PigFish

If your cigars tunnel, you should look to blame Tabacuba! I hate to see all forms of folks take on the responsibility of the manufacturer and their defects and blame it on themselves. Tunneling is caused by underfilling. It is either an open pathway in the cigar that allows most of the flux of air to travel, or the fact that core, slower burning tobacco components are missing. This is often why tunneling cigars taste so bad. Look, I am not saying you don't have a high rH problem. I have customers in the south that come to me for that very reason, my humidors desiccate ( I know what you are thinking... read again! -LOL). You may well have overlapping issues, but you should not take the heat for Tabacubas crappy products (conflate issues)! A cigar that tunnels, is a crappy product! MHO. -the Pig

... yes, you should have gone to bed! -R

Don't wear nikes. Wear Keens. Made in the USA baby!!! Unlike your hats!!! -LOL -R

... who asked you??? -LOL (read with levity) Have soap box will travel! -R

I think you are looking for absolutes in a world of opinions. Today, i largely store my cigars in a very stable environments. Depending on the humidor, remember I make them and I have them ranging from about Generation 8 to 13, at 70F and about 60-62rH. I am particular about the rH/Temp relationship. I can be! I can be because I can adjust it and keep it down to 0.1 on either scale. Like the rest of you I still settle for range and error. I don't make scientific grade test equipment, I make a box to store cigars in... I don't now, nor have I ever made claims about aging... That is all speculation. The only speculation I make is based on materials and how they behave. The more you expand and contract them, like the skin of an airplane, the more they will fatigue and become prone to fail over time. That I do apply to cigars as well. I believe in the benefits of stability. I store for my smoking pleasure. I don't believe in the tooth fairy! I store to smoke for today. Air and water exchanges freely affect your cigars regardless of water content. The rate that water will transfer is based on temperature. I proffer that if there was anything to the 'decaying cigar model' it would be far more prevalent and something that could be charted like the decline in the quality of milk... If it cannot be proven, or at least substantially backed up with a lot of empirical evidence, I don't consider it relevant. That is a personal choice. I don't happen to believe that an oil shine on your cigar means a damn thing as far as flavor goes. I believe that to be more folklore and speculation, pushed by vendors to hype a product. Again, I am an outlier. As always I say look for evidence before concluding. Live for the day, and be your own expert. Test, taste and experiment. I can tell you this. By the nature of the equipment that I use and the experience that I have being able to control rH and temperature, stably, over long periods of time, time that can be documented and proven with data logs, I have some experience maybe one in 10,000 smokers actually have. I can randomly and whimsically change rH and temp with precision and stability. I share my experiences with people like you on the board. I share them for your edification and enjoyment. I would not do anything to purposely damage my cigars, nor yours. Yet I am still one guy on the net telling you what I do and don't prefer. My opinion is only as valuable as you wish it to be! I hope that helps you! -Piggy

I agree on one point my friend. Capitalism no longer exists! This, I believe is true. The administrative state, if not socialist/authoritarian models have deformed it and mutilated it. So my fine point comes full circle. We have no capitalism. Ultimately, that was a point I was making. You cannot blame what no longer exists. Cuba, in degrees furthest from capitalism is an exemplary state. You seem to be leading (the way I read you) to conflating capitalism with thievery! I think not. We can disagree on that. After so many years we at least finally agree on something (about Tabacuba) and that is that it runs Cuban cigar output and production and HSA does not. I will revel in that a moment! Capitalists, well no one... tells an authoritarian government what to do, well, except perhaps sometimes a country with a stronger military. I said sometimes! Capitalist models abolished slavery! Where is your proof please about where capitalism created it? Slavery was created out of authoritarian models, not capitalist ones. Prowling the planet for cheap labor, primarily those who's governments are largely socialist/authoritarian is a capitalistic enterprise. That we can agree on. The plight of the poor in many of the world countries is not the result of capitalism. Most of these cheap labor pools are not found in countries known for freedom or capitalism. They are largely authoritarian, or socialist countries! Venezuela, once the richest country in South America is a prime example of what the loss of capitalism means to a population. Is that your preference? I could go on, point for point but if you are going to say that company that buys labor from a government that is socialist and controls its labor via a socialist/authoritarian model, is then actually responsible for controlling those lives used as labor as if it were the cause, then you just made a substantial argument for the EMBARGO! I did not know you supported the US embargo! You just made an argument for it! I have to ask you then. In a move to promote freedom, should capitalists pull out of the third world and halt business with authoritarian/socialist countries to save the people? I am quite sure that your banking system is not very free. Your country is largely socialist in nature. I understand that your countrymen need to use a VPN to access this very site. That is not capitalist!!! Is that what you prefer? Before bagging on the bankers, who may in fact be criminal, I know nothing about it, you might tell me some about all the laws, checks and balances that were put in place by your government to protect people. I am sure those laws, just like ours, were socialist in nature (frankly anti-capitalist, government controlling production and use), counter productive and did little or noting. You just said they did little or nothing. Did capitalist enact these laws or did socialists? Did capitalist then allow them to skate, or socialists allow them to skate?Answer me honestly if all these laws anti-capitalist laws worked. Apparently not! Capitalist don't write all the projectionist laws (anti-capitalist laws)... socialist do! Again, you conflate criminal activity with capitalism. As long as you are going to do that, we have no common ground on which to discuss this. The fact really is, that the criminal enterprises are the authoritarian/socialist models. I love you mate but I think you are confused. In the diatribe above you go on to explain the failures of what you presume to be capitalism, just to deny that it exists...! So if it does not exist, then please stop telling me it is responsible for all these woes. You cannot have it both ways. Your people are getting screwed by your government, one socialist in nature, not by the county's capitalists. You cannot control each industry, labor, price and production, lock the local cigar vendor from the internet and blame your county's criminality on capitalism. My friend, if there is someone waiving a flag here, it is you waiving a flag for socialism and then telling me where and how it has failed, and then blaming capitalism for it! Cheers! -Ray

