The prices really have driven me away. Just not worth it anymore. Really a shame.

Very sad for the Cuban people let alone a massive shortage..i can’t imagine how high the prices will continue to increase 😢

I found this fascinating. Thanks for breaking down all that you've read and discussed with well positioned people in the industry in such a digestible way, with salient points all covered and no irritating pointless tangents to confuse your viewers. Good stuff!

A very conscientious take on the current situation. Thank you for sharing.

🙏🏼 Thank you for the insight. I have my stash of Habanos and have not purchased anymore since the price spike. Hoping things stabilize within the next few years before I have to replenish my supply 🤞🏼

Thank you for this information. Very needed and helpful.

I agree with a lot of your points.... was there last year and the sad reality is there were massive power cuts everywhere. Beyond everything you said - imagine not having a good night's sleep and then expected to perform well the next day and the result is the sub-par construction. I genuinely hope the situation improves for all of them or the exodus will wipe enough talent away that there is no going back. What Cuba needs and Habanos will not do is take a break for a year - just throttle back and rebuild from the ground up (literally and agriculturally) - once the product is back to levels - sell it and charge what they have to...

Excellent video. Just found your channel and I'm also from Sweden(Stockholm). Looking forward seeing all your videos and listen to the podcast. I'm a huge Davidoff fan and started collecting last year :-)

Fascinating stuff. I really enjoy your content, it is so interesting and informative. I’m sticking more to Davidoff cigars recently due to price hike and availability. I’m struggling to get some standard production Cubans. But seriously, I had to re wind your video twice as I couldn’t believe the wages in Cuba, disgraceful. Thanks for posting a great video!!!

I got back into cigars at the start of the year, and besides one Romeo y Julieta, every Cuban cigar I had was a letdown. I even had a Partagas and another Romeo y Julieta, but both of them gave the impression that the tobacco wasn't properly cured or fermented for long enough (all from the German market). On the bright side, I feel like it's the most exciting time to explore new world and boutique cigar brands. Additionally, I find it more satisfying to support private companies rather than a socialist regime. Cheers!

Thank you for shedding lights on a very ambiguous situation with Cuban Cigars global shortage

Excellent report!

Thanks for the inside baseball. Very articulate & knowledgeable. Was thinking of purchasing some cubanos via Switzerland, however I’m now reconsidering. Muchísimas gracias.

Great video, living here in Southern California, we have a LCDH just across the border in Tijuana. An hour&half drive and i have Cuban cigars. But the quality of a Padron, a Fuente a Davidoff and so many new world cigars is hard to justify the price and drive just for a Cuban. Cuban cigars will always have their very own distinct taste and flavor, that will always be there and no one can duplicate it, but the New World cigars are amazing!!

Love your pronunciation man, really crystal clear.

Thank you for video and honesty.

everything you said is true , but your angry at 20$ a stick in europe , we in the middle east the same stick sometimes cost up to 150$ , that's why we now go for non cuban brands because of QC , when we pay a high premium we expect nothing but the best , now cuban cigars sometimes not worth paying for

Excellent video & great information.

Ramon Allones No3 typically retailing at £41.00 per stick in UK!

Very informative video, thank you!

I wish you all in Europe had access to more new worlds beyond the typical Davidoff, Padron etc. the newer stuff coming out from the boutique brands is outstanding.

Good information.

The walkin humidors in the LCDH shops in Havana are about 5-10% capacity of what i have seen in the past and the Havana Melia humidor is empty.

Wonderful video, well-spoken. Bravo.

Smoked an Arturo Fuente Don Carlos today that had two huge sunspots.

Cannot wait for this one!

Cheers thanks for the info…

I work in a cigar shop. I have rarely seen sunspots on those we carry. There are so many other manufacturers now that produce wonderful cigars that I don’t understand the whole obsession with Cuban cigars. Arturo Fuente, JC Newman, Perdomo, La Flor Dominicana, My Father, Drew Estate, CLE, AJ Fernandez, Oscar V, Camacho, etc. Just to name a few.

I'm over in the UK. You can see the drop in supply on websites. So many Cigars are out if stock. Punch punch are pretty much gone from the market. Very sad.

Thanks for a very informative video. And just follow your standard for How people on the flor should be treated. Only the consumer Can change that. Thanks 🙏🏼

100 % with you brother with everything .

And I thought it was me. I used to enjoy Cuban over 15 years ago and although I am not an expert I could notice issues now I got back to the sport. Also I am shocked at the quality other are putting forward now. Thanks for this video!

Excellent video!

