Week in Smoke – TGT Edition posted on February 9th, 2012
Ask The Readers: Dyed Maduros
Not terribly long ago, I decided that I wanted to cap off my night with a full bodied cigar. I was doing some reading and wanted something that wouldn’t require alot of attention and would stay lit while being left in the ashtray for longer than normal.
On a whim I decided to go with a cigar I don’t normally smoke, a Rocky Patel Edge Maduro. When I first pulled the cigar from the plastic bag that it came in, something didn’t quite feel right. I went ahead and ignored my suspicion and set it ablaze.
In between puffs I had a slight sticky sensation on my lips. I wiped my hand across my mouth and was surprised to find brown residue on my hand. After getting my lips cleaned off, I wet the cigar and wiped my thumb across the head and found the same substance on my hand.
While digging through my humidor I came across my one remaining Rocky Patel Edge and decided to ask the people on twitter a simple question in regards to the process of dying cigars. The image below shows several of the answers that I received, and I’d like to get your opinion as well.
Do you feel that the act of dying cigars is in any way
“underhanded”, or meant to trick consumers?
Man I like the Edge. I have about 12 torpedos in my humi. It was the first cigar I really enjoyed. I have since moved on, but it is still my fav golf course cigar. I hate to hear that they are being misleading. Really makes me want to take my business elsewhere. Thanks for the post man.
nice video Walt… very informative!
I’m torn… At the moment, I do not care for dying cigars. In the end as long as it tastes and burns good I guess I’m OK with it though. But a part of me is annoyed by it. I have no problems with an ugly cigar as long as it’s good. For the most part, I base my opinion on flavor. A nice looking cigar is nice, but isn’t a primary concern.
Now you see why I’m torn. A part of me says dying cigars is BS. The other says who cares, as long as it tastes good and burns well.
If I enjoy it, ” whatever”.
I think dying wrappers is ridiculous and a waste of good cigars. I think it changes the taste and in my opinion makes me not want to smoke the same cigar again. On the other had, I don’t think it is lying or deceitful, since marketing is all about having the best thing, the biggest product, the darkest maduro. There are cigar smokers out there who only smoke the blackest of black maduro cigars, and that is what they want, and therefore companies must feel the need to appease them. I don’t really care if they do it, but if I get one, I most likely won’t be smoking it again. Whatever.
Walt,
Another great discussion, bro! I really don’t like the thought of cigar manufacturers dying cigar wrappers. It’s underhanded and unnecessary…like Tom said above “I have no problems with an ugly cigar as long as it’s good.” I totally agree!
BTW, I believe that El Cobre is a maduro cigar…at least Discount Cigars claims that they have maduro wrappers (it’s right next to the RG size on the site).
http://www.discountcigars.org/cigars.asp?parentval=274
Lab
great discussion walt.
I don’t like the idea of dying cigars, but I don’t consider it deceit unless a manufacturer comes right out and says a stick isn’t dyed when it clearly is!
The practice makes me wonder what else they could be doing to cigars that we don’t know about.
It seems pretty questionable to me. I’d love to know what the mfg’s rationale is for doing something like this!
I had heard from an insider at RP, that the “maduro” stuff that is sold through CI exclusive is dyed. I was never sure about the Edge. But it makes sense.
99% of all of the Patel “maduro” cigars are just way too black or dark looking to be natural. It has really turned me of a bunch of his stuff.
I think his Winter Blend was a natural color thought, but I could be mistaken.
I think it is bad business practice that is mean to deceive.
Yet another strike against Rocky Patel in my book. He really hasn’t produced a great cigar since the Decade and it’s not for lack of quantity. In the close to two years since the Decade he’s released 5 Seasonal Blends (3 of the first 4 were disappointing, I haven’t bothered with the newest), the Renaissance (not bad, but not great), and a myriad of online exclusives (Split Decision, Fusion, R4, Signature Series, X-Outs), the Vintage 1999 (one of the worst mild cigars released recently, IMO), and the ITC 10th (again, not bad, but not great). Speaking of the Decade, I picked up a lancero last weekend and it was fantastic…but the Quality Control has apparently gone down the tubes. Of six boxes my local store had open, 3 of them had wrapper color variations so wide that it was immediately noticeable–and I’m not that picky about that. One thing I am more picky about is functionality and design of a website and RP’s is one of the worst in the biz.
