The draw thread

[Bijan]

@Habana Mike sent me some real plugs. It took him a long time to get them off to me. He kept saying he was busy and apologizing but in the end he said he wanted to make sure to send me some solid examples.

And they are solid. Not the 2 in a box of 25 plugs from this poll. More like the 3-4 in a thousand absolute tent pegs. Except for a box of partagas mille fleur i smoked that were mostly tent pegs, i probably have had less than a dozen cigars this bad.

Tonight I am smoking a H. Upmann PC.

Not that heavy but still a real tent peg. I have misplaced my perfecdraw and so I used a hemostat to hollow out the head. Got to the point where it'll burn ok, but most of the smoke leaves the cigar at the foot and not much is drawn through.

I work at is as i smoke and by the second third or half it is ok. Smokeable but too flavorful. I don't think i would have been able to say what this is blind. Has a bit of a woody, pine flavour with a bit of bite.

[MrBirdman]

15 hours ago, Bijan said:

@Habana Mike sent me some real plugs. It took him a long time to get them off to me. He kept saying he was busy and apologizing but in the end he said he wanted to make sure to send me some solid examples.

And they are solid. Not the 2 in a box of 25 plugs from this poll. More like the 3-4 in a thousand absolute tent pegs. Except for a box of partagas mille fleur i smoked that were mostly tent pegs, i probably have had less than a dozen cigars this bad.

Tonight I am smoking a H. Upmann PC.

Not that heavy but still a real tent peg. I have misplaced my perfecdraw and so I used a hemostat to hollow out the head. Got to the point where it'll burn ok, but most of the smoke leaves the cigar at the foot and not much is drawn through.

I work at is as i smoke and by the second third or half it is ok. Smokeable but too flavorful. I don't think i would have been able to say what this is blind. Has a bit of a woody, pine flavour with a bit of bite.

If you can get any of the other discontinued cigars to smoke well I’d love to see more reviews.

 

I answered 5 - the median box is less, but those camping kit boxes really drag the average down. As your teachers no doubt told you, zeros do not average well.

I want to hear more from the three people who’ve never encountered a draw problem in Cuban cigars!

[El Presidente]

So what do we take away from this data  

Bijan?  

On the face of it I am having a hard time reconciling polls  1 and 4. 

[anacostiakat]

We are talking on average here, right?  So generally it runs from 0 to about 2 per box.  However, there is that odd box where there are more (either tight draws or impossible ones).  Luckily don't see them much.  Thankfully.  

[Tstew75]

The PerfectDraw is a miracle device.

Cuba is plagued with tight/plugged cigars..the frequency is pretty sad.

[Nevrknow]

The perfect "usually" fixes my issues. The hemostats however have worked miracles in some cases. Case in point. Had a Lusi that for the life of me the perfect draw just made it worse. Thumbing the head, I felt a stem. Hemostats to the rescue. I pulled out 3! Freaking thickish stems. Slowly and cussing the entire time. When I was done? Best damn Lusi I have ever had, bar none. I for one do not mind working for a cigar now. 

[Edicion]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:24 AM, Islandboy said:

Agreed...can be pretty effective once the cigar has warmed up.

Yes good point, I also find it's better to light it up and warm it, which makes it easier to fix by massaging/squeezing or even poking it - rather than doing it unlit. Not sure why this is..

[MossybackR]

During the early stage of the pandemic, I went deeply down the rabbit hole of plugged cigars and ended up purchasing an accurate scale and a PerfecDraw. In the past, I have used steel pokers, bamboo skewers, drills bits, etc., but the PerfecDraw is the only tool that I have found to be useful. Most often, I only take it to the band or a little further. Many years ago, I had several 5-packs of plugged H. Upmann Monarchs that were all plugged, and I was sure they just needed aging. Fast forward to 2021 and I revisited these cigars —tent pegs. I gave these cigars the most rigorous treatment yet, and they opened up to be a wonderful cigar.

[Fuzz]

The solution for tent peg cigars?

[JohnS]

23 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

The solution for tent peg cigars?

Memories...light the corners of my mind! 😂

[MossybackR]

On 8/11/2022 at 9:49 PM, Bijan said:

From CCW:

https://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/cigar/factorynames

(they have a lot of general information, which you can find from their home page)

But as I always say, the official weights are generally for tax purposes so they are always on the lighter end of the spectrum. Cigars tend to vary from 10-15% below official weight up to 30-40% above it.

FOH has the weights listed in the reFOHrence section of the Waterhole (https://www.fohcigars.com/forum/forum/70-refohrence/). I have yet to compare to compare that with CCW, but during my deep dive, I began by using the PerfecDraw only if the weight exceeded the “official” weight by more than two std. dev. After a while, I began to trust my judgement more and use the tool only if the draw is uncomfortably tight. 

[Hammer Smokin']

I find many more wind tunnels than tight draws. 

while I don't find either often, I'm probably 5 wind tunnels for every 1 tight draw. 

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

I find many more wind tunnels than tight draws. 

while I don't find either often, I'm probably 5 wind tunnels for every 1 tight draw. 

I think this is a classic example of different tolerences. 

You know your way around a Cuban cigar and yet your experience is polar opposite to the poll. 

I want to emphasise that this is not a case of being "right or wrong".  It is just one of the vagaries of our hobby. 

 

 

[Hammer Smokin']

I've learned much of what I've discovered in cigars is often opposite to the norm. 

and I completely understand it isn't a right vs wrong, more of learning our own personalities. 

it was a curve at first ... it is only normal to listen to experienced folks. It was even stranger when I found myself finding things opposite to the norm. You actually start to think "am I doing this right"? Then you realize there is no wrong. 

It may be that I actually like a tighter draw (like you suggested Prez). So what I find as a 'wind tunnel' may be normal to others, and what others feel as tight, I feel is ok. I like a firm draw, but nothing that is pulling my cheeks in when I draw. 

What I think I need to do is buy a punch, and stop cutting cigars, and start punching. After punching if the draw is tight, then cut it. But when friends have "punched" my cigars I've found the punch whole to gum up quickly.