Cuba is beating a dead horse thats riding on their reputation as producing "the best cigars in the world". Not only are they facing serious crises on an agricultural level but my personal experience is that with the top tier brands like Trinidad and Cohiba 1/10 is plugged, while the general brands like Partagas about 1/4 or 5 are plugged or atleast super tight. Like everything in Cuba its extremely mismanaged. I live in a country with high levels of corruption and one cannot understand how non sensical such corrupt governments run until you've seen it and lived it. One would think Cuba would put all resources toward sugar cane and tobacco farming since that keeps them going(barely) but yet due to extreme mismanagemt and corruption this is not being done. Apparently medical doctors earn about $40 per month from the government and work extra jobs in order to make a living. A skilled and fast roller can earn 100x plus what they earn in cuba by doing the same job in Nicaragua whilst having better living and working conditions. When I started smoking cigars I only smoked cuban since it was very easily available at the time, now most tobacconists in my country stock about 70-80% New World brands and 20-30% Cuban. There is even one tobacconist near me that doesn't stock any Cuban brands. Why? Well its overpriced for what you get, it really sucks to pay top dollar for a plugged cigar and they are really not that special. Look I have a few Cuban favourites, but I don't like the idea of supporting Cuba in any way. And above all cuban tobacco is IMO not better, its different, and to your palate it might be better, but to my palate it just tastes like premium tobacco. Since the US trade embargo, so many different cultivars and methods of growing, curing etc have evolved outside of cuba. Meanwhile cuban farmers dont even have proper curing barns. I am fully convinced that the demand is so high purely because of the reputation Cuban tobacco has. If you are really smoking for the flavour, you'll find some amazing non-cubans!

There are massive conflicts btw Habanos and LCDHs. LCDH chain isn't paying Habanos. Now I think they paused all supply to LCDHs at least in Cuba.

I have been enjoying Cuban cigars since 1980. I totally agree with you. I moved to Nicarayua cigars. I won’t fall victim to this debacle

Nearly love cubans, except for the price. What are your top "Cubanesque" Non-Cuban cigars?

You are 10,000% correct. Cuba’s process is self-imploding. But the European and Asian market continues to buy so wont really impact them. Give me a Davidoff or Fuente any day. They are obsessed with quality.

Hello from Canada. My friend went to Cuba in March. I gave her a long list of cigars to pick up at the government store. She wasn’t able to purchase any of the cigars on my list. The supply available in Cuba seemed very low. Quality was however very high on the cigars she did buy. I got lucky.

A fantastically informative clip. Thank you. Can you suggest a company who ships to Europe and uk? There seem a lot of dubious options out there that look like they may be supplying fakes.

Great video man.

So true, my last Cuban cigars have been so poor, especially my last Bolivar was not smokeable… Davidoff never a issue.

I’m still quite new to the cigar world but ref prices of Cubans I don’t hate that they have had a serious price increase. If your product is being sold for a much higher prices over the world I can see as a business move you would want to as a luxury hand made brand consolidate prices globally. If you can afford to fly to say Spain and back and buy cubans and bring them back to say the U.K. and there still cheaper than buying cigars in the U.K. that’s a problem. My sincere hope was portions of these increases would hopefully end up in the hands of the rollers and help to create a more balanced and sustainable market. Do I feel like I’m getting ripped off when I hear all these stories and prices from old yes. But I’m the new guard and us new guard we will be used to this prices within a year or two and it will be the norm. What should have happened was smaller increases over the course of a few years rather than one massive one. But also if you don’t have rollers, don’t have raw material then what’s left has to be sold at a much higher price to support the business now or it won’t be there. I personally prefer new world as I prefer a better draw. I like the tobacco taste from Cuba but the draw mainly is rubbish. I’ve had at least 3 bad Cubans in the last 6 months and no bad new world ever. I also heard but don’t know how true it is that the Asian market has bought half the stock supply from Cuba. IF this is true by bets are the countries that supported Cuba all these years will get the lesser quality or uglier cigars as they are breaking into this massive new market. We all know that this price increases where matched to the Asian market in the first place. Also if we all flock to new world cigars and everybody stops buying Cubans do you really think the new world prices will stay where they are? Here in the U.K. the cheapest you can buy a handmade cigar is around £10.00. Taxes here are high I get that but I bought 5 AJ Fernandez robustos for £45.00 from turkey 2 months ago. U.K. price for the same pack £120. It’s only a matter of time before we have the same convo.

I mostly found this video agreeable (although I will definitely keep buying) but one thing I will say is that I don't really care about sun spots. I think it makes them feel more natural. The best Bolivar Belicoso Fino I had had multiple sun spots on it.

Bought two Lusitanias a year apart in London. £42 - £91!

I have full box H. Upman . All of them got tight wrap. I bought draw tool just for that box. This is quality control issue.

More reason to smoke Davidoff, Fuente, and Padron. If you want to get the Cuban taste smoke My cigars and Tatuaje

yeah the problem is many Cigars if you are struggling to get them, there is a chance the person selling them to you are selling Counterfeits.. or they are only able to get factory Seconds, (ones that failed Quality control) so they sell you what they can get, but selling to you at I am guessing at full Retail for QCP, that sucks have you tried to get them through a deferent vender????