It’s high time for Rocky to get back to basics and start working on great cigars, regardless of quantity, rather than flood the market with his brand. I would trade in all the lackluster Seasonals, Renaissance, Split Decisions, Fusions, Ocean Clubs, etc. for another winner like the Decade or Olde World Reserve.
When I was on vacation I didnt have my Bobkin so I just grabbed a coffee cup from the hotel room and put a little water in the bottom for my cigar during our long car ride.
I was smoking a DP My Father and I noticed about 30min in to smoking it that the water in the bottom of the cup was brown from the cut cap I dropped into the coffee cup.
The color of the cigar makes no difference to me as long as it tastes good. I can’t imagine why a manufacturer would dye their cigars. The only thing I can think is maybe to get the color uniform throughout the line.
Rocky makes some great stuff, but the Edge Maduro goes down as one of the worst cigars I have ever had. Some of my friends enjoy it, and there is nothing wrong with that, but to me it was all strength no flavor.
But as far as dyed cigars go, it definitely falls under the category of Shady Marketing. I’m sure its meant for newer or misinformed smokers who are under the impression that color is synonymous with strength.
Who knows, maybe it just looked too much like the corojo or sumatra so he dyed it to make the distinction. Either way, Ill pass on that cigar everytime.
I do not like the idea of dyed cigars, however, I do not think it makes the cigar any less natural. If they are using molassas, etc that is still a natural ingredient and might add to the flavor. That could be how they spin this through PR. However, if they are using a chemical dye then I have a big problem with that. I would be interested in knowing which manufacturers admit to doing this so we could investigate further. Using a wet paper towel and rubbing a cigar is hardly scientific. Especially if we do not even know if this can happen natrually with maduro wrappers.
I’m wondering about the “black” cigars such as Cohiba.
It’s very underhanded and deceitful. If a manufacturer is dying their cigars, then they need to make that known. RP does it and Perdomo does it as well. There’s nothing worse than having your lips and fingers stained brown b/c a manufacturer wants to make their smokes look like something they are not. When that happens, I throw the cigar away and do not buy from that company again. Fool me once…
Nice video. Really good information.
I totally disagree with dying cigars. Its absolute fraud in my opinion. Why would you want to hide the leaf of the cigar, is it a real leaf? Companies like that are probably hiding something in the cigar too, perhaps the tobacco isn’t really what they say it is, you just can’t trust a company like that. I’ve been smoking Cuban cigars for a good while now and have never had a problem like that before. I say if you really want a good cigar check out gocubans.com. They have many different types of cigars of all sizes that wont get your hands colored.
I picked up some CI Legends maroon labels by Plasencia from JoeCigar a few weeks ago. These cigars have very dark wrappers. I had one other cigar from the bundle and until this article didn’t notice the color on my fingers and lips. I smoked one last week on my drive home and you could see the color variation in the sunlight. You could tell the dye was heavier in some spots and lighter in others, also the head was noticibaly lighter than the rest of the cigar by time I was half way through, the cigar is decent and didnt need the dye in my opinion. It only makes it worse.
How would we know if the residue is from dye or if it’s part of the leaf, possibly something that occurs in the aging process? If you rub your fingers over other plant matter you may find that some residue comes off onto your finger. I’m not saying some don’t dye the maduro leaf, but is there a reason some residue might rub off of a non-dyed leaf?
I am totally against using dye to make a “maduro or oscuro” cigar. It’s misleading at least and deceitful. If I pay good money for a RP cigar, or any other, I want it to be natural and not dyed or heat treated to speed up the process or to make it look like a quality wrapper. Cigar that cost more are that way in most cases due to the curing time of the tobacco and not taking a short cut. He also had another cigar called Estaban Carrerra not to be confused with another brand of much hight quality. This cigar was also dyed and I did not enjoy the experience. Dyeing cigars is a short cut and only intended to fool the buyer.
Is a cigar that leaves brown stains on your lips, hands, clothing and everything else you touch while smoking it a bad thing?
Yup.
Is a cigar that is advertised as a maduro but dyed like the hair on a cheap whore false advertising?
Uh huh.
Are the purveyors of these atrocities con men?
Certainly.
Should the perpetrators of these bogus cigars be outed and shunned?
Absolutely.