Redeye said:
If you bought them on the street, they're fake. Counterfeit Cuban cigars are big business, and what goes into them is pretty sickening - floor sweepings, paper, banana leaves, etc.
Redeye yes and no. While Fidel and or Thoma Hines the Canadian who has the monopoly on exports to Canada would have you believe that everything not bought in a Government store is a fake made from floor sweepings, banana leaves and/or animal excrement that is not the case.
Yeah that happened although in 20 plus trips to the island I’ve never come across one, and only heard of horror stories second or third hand. You’re right in that there is a demand and lucrative business for black market cigars. There is also a tendency for the locals to do anything and everything to make a buck for such frivolous luxuries as food and medicine in the socialist utopia.
The end of the cigar craze in North America has also helped to cut down on the demand for black market. Also most of the dumber and more aggressive jinteros were arrested during the big crackdowns in the mid 1990’s.
Defining fakes is a bit harder. A lot of the stuff passed off as Cohibas. Monte Cristos etc is in fact second rate tobacco rolled at home in the evenings, by the same guys who roll the good stuff in the factories for the bearded one. Counterfeit boxes, labels etc are made or stolen and the end product flogged to the touristas. Its Cuban tobacco rolled by Cuban rollers in Cuba so at what point do they become “fakes.”
In addition some of the stuff in the boxes is what it purports to be. The penalties for stealing a full box are almost the same for stealing an empty one and/or a supply of cigar bands, three years cutting sugar cane at one of the interior all-inclusives not advertised in the travel brochures.
As I said desperate times drive people to desperate measures and things are again on the downward spiral there I would say based don my visit last fall. I’ve even seen fakes for sale in the official stores after the trusted employers have switched boxes to sell on the street.
You have to really know your cigars and Cuba to buy down there, either on the black or in the tourist hard currency shops or you will get burned. My new passion is for the Peso cigars. These are the lower quality tobacco that are made for domestic consumption (and often sold to unsuspecting touristas with the popular bands on them). You can’t buy them in tourist areas, but only in towns an cities.
They’re called Peso Cigars,there a couple of brands, because they cost 1 Peso (Moneda Nacional) each or a bundle usually crudely wrapped in white paper for 25 Pesos. At the established exchange rate of 30-35 Moneda Nacional Pesos to 1 Convertible Peso ( equivalent to $1.00 US) that makes them about as nickel each in Canadian funds. There is also no limit on how you can export without a Government receipt. A bit of a strong cigar, but still worth it in my opinion.