I dont Care for Cuban Cigars for 2 Years now, got some Reserves, but the Quality is to low, for the Prices. Im now going with Davidoff.

as always great video and content... but answer this for me... why do they keep on churning out new limited editions and vitolas and create hype when supply of tobacco is so dire... why not focus on production of staple lines ... but all in all a very bad situation and all this fueling snobbery sadly to whats the supposed to be a brotherhood of cigar smoking,...

I recently bought two Bolivars and one had those spots and one didn't. I had no idea what the spots were. Both burned perfectly and good draw. Flavor was good and changed very little to the end. Good flavor but not great.

I'm having issues with mold and unravelling with newer ones. My older ones are fine so I know it's not my storage conditions

Extremely interesting to hear this talk from europe. I am in us and we only get new world stuff, but we have all of them at our fingertips. We still revere cubans here rationally or not, they are a rare delicacy! Sad to hear that our dream cigars have declined in consistency and quality.

If you have a moral quandry with Cuban cigars, then don't look into how your smartphone was made. Or your shoes, car, computer, shirt, etc...

Got a Punch 48 a couple days back and it has sunspots. Fun and games for £35.

I like you love Cuban cigars. I guess Habano's new credo is "take it or leave it" pretty much. Nothing compares to that flavor profile and Cuban "twang" but Habanos in itself is horrific. I've heard countless (credible) stories about their shady ethics and tactics. At the end of the day, it's a repressed island and they work with what they've got. It's appauling to see how something so prestigeous and exquisite as the Habanos brand has been totally tarnished, is losing it's glamour, and quality standards are headed out the window. Hopefully they will some how/ some way right this wrong.

My friend passed away and he left me all of his cigars and humidors. Lol! Now I have to figure out what to do with all of these cigars!

Giving the soil a break so it can recover is biblical thousands of years ago 🤙🇺🇸

I smoked and loved cuban cigars for almost 20 years now, and I've seen a lot, brands being scraped and founded, historical vitolas being discontinued and new ones being introduced, price fluctuations of every kind, but I have to say it has come to a point that it's not worth anymore. the overall quality is in decline, the manufacture quality is in decline, and the prices on the wild rise, even before the pricing crisis. the sad thing is that there is almost nothing like a good cuban cigar but there are almost no good cuban cigars being produced anyway. I hope they can fix this whole situation in the coming years, but I'm really not sure of it. In the meantime I'll go with good quality new world cigars.

Great vid.

Take a $50 or $100 dollar bill and watch it burn, this is what you do every time you smoke an ridiculously overpriced Cuban cigars compared to a $9. Perdomo or Nicaragua cigar.

Loved your content Chief! Maybe it's time you round up these undercompensated veteran rollers, along with some serious cigar aficionados, willing to invest in tobacco farms outside of Cuba. Preserve the Cuban heritage, practice fair trade to make a positive impact, and reasonably mark up your final products with a Swedish twist ~ you'll have orders lined up beyond your borders!

The dud rate is a deal breaker for me, i can not justify spending such high prices on cigars that have a 10%-20% dud rate. that is just silly. i have never had a bad Davidoff cigar.

I noticed in my Bolivar Royal Corona there are sunspots. Past three years, Cubans have been awful in taste. Trinidad and Cohiba, I feel, are excellent still but paying a heavy price. I'm figuring out Costa Rican cigars taste very similar to older Cubans. I wonder why more people aren't speaking about it.

Lately some of my cubans have been rolled pretty tight. Also the boxes I have been getting kinda started to looked counterfeit. I tried to check the authenticy on the Habanos website and the website is not responding when I type in my barcode number. But yea I've been noticing it's hit n miss if you will with the new stuff I've been getting, I found your channel bc I was trying to see if my new stuff was fake, but it makes sense now.

Way too expensive for non-wealthy people.

As a fan of Cuban cigars, I can say that sunspots are not a problem for me at all. Ramon Allones no. 3 tastes great, is difficult to obtain and quickly disappears from the shelves. The biggest problem with Cuban cigars is that they are currently quite expensive, difficult to buy even in countries where they are legal. Quality of CC went up IMO. Cheers from Poland.

bought in havana habanos store, the whole box of h upmann has damage on the wraper, is just bad, and expensive, plus the robinas and stuffs, was jist bad. I was there December, but still have hopr for them, but not recently. the non Cubans are packing better quality overall

Excellent video, most informative. Did not about this.

My habano Montecristo Dumas got suns spot and green spot in the wrapper

theres stock! but are you willing to pay premium price for it?

The embargo needs to end. If Cuba received outside investment, so much would be possible for the people and economy.

