My Fake (counterfeit) COHIBA BEHIKE 56

Following my post back in February (Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..) I never actually came across any counterfeit or fake Cuban cigars before... until now! I cannot explain  to you the joy and excitement I was feeling once I was face to face with a fake, but I'll tell you how it happened.

A week ago I was having lunch with my family and my dad said to me "I got this from your uncle and I thought you would like it" and points to a black box sitting on a table. So I walked by it to see what it was and once I saw the BEHIKE word I thought, wow, that was really nice of them to give me a BHK 56. 

So I sat back down to continue my lunch, but something kept bugging me as I looked again at the box from across the room. I said to myself  "that cigar box looks a little bigger than what I remember it to be". I quickly finished my lunch and went straight back to the box and picked it up. First thing I said "please let it be..."

The box construction was weird as it was not like the regular BEHIKE's, then I quickly noticed the Habanos SA label and the Guarantee Seal being a little off. Here is where things got exciting!

I open the cardboard box and pull out the cigar box from inside. This thing was huge! I opened it and...

Since when did COHIBA BEHIKE 56 came as a 24 cigar box?!! If you are familiar with this release, you know they only put out a box of 10s! At this moment I was jumping up and down with excitement! I have in my possession fake Cubans! Just for my satisfaction, I followed the same steps as in my previous post (Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..) to validate this product on Habanos SA website.

and the father of this child is...... (felt like The Maury show moment)

COHIBA you are NOT the father of this BEHIKE (enough with the Maury show already). The seal came back with H.UPMANN MAGNUM 50! At this moment, I was a proud owner of a guaranteed counterfeit BEHIKE 56! let check out the details on these fakes!

The Box:

Beautiful black lacquered box, similar to original with white/grayish squares but not close to the edge and an almost identical COHIBA logo with somewhat faded Habana, Cuba below it. Unlike the real boxes the bottom of the box is lined with black suede like material but missing the Habanos SA imprinted logo. 

Inside the box is lined with cedar wood from the bottom only, 2 brass hinges holding the top and a nice COHIBA logo with BHK 56 printed on the inside. It also came with a hygrometer and humidifier oasis enough to hold about 24 cigars. Quiet nice!

The Cigar:

Poorly constructed with an outer Colorado Claro wrapper with few visible veins, Binder and fillers are the only thing keeping this cigar sane but the caps are just pathetic. You can notice below how poorly the caps are imitated:

The cigar band is almost a copy of the original, until you take a closer detailed look at them. First thing you will notice is the poorly attached bands, they are sloppy and unevenly put together:

According to Habanos SA, the COHIBA head hologram has a smaller COHIBA head inside of it, also the rectangular hologram should reflect small COHIBA logos as well, which both are clearly not visible in this one:

 

I have smoked two of them so far and I will not even bother to try to review it! was it bad? not really its an ok smoke, but some parts of it were. Would I smoke them again? I Don't think so, but "IF" I decided to, I am removing the band way before I lighting it up! why? its an insult to the brand!

Im so glad to finally come across a fake! best thing to come out of this was a nice 24-cigar humidor that looks like a BEHIKE box! If only I knew how much the counterfeiter was selling this box for!

Enjoy!

My Fake (counterfeit) COHIBA BEHIKE 56

Following my post back in February (Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..) I never actually came across any counterfeit or fake Cuban cigars before... until now! I cannot explain  to you the joy and excitement I was feeling once I was face to face with a fake, but I'll tell you how it happened.

A week ago I was having lunch with my family and my dad said to me "I got this from your uncle and I thought you would like it" and points to a black box sitting on a table. So I walked by it to see what it was and once I saw the BEHIKE word I thought, wow, that was really nice of them to give me a BHK 56. 

So I sat back down to continue my lunch, but something kept bugging me as I looked again at the box from across the room. I said to myself  "that cigar box looks a little bigger than what I remember it to be". I quickly finished my lunch and went straight back to the box and picked it up. First thing I said "please let it be..."

The box construction was weird as it was not like the regular BEHIKE's, then I quickly noticed the Habanos SA label and the Guarantee Seal being a little off. Here is where things got exciting!

I open the cardboard box and pull out the cigar box from inside. This thing was huge! I opened it and...

Since when did COHIBA BEHIKE 56 came as a 24 cigar box?!! If you are familiar with this release, you know they only put out a box of 10s! At this moment I was jumping up and down with excitement! I have in my possession fake Cubans! Just for my satisfaction, I followed the same steps as in my previous post (Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..) to validate this product on Habanos SA website.

and the father of this child is...... (felt like The Maury show moment)

COHIBA you are NOT the father of this BEHIKE (enough with the Maury show already). The seal came back with H.UPMANN MAGNUM 50! At this moment, I was a proud owner of a guaranteed counterfeit BEHIKE 56! let check out the details on these fakes!

