Yesterday’s news item noted that in one recent bust, over $20 million in counterfeit cigars were seized. But with so many fakes floating around, how does the discerning Stogie Guy not waste his money on such frauds?

Spot the Fake

Stogie Guys highly recommends the Cigar Aficionado Counterfeit Gallery as a resource for how to spot fakes of many popular Cuban and a few select non-Cuban cigars.

After enjoying a Cohiba Siglio VI on a recent trip to Spain, I used their gallery to ensure that my cigar was genuine. (Of course the delicious taste was also a tip-off, and I can personally attest that the Siglio VI has a well-deserved reputation as the planet’s finest cigar.)

Using the Cohiba Siglio VI as an example one notices the lack of detail in the fake cigar bands:

Genuine:

Counterfeits:

Another good resource specifically on avoiding fakes when purchasing Cubans is this article from Smoke Magazine in which author Michael Douglas (no, not that Michael Douglas) covers the many ways to spot fakes - from the cigar’s texture, smell, and firmness, to the box’s label, weight, and even the name of the factory it came from.

One tip (which reassured me about a box of Montecristos I purchased in Spain) is that in boxes of authentic Habanos Cuban cigars - the Cuban state cigar company and only authorized exporter of Cubans - the cedar divider between the two rows of cigars in a cigar box has a cresent machine cut out of one corner.

Basic Rules

And yet despite all the technical jargon you really only need to keep two basic things in mind:

1. Remember that established cigar shops don’t want their reputation tainted by counterfeit cigars, the guy on the street offering you the fantastic deal on those hard to find Stogies has no such worries. So stick with a dependable cigar shop.

2. And the most important thing to remember when buying Cuban or any other premium cigar, is this one most basic rule: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Follow those rules and all your cigars will be authentic and delicious.

-Patrick S

Fort Lauderdale-based Altadis-USA, the world’s largest producer and distributor of cigars, recently declared war on the counterfeit cigar trade. How big is the fake stogie racket, you ask? Well, a crackdown of cigar and law enforcement officials in Miami this week seized over $20 million in fake cigars, wrappers, and packaging.

Altadis – which owns the rights to such famed brands as Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, and H. Upmann – always considered the fake cigar trade troublesome, but they didn’t realize the extent of the illegal industry until company officials participated in raids with Miami police last December.

Altadis had rented two, 25-foot trucks to cart away the fake merchandise, but had to swap those for an 18-wheeler when cops found the stockpiles of boxes, printing presses, and cigars…

But Stogie Guys readers need not worry – fake cigars should be fairly easy to detect. Not only will they have a sourer odor than their more legitimate relatives, but counterfeit stogies will often display different colors, can appear splotchy or moldy, and most will have loose-fitting wrappers.

I just hope the cops didn’t throw away their colossal cigar seizure. A fake smoke is a smoke nonetheless.

-Patrick A

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.

After dining on some delectable mahi-mahi and calamari at one of my favorite restaurants Friday night, I decided to indulge myself and cap off the satisfying meal with a delicious cigar. My weapon of choice? The utterly decadent Romeo y Julieta Exhibición No. 3.

This six inch by 50 ring gauge masterpiece is the kind of smoke that should be reserved for accompanying after dinner conversation. It’s long draw and pleasant cedar and hazel aroma cannot be fully appreciated during a game of golf, and certainly not while mowing the lawn. No, this cigar’s perfect burn and long, white ash deserves the attention of a quiet evening chat among friends. And at about $5.40 apiece ($3.40 apiece if you buy a box of 25), it’s a steal.

I highly recommend this sumptuous smoke. Just make sure you have ample time to enjoy its full-aged flavors before lighting up.

I give the Romeo y Julieta Exhibición No. 3 a praiseworthy four and 1/2 out of five stogies.

-Patrick A

And I thought the 6.62 inch, 54 ring guage JR Edicon Limitada Alternative version of the Cohiba Sublime that I am smoking as I write this was hefty cigar…

At two metres in length, the Davidoff cigar is the world’s largest. Built by the company to commemorate the birth of its founder, Zino Davidoff, the cigar is being displayed around the world to celebrate his vision and commitment to quality. Weighing 87 kgs, and built at a cost of about USD54,000 the giant cigar will be displayed in a number of countries.

The thing about these un-smokably large cigars is just think how many Davidoff no. 1’s could have been made with that tobacco! What a waste.

A review of the JR Edicon Limitada Alternative version of the Cohiba Sublime will come be forthcoming.

-Patrick S

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General Contact:
Contact -at- StogieGuys.com

Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
PatrickA -at- StogieGuys.com

Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder, Publisher & Web Editor
PatrickS -at- StogieGuys.com

George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
GeorgeE -at- StogieGuys.com

Jon Nathanson
Los Angeles Bureau Chief
JonN -at- StogieGuys.com

Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief

At a young age, Patrick Ashby’s father instilled in him a deep appreciation for cigars. “Son,” Steve would say, often on the golf course or the back deck of their Chicago home, “a cigar is not a habit – it’s a celebration.”