... does Fuente make an Opus X machine made cigarillo? Answer NO! Do the Cubans have a creative brain amongst them (in the government run cigar company)? Answer NO! Are they actually so ignorant of capitalism that they are unable to lead the market in anything, even while having a monopoly? Answer YES! Are they following the NC cigar makers even though they have a monopoly, slave labor etc.? Answer YES. Have they just proven that Cohiba and Trinidad are just names put on a box to sell it, even if it trashes their brand status? Answer YES. I still argue mate you are totally wrong about Cuban capitalism. Capitalists might work hard at keeping labor rates down, but 'free market capitalism' no longer uses slaves and has never used a government control of supply and demand! Capitalism and Communism cannot coexist. Capitalism and slavery cannot coexist. Capitalism is an economic system based on freedom, and competition, not slavery. This is a slave state, selling shit for a profit. That does not make it capitalist, it generally makes it criminal. Al Capone filled a gap for booze during prohibition. He was not a capitalist. He was a criminal filling a void created by an overly powerful government. Selling goods stolen from a house does not make the thief a capitalist. The act of selling therefore, does not define capitalism. It is but one aspect of it. -R

... Brandon my brother, I hope you are well. Wonderful post! I have been sitting on one largely the same tenor. -R

... that being said, I would have never made my comment. Without going into a tailspin, I take hundreds of questions about cigar storage, PMC, rH vs. temp. etc., typically from people who have read 'facts' about storage somewhere on the internet, and are now dealing with realtime, not potentially damaged cigars. Often mold... I actually, had a rather lengthy post summing up 'my' opinion to this position of fact. I tip my hat to you sir! Thanks for the clarification and saving me from blowing up the thread with a diatribe separating one's beliefs from facts! Few people will actually retract on a BB. Kudos to you! Cheers! -Piggy

Now don't get me wrong, I like Partagas Chicos. But I have never bought the bullshit about cigars being worth $30 each. So where are all the folks chiming in about how presenting cigars as a luxury item is so good for the market??? Where is the Cadillac of brands stuff? The double band, and shines box, those of you who have rationalized over and over again about hi-line brands and names? One thread after another, many here are eager to bolster up the luxury market for cigar talk. Well just when Tabacuba and it minions got through telling you how expensive and luxury their cigars are, they pull the rug out from under you and show you what a cigar should be!!! What is the Trinidad and Cohiba names worth now? The hi-line of 'Chicos...?' This gives me a stout laugh and some gratification. What I have been saying about cigar smoking being dead without inexpensive entry products is sinking in somewhere. Here is a news flash... If they can stuff 10 of these in a box for $25, one of their fancy models 'ain't' worth $30... -LOL Coming full circle, the market is broad enough for a whole spectrum of cigar products. This runs right back to killing all the Coronas, Lonsdales and PCs... It was stupid. Maybe these dopes at Tabacuba are figuring it out... at long last. If you guys have not noticed, packaging your hi-line product as machine made 'Chicos' totally blows the luxury market model. Rolex, by the way, is not turning out a brass watch made in China...! -LOL Ever wanted to know if the powers on Isla Cuba had a clue about marketing, this is your "Ammunition." -LOL They will paste Cohiba and Trinidad on a black cat's ass to make a buck... and frankly that is all the names were worth in the first place! -the Pig

...hogwash! Thanks for sharing. -Piggy

... guns and US politics, Christian's club please!!! 🤣 -Piggy (Was too ripe to pass up!)

I design and build fully controlled precision humidors as a hobby and side line. You can find me if you search CigarClimatology on YouTube. There i demonstrate working vs. non working controlled humidors and basically share my engineering and how to design a functioning compressor cooled humidor. My design concepts are rather simple, empirically tested and effective. The systems, as a whole are anything but. Watch some of my videos and learn about what it takes to make a really functioning controlled humidor that works when the ambient in your home (or other) makes life difficult to store cigars. Cheers! -Piggy

... you are beginning to worry me mate!!! -LOL One the other hand, Yoda might look kind'a dashing in a red boner tie! -R

I don't wear ties, especially ones displaying an ostensible affinity for red 'boners.' -LOL I can see why that one went out of print... -tP