABR 16 box of BCJ and an ETP ABR 2017 box of BPC's.  Definitely very unusual to see anything other than Partagas factory for these vitolas 

Yep. ETP=Partagas.

Ah, makes sense.  I guess it was ULA>ETP>MSU>TUA

[Jonboy4074]

Ah, makes sense.  I guess it was ULA>ETP>MSU>TUA

Correct

[atzemis]

Anyone know anything about ARS 21? My understanding that ARS from 18/19 turned into BSM in 20. Not sure if it just went back to ARS or if it's a different factory. Haven't seen any impressions of ARS 21 cigars. 

[SoCalSmoker]

OER ENE 22 factory?

Partagas box

[oneizzzz]

On 4/22/2021 at 3:25 PM, Jauwels said:

Anyone has boxes with code GOB 20?

Yep, I've got a box of GOB NOV 20 Regios and a box of GOB JUN 20 Cohiba Robustos.

To those with a 2021 box of Winstons, which factory code do you have?  Curious how many factories roll SW.  I read somewhere that Habanos only rolls one batch of Sir Winstons per year.  Is that true?  I have an AMP FEB 21 code. 

[Tstew75]

33 minutes ago, oneizzzz said:

Yep, I've got a box of GOB NOV 20 Regios and a box of GOB JUN 20 Cohiba Robustos.

To those with a 2021 box of Winstons, which factory code do you have?  Curious how many factories roll SW.  I read somewhere that Habanos only rolls one batch of Sir Winstons per year.  Is that true?  I have an AMP FEB 21 code. 

I cant remember what thread it was in, but I did see a Oct or Nov 21 box code & posted it...all of my boxes are TLE MAR 21, so at least for 2021 it proves they rolled 2x

I'm always surprised they only roll Sir Winnies at provincial factories...

[Shrimpchips]

On 5/14/2022 at 10:06 PM, oneizzzz said:

Yep, I've got a box of GOB NOV 20 Regios and a box of GOB JUN 20 Cohiba Robustos.

To those with a 2021 box of Winstons, which factory code do you have?  Curious how many factories roll SW.  I read somewhere that Habanos only rolls one batch of Sir Winstons per year.  Is that true?  I have an AMP FEB 21 code. 

GRM DIC 20, GRM FEB 21 for me.