A few weeks ago, I was in the mood for a Padron. After a few minutes of of excavation, I successfully extracted a Padron 3000 without a dangerous avalanche of cigars. (Lately, my humidor has been so dangerously overfilled, I have wear a miner’s hat with the mounted light when I grab a cigar.)
Pleased that I was able to find one, I wasted no time inspecting the wrapper or evaluating the scent of the cigar. With a quick clip, the cap was off and I was ready to go. But just before I brought my torch to the foot of the cigar, I caught a glint of green in the clipped end of the cigar. What the heck? I flicked at it with my finger nail, figuring that it was just an odd bit of leaf, but it didn’t scratch off. Then I carefully grasped it between my thumb and finger nails and pulled gently. And out slid a three inch length of green twine! It kind of looked like my Padron was sprouting a new tobacco plant! My Padron came with a crackerjack prize!
Padron has a reputation for making consistently tasty, great quality cigars. And that makes this quirk particularly interesting. In keeping with that reputation, once I had claimed my dubious prize, the cigar smoked perfectly and lived up to my flavor expectations.
So now you’ve heard my tale of the Padron with a Prize, use the comment form below to tell me yours.
What odd things have you found in your cigars? Have you found anything weirder than a twine?
Just the other weekend I had a Camacho El Legend-Ario that was PATCHED! It had a tiny 2mm by 3mm (just a guess) patch of tobacco over a peice of the wrapper in the middle of the cigar. There was even pectin (or whatever is used) excess near the patch. The patch wasn’t even the same shade as the wrapper, it was a bit off.
It was really strange, and the store I bought it at was dumb struck too. I noticed it walking home when I bought it, so I didn’t feel like walking back. Oh well, it burned and tasted fine when it got to that point.
What is going on with Padron lately? The cap on my Padron last night looked like I put it on.
Going along with Marcian, I’ve noticed too that even though my Padron X000s taste great, they are starting to become fugly as all hell. What gives?
That twine is probably from when they tie the leaves to long poles and put them up to dry.
I remember a picture from someone who had found a piece of gum in there cigar. Nothing like that has happened with me yet, though.
Jon, it happens more than you know. Most are pretty good about hiding the patches, but on some cheaper cigars they don’t try and hide it.
Jon,
It’s funny you mention patches. I believe this cigar did have a somewhat large patch on it. I didn’t notice until I after I started photographing the twine. But as Cigar Jack says, a lot of cigars get patched out there. Now that you’ve seen it once, you’re going to start noticing it more often!
Marcian and M.J.,
Yeah, I gotta agree guys, some of the X000’s series have been a bit on the ugly side. And I have had a few issues with caps as well.
Mike,
That sounds familiar. But yuck. Seriously, how do you roll your gum into a cigar accidentally? Wouldn’t you notice?
I figure the twine is more likely to have been the twine that held a bundle of leaves together as it was given to the roller. It was probably on the table under the wrapper leaf because it was cut about the width of the wrapper. What I don’t know, is how the twine went from being under (outside) the wrapper to inside the cigar.
I’ve never gotten a prize in a stogie, but on a forum not too long ago someone found a white silky/spiderweb/cocoon/bug house thing inside of their Padilla Obsidian. The pics were scary!!!!
Brian and Cigar Jack,
Wow I’m surprised to hear that, especially since the store owner said he had never heard of anything like that before. Man, sometimes I just wonder if store owners ever use the internet anymore, the store I go to doesn’t even have a web page because they said they didn’t need one. 🙁
Jon W at IPCPR I met a lot of retailers who don’t have websites or e-mail addresses and who “want their state government to ban out of state tobacco shipments” basically indicating their hatred for online retailers.
Beyond the large stem that looked large enough to cut with a chain saw.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased five HdM Hoyo De Tradicion Epicures (5 x 50) that looked great in the box at the B&M. When I got home, I stuck them in my humi, and about a week later a grab one. I took it out of the cello, and near the lower third at the foot. It looked like someone dribbled bleach on the wrapper. It had WHITE drip makes,on the back! On the side where the band is glued, and I never noticed it while at the store. Two of the five, from the same box had this discoloration.
It ticked me off enough to shoot General Cigars off an email, since I have been a HdM and Puch fan for along time. I did get a response, from a live person, and her said that they would send me some replacements. That’s been over a week ago.
-Don W.
I found what looked like a piece of black twine in a Zino Platinum a few weeks ago. It actually looked like a really long pube but I’m going with twine because it grosses me out a lot less.
LOL…Hey Eric if you are mistaking pubes for twine then I would hate to see you in a speedo dude….lol
was smoking a perdomo fresco the other day and when I took off the huge band on that thing, there was a spot under it that needed to be patched. it was about the size of a fingernail. guess they figured you wouldn’t notice until you were almost done w/ it.
Yeah, just found some twine in a Graycliff 1666 last week. I did once find a long black hair in a cigar. Forget what it was but I ditched it.
As far as patches go, I see those rather frequently, never really bothered me.
I got a Pardon 6000 right now that has a patch on the foot…about 3cm x 3cm. For a premium cigar, I don’t think that a patch should cut it! These are 2nds that are being sold as 1st quality, fuck that! The flavors are good but the construction could use some work. If any cigar company is worried about counterfeits, then they should keep their product at top notch quality.
I had the exact same thing happen to me with a Padron 2000, though in my case it was red twine, not green. Mine was visible on the foot, which surprises me that it wasn’t caught at the factory. It pulled free, and was also about 3″ long. Smoked like a champ once the twine was removed; never seen another and I plead guilty to smoking a few Padron 2000’s
About a week ago, I took the band off a Perdomo La Tradicion Cabinet Series and found two bore holes with a couple “trails” right on the surface. Scared me to death! Figured I had bugs. My humidor has not gone above 70% that I can ever remember. (I have done the “salt mush” calibration in the not too distant past, so I know how much error is in my readouts.) I emptied both of my humidors and went over every cigar (over 200 of them), but found no signs of any more. Since this one was in a sleeve, hopefully this was old damage. The fact that these holes/trails were “hidden” under the band makes me suspicious. Am I being paranoid? Anybody have a similar discovery? Keeping my fingers crossed for now.
Yeah, I had a Gurkha Fuerte I found holes in and went nuts checking the rest of my smokes. Went through my smokes in my tower, about 1000 of them, and couldn’t find any more holes or dust, and this one was in a drawer in the cabinet so I woulda expected to find dust in there as well but thankfully didn’t. I’m assuming (hoping) that it was there and gone before I ever got it. Scared the piss out of me though. And it’s over 70 degrees temperature, not humidity that makes them grow.
What appears to be a piece of twine is actually the application of the nuances of the cigar. Green twine is used for claros and lighter sticks, black twine for maduros or oscuros. Brown twine is used most often for medium shades but blends in with the tobacco leaf so well that it is hard to pick out. Flavorless cigars are a result of this nuance not being applied in the rolling process. This usually occurs when the lectores are going through a particularly spicy in passage in a Novela Picaresca. That can also be a source of what appears to be pectin on the cigar.
ace:)
Reinforced packaging tape (Filament Tape). Yummy
I had a Padron 3000 that I dismantled one time – in fact it was my first and only Padron, probably the reason I haven’t ever bought another from the brand. The cigar looked good on the outside, but as soon as I cut the cap I noticed three huge stems staring back at me. This is, of course, a huge pet-peeve of mine. It immediately puts me in a bad mood to cut the cap on a cigar and have lumber staring back at me. In this case though it was so bad I just unrolled the cigar so I could take photos to show people. The stems were massive, I couldn’t imagine just how bad the cigar would have burned if I had tried to smoke it.