Faking It

What's in YOUR humidor? Or as importantly, the humidors of your local cigar shop. Reports that more than 3 million counterfeit cigars make their way into the humidors of unwitting smokers and even retailers in the United States each year give cause for caution. The purchase of an authentic product - the product YOU want - depends largely on your eye and knowledge, and of course your confidence in the cigar shop of your choice.

Do some snooping around the shop and chat with the owner; this can give you a good gut-level feeling about whether or not your cigar guy is up to snuff. Is his expertise solid? Talk to friends and read-up a bit to develop your own knowledge base.

The continuing infusion of counterfeit bands into the cigar market compounds the issue. Some of the work of counterfeiters is pretty shoddy and you can recognize a fake right off the bat. They use inferior paper stock, a lesser degree of embossing, along with being unable to reproduce the intricate details of a top-quality band; once you have an eye for this, you'll see that the cigarmakers are using complex band designs to thwart counterfeiters. An example of this is the gold dust on a Fuente Fuente OpusX band.

Nonetheless, some miscreants of society use stolen (authentic, but stolen) bands on fake cigars. Even the streets of Havana are known to be thick with black market smokes and bands.

Ultimately, the cigar itself is the only true test of its authenticity, but the folks at Cigar Aficionado have a handy online Counterfeit Gallery to help you spot the authenticity-challenged cigar.

Where There's Smoke, There's.... Jail?

U.S. Customs, the Border Patrol, and the Coast Guard. Are these the guys you would typically want to see on your return sail home from Havana? Probably not, unless you were in some sort of maritime distress. But that's exactly the situation two gents from the Fort Myers, Florida area found themselves in about two weeks ago.

Today, they were indicted on various smuggling charges that could net them 20 years in the clink - enter stage right - the U.S. Attorney General's Office.

They were bringing home precious Cuban contraband. As a matter of record, 364 boxes of Cuban cigars, 30 pounds of Cuban coffee, 45 bottles of Cuban rum and 100 cartons of Cuban cigarettes were seized from the boat.

The two guys in question, Martin Sengeis and Douglas Hiner, were sailing their 51-foot sloop home from Havana when Sengeis ran it aground (for unknown reasons). A Coast Guard crew responded. While checking things out, the Coasties saw a bunch of Cuban goods in plain view aboard the boat, which precipitated the response of the Border Patrol and Customs. 26 specialized smuggling compartments were then found in the boat.

This eventually lead agents to a storage facility where they found 27,000 various Cuban cigars and over 40 bottles of Cuban rum.

Treasure Island...?

Smoking a Cigar - A Quick How To

Remembering how much crap my buddies gave me when I first started smoking cigars - because I didn't know what I was doing - was one of the inspirations for getting this little guide together. While it doesn't address the etiquette involved, you can start with this and work your way up to smoking with the big dogs! Enjoy that smoke.


A) Prepare your cigar. Make sure the cigar is properly cut, a cigar cutter is always the best option, but to save money or if you don't have one, use any other kind of sharp blade. Make sure that the cut is sharp; you do not want jagged edges as these can lead to uneven burning of the tobacco. Double guillotine cutters are most frequently used because they consistently produce a perfect cut. Although some manly-men may choose to bite the end off, it only really works in the movies. See how manly you look when you're spitting out bits of leaf for the next 3 days.

B) Remove the ring wrapper.

C) Properly light the cigar. Wooden matches or butane lighters are preferable as they impart no taste on the cigar. If you're using a wooden match, wait for the sulfur to burn off the end. Hold the flame up to the end and suck lightly with your mouth to draw the flame to the tip (not necessary if you're using a butane lighter). Don't inhale the smoke. An even light is one of the most important aspects of smoking a cigar; if necessary rotate the cigar around to ensure that the entire tip is lit.

D) Smoke it. Hold the cigar up to your mouth and draw in smoke, hold it in your mouth for a few seconds to cool it, and then let it go. Do not inhale cigar smoke.

E) Repeat step C 2-3 times a minute until you are done smoking it. Cigars can last really long, so don't be afraid to extinguish it to have another time when you are done.

F) Extinguish it when done. Simply set it aside in the ashtray. The cigar will extinguish itself after a minute or two without you puffing on it. Before you set it down, gently blow through the cigar to expel any smoke that will go stale. You can relight your cigar at a later time and enjoy it all over again.