Patrick has since moved to the nation’s capital to pursue a career as a grant writer and a Masters degree in international commerce, but the esteem and regard for fine stogies his father so graciously handed down carries on with him to this day.

Patrick believes asking him to name his favorite cigar is like asking Ted Kennedy to name his favorite drink. From the mild-tasting Macanudo to the full-bodied Punch, from the miniature ascot to the colossal Churchill, Patrick counts himself lucky that cigars come in a plethora of shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors.

Patrick has a BA in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. When he is not puffing away on a decadent Dominican, Patrick enjoys golf, writing, loathing the government, rooting for Da Bears, the piano, politics, and American history. He can often be found at establishments that serve libations and are not averse to cigar smoke.

Patrick travels back to Chicago when he has time to visit friends and family and, of course, have a smoke with his dad.

Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder, Publisher & Web Editor

Spending the late summers of his youth on Long Island golfing and teaching sailing, cigar smoking came naturally to Patrick Semmens. And to this day, afloat under the power of the wind or while enjoying a round of golf remain two of Patrick’s favorite times to partake in a fine stogie.

Despite no longer living in New York, he feels strongly that his cigar preferences reflect his Brooklyn upbringing. Like New York City itself, “big and bold” is an apt description of Patrick’s cigar inclinations. While Padrons and CAOs represent his dependable favorites, he isn’t opposed to variety in his cigar choices, at times all together dispensing with his “big and bold” mantra.

In between living in Brooklyn and his recent move to the Washington area, Patrick spent four years at Colby College in Waterville, Maine where he earned a BA in government and a minor in philosophy, and he also spent one year traveling and working around the world. During that year he bartended aboard a charter yacht in New Zealand, worked on seismic survey ships searching for oil in the North Sea and South Atlantic, and taught English and coached soccer in a small village in Ghana, Africa.

Patrick now works at a non-profit legal defense foundation, and avidly follows politics. In his free time he enjoys tennis, golf, squash, sailing, watching the New York Mets or Rangers, and just relaxing with friends. With the exception of tennis and squash, he feels that all those activities represent prime opportunities to enjoy a stogie.

George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief

Retirement in Florida seems to suit George Edmonson about as well as the large Hawaiian shirts that have replaced the white ones he wore for years. And what better to complement an air of relaxation than the enjoyment of a nice cigar?

After smoking for a few years, George, 56, remains a firm believer in Robert Louis Stevenson’s (slightly paraphrased) sentiments: “The world is so full of a number of cigars, I’m sure we should all be as happy as czars.” The list of cigars George enjoys is so long and changes so frequently, he’d be hard pressed to choose a favorite.

As a journalist for nearly 35 years, George’s work ranged from participating in the creation of USA Today to covering the September 11, 2001 attack at the Pentagon. Perhaps his most outstanding accomplishment was that he managed to end up with no unfinished novel yellowing in the bottom desk drawer.

He grew up in Richmond, Virginia at a time when the warm aroma of tobacco wafted freely from warehouses, and the price of a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas were roughly the same – around a quarter. Interests nowadays beyond cigars include listening to music (one major recent project was converting his LPs to CDs), reading, relaxing, and trying to learn more about the computer.

Living in Tarpon Springs, Florida, George is in the heart of U.S. cigar country. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area has an abundance of great shops, great selections, and great smokers. In all honesty, that wasn’t what led him to move to the area. But sometimes you just get lucky.

Jon Nathanson
Los Angeles Bureau Chief

Jon N introduced himself to cigars at the tender of age of 13, when he and some enterprising friends procured a fake ID and purchased a box of hand-rolled stogies at a smoke shop on the Las Vegas Strip. Having no clue how to smoke a cigar didn’t deter Jon, and he promptly inhaled a couple of premium sticks. His juvenile curiosity was rewarded with a severe headache, nausea, and a personal vow not to smoke again for as long as he lived.

Never a man of his word, Jon took up cigars many years later at the age of 25. Since then, he has learned to treat the hobby with the respect, appreciation, and determination it deserves. Now, at 28, Jon considers himself an ardent enthusiast, if not quite a seasoned expert. His personal knowledge of cigars, the cigar lifestyle, and the history of the industry is still a work in progress – but he is learning a great deal more each day.

Jon holds a BA in English and American Studies from Yale University, and he is planning to attend business school in the fall of 2008. He has been working for over five years in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, the city where he was born and raised. When not working hard, or hardly working, Jon enjoys writing, running, fishing, pleasantly inept karaoke, and leisurely smokes on the beach in Malibu (where he is very careful not to start fires).

Jon’s enormous, garish, White House-shaped humidor is the envy of no one in particular. Nevertheless, it is always well stocked with a diverse array of cigars from around the world. Jon’s personal favorites include the Arturo Fuente Hemingway line, the Rocky Patel Vintage series, and most full-bodied maduros.