I've had Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas , and H Uppman recently and haven't seen any sun spots .

Cigars are very expensive in Australia.A few years ago I ordered some from the USA which arrive in the mail tax free if border don't pick it up.Rocky Patel,Oliva,Arturo etc.My opinion, no way they are as nice as a good Cuban.

Honduran Punch Pita = Box of 25 shipped to GA USA for $93 .... burn GREAT TAste good... Oliva O .... $130 shipped for box of 20 ... I'll stick w/ NIC, Honduras and DR !!!

I bought a Hoyo De Monterey 2021 edicion limitada that has a sun spot on it lol

Id like to hear more about a term you used. tight draw. You made no mention if that is good or bad. Do you have a video on that?

Not sure or familiar with Swedish shops but I can say from direct experience that the sticks received in London and the U.K. as well as the Nederlands were fine. Yes, the situation in Cuba is bad and hurracane Ian of Aug 2022 jacked them up, but i completely disagree with the quality you mention but my experience is far different than yours and you can opine on your direct experience but what you experience is 180 degrees different than what I am experiencing.

So what? We simply got into a period of low supply and high demand. Guess what: that means just higher prices. There is no issue. I smoke about 30 cigars per month mostly from cuba and a little bit from Nicaragua. Habanos positioned Trinidad and Cohiba as ultra premium brands. And there are certainly enough people willing to pay for it. And even if not: every afficionado knows some great alternatives in the second tier brands such as H. Upmann, Montechristo etc.

True,things are going down in term of quality,because with the current prices you expect impeccable quality,and unfortunately Habanos SA has a mediocre quality control system !

I'm from a small town and my local cigar shop is selling me Cuban cigars from their humidor for retail prices from before the price hike 😅 I'm spending all I can to fill up my humidor before they're on to me. Hearing the sad news in this video only confirms for me that it's now or never

I think that if the US government (ok, really just Dumbass J. Trump) would've continued Obama's path to open trade, it may have helped this situation due to the high volume of smokers that we have and maybe some of the rollers might not have left. OR it may have hurt production for the reasons you stated while still bolstering Nicaraguan and Honduran production. Hard to say for sure, but I think overall ending our embargo would still help in many ways.

Perhaps its a good thing. The illusion that cuban cigars are the best has to be shattered sometime. There are far superior offerings on the market these days. The only thing keeping cuban cigars elevated to this prestige status is nostalgia Its essentially an old wives tale at this point, its been said so many times that cubans are the best that people that dont even smoke cigars constantly ask if what im smoking is a cuban. Tell a lie often and loud enough, and it will become the truth.

Well said....I agree with you 100%. I am transitioning my cigar collection towards the best of the New World which are superior in many ways to Cuban cigars. I live in the UK so have always been banged on cigar prices but now it has become insane. Here's to New World cigars.

Honduras cigars are my vibes anyway. Very informative.

I have 16 cubans,8 behike,,8 upmann #2,,,I'm super blessed as I feel they are gonna be really rare soon

All the sunspots mean is that they're growing faster then ever. The best cigars I've ever smoked were the ones I've smoked without blabbing. Yes. I've blabbed. Spell check won't even work on this. Turn your cam off and smoke. Oh yeah, keep on smokin'.. peace.

Hi from UK

Quality is definitely going down. I have green spots on my LGC Turquinos.

Just got 3 Punch Short de Punch. 2 of them had sun spots 😔

And I love Cuban Cigar but the way the quality Cuban went downhill it’s not worth the money. It a shame. And $15 usd a month for a roller is unconscionable.

I am from Canada. I bought a box of Partagas Mille Fleurs and I can tell you 7 of them are plug. I mean 7! Yes the Mille Fleurs is not Cohiba or Trinidad but common now I paid for a box. I understand may be 3 but for God sake 7!

Cuban cigars are still a great way to flex your expendable income on social media.

Most of my lusitanias has greenish spots on its wraperr lol

I recently bought a box of Montecristo's No.4 production date 2022, so probably another three years of aging (minimum) for this cigar to reach its true potential. It's getting very hard to sell the cigars like this.

Sad to hear about. Is there Cuban brands or types, sizes or price ranges with less issues than other ones? Like are any being prioritise?

Even with new world sticks sun spots arent ok when youre talking about first releases and high price points.

$15-20 seems insane. Quick search shows a very high cost of living by comparison.

What's interesting to me and very off topic but I am surprised that here in the United States there aren't even more tobacco production than there currently is. The US has some of the richest cleanest farmland in the world that's why we have some of the best farmers in the world especially in PA we could probably grow some very very good tobacco and produce very high quality cigars.

The solution is opening it up to the USA for their agriculture and letting in the big cigar makers in like Davidoff, Padron, Pepin Garcia etc