Where warranted, destructive testing by cutting 2 or 3 cm off the foot can be used to check for short-filler tobacco. All the tobacco should be rolled in the same direction, and the cigar should feel very dense when you press on it. They were also created by Manuel Lopez all those years ago to directly appeal to British Havana smokers.

Proper packaging doesn’t guarantee a genuine Cuban cigar, but bad packaging is a quick and easy way to spot a fake. It’s an incredibly common question within the cigar industry, and if you’ve ever been to the beaches of Mexico or the Caribbean, you’ve probably seen it in action. In 1994, the Cuban authorities introduced a new law requiring exported cans of Habanos to carry a Denomination of Origin label. Fake cigars look legitimate on the outside and have rings that are surprisingly similar to authentic ones.

The first box he pointed out the labels were gold instead of yellow and the 2nd box contained mouldy cigars – so where is safe? In fact, the scale and lure of this scam is now so comprehensive that I was actually offered some fakes by an official TOUR GUIDE at the end of a cigar factory tour. In the first decade or two of the 19th century, Bolivar was extremely important in establishing the sovereignty of Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Venezuela.

It takes a pretty well-trained eye to be able to identify some of the counterfeits as fakes without having the genuine article in hand to visually compare it to, so it is easier than it might sound to be fooled. Only Habanos SA and its authorized distributors can decipher this code, which provides information on the factory that made the cigars. Vitolina notes are frequently misplaced when boxes are inspected at the distributor or retailer level, so their absence in an unsealed box is not a cause for concern.The cigars will be the same size (or very, very close), the colors will be similar cigar to cigar and the bands will be aligned from one cigar to the next. Thread a mini LED wire through the top of the cigarette and leave the orange light at the end of the paper. best way, according to the team, to find out which brand or specific vitola would suit you best is to find a site with reviews and work your way through. It’s possible that the brand itself began life in Great Britain, although this isn’t confirmed, and Bolivar was registered as a brand name in Cuba (in Havana) in 1921, when it was owned by Rocha’s company – JF Rocha y Cia. It’s an authentic Cuban experience that should not be overlooked if you’ve already made the effort to come out here.