The Box:

Beautiful black lacquered box, similar to original with white/grayish squares but not close to the edge and an almost identical COHIBA logo with somewhat faded Habana, Cuba below it. Unlike the real boxes the bottom of the box is lined with black suede like material but missing the Habanos SA imprinted logo. 

Inside the box is lined with cedar wood from the bottom only, 2 brass hinges holding the top and a nice COHIBA logo with BHK 56 printed on the inside. It also came with a hygrometer and humidifier oasis enough to hold about 24 cigars. Quiet nice!

The Cigar:

Poorly constructed with an outer Colorado Claro wrapper with few visible veins, Binder and fillers are the only thing keeping this cigar sane but the caps are just pathetic. You can notice below how poorly the caps are imitated:

The cigar band is almost a copy of the original, until you take a closer detailed look at them. First thing you will notice is the poorly attached bands, they are sloppy and unevenly put together:

According to Habanos SA, the COHIBA head hologram has a smaller COHIBA head inside of it, also the rectangular hologram should reflect small COHIBA logos as well, which both are clearly not visible in this one:

 

I have smoked two of them so far and I will not even bother to try to review it! was it bad? not really its an ok smoke, but some parts of it were. Would I smoke them again? I Don't think so, but "IF" I decided to, I am removing the band way before I lighting it up! why? its an insult to the brand!

Im so glad to finally come across a fake! best thing to come out of this was a nice 24-cigar humidor that looks like a BEHIKE box! If only I knew how much the counterfeiter was selling this box for!

Enjoy!

Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..

I have had the same conversation over and over again about Fake COHIBA and how easily this brand can be replicated. More and more counterfeiters and black market dealers are getting the fake cigars out as close to the authentic as possible making it very difficult to spot. As this subject keeps coming up, it turns out to be worrisome for some people who cant seem to confirm the authenticity of their cigars. In my case, its very easy to spot a fake and I will try to simplify it as much as I can.

First of all! Have a good relationship with your local Tobacconist or where ever you buy your Cuban cigars and make sure they are an official Habanos S.A distributor/dealer. This way you would somewhat eliminate the possibility of probably buying a fake or counterfeit cigars from them.

If I had to buy cigars from not my usual supplier (mainly abroad) here are 3 steps that I do to confirm their authenticity:

• First - Always go for the sealed boxes and look for possible attempts of seal tampering, removal or openings. Every Cuban brand cigar are exported by Habanos S.A (exclusive worldwide distributor) and will have two seals specifically located on every box with a unique serial number and a security Hologram as shown below: 

The Habanos seal is always placed on the top right hand corner of the box in an angle to always measure approx 59mm from the top end of the box to the bottom end of the Habanos seal. The Warrenty Seal will always be placed on the bottom left corner of the box leaving a 3mm to 6mm space from the edge to the seal and bending up to the front right over the center of the Cote d´Arms whenever possible (see below image).

a unique bar code is printed on every single box which has saved information on a database allowing the identification of this product everywhere, whom this product was addressed to as well as the Invoice number, and other relative details.

•  Second - Open the box and examine the Cigars as well as their bands. Look for color, uniformity, embosses & stamps and if anything unusual that stands out then compare it with a different box of the same brand. Try to eyeball the gauge size of the cigar as well as the tightness of the roll, this helps if you are familiar with the cigar. 

• Third - If you have a smartphone or access online go to the Habanos S.A website to verify the serial number of the bar code on the spot as I demonstrate below:

Visit http://www.habanos.com/Sellos/Info/VerificaSelloCajon 

Enter the serial number and choose the format it came in

Confirmation of serial number should return with its authenticity

Yes I was lucky enough to not fall for a counterfeit COHIBA 1966, now to just enjoy your cigars without suspicion. I wouldn't worry too much about fake or counterfeits cigars if I deal with a trusted distributor. Of course you can also get on the Habanos S.A website to find local distributors/shops close to where you live. Please feel free to test this system out with some of your Cuban cigars and if any lucky person spots a fake in their collection, please share with us!

Enjoy!

Fake or Real Cuban Cigars? How can you tell..

I have had the same conversation over and over again about Fake COHIBA and how easily this brand can be replicated. More and more counterfeiters and black market dealers are getting the fake cigars out as close to the authentic as possible making it very difficult to spot. As this subject keeps coming up, it turns out to be worrisome for some people who cant seem to confirm the authenticity of their cigars. In my case, its very easy to spot a fake and I will try to simplify it as much as I can.

First of all! Have a good relationship with your local Tobacconist or where ever you buy your Cuban cigars and make sure they are an official Habanos S.A distributor/dealer. This way you would somewhat eliminate the possibility of probably buying a fake or counterfeit cigars from them.

If I had to buy cigars from not my usual supplier (mainly abroad) here are 3 steps that I do to confirm their authenticity:

• First - Always go for the sealed boxes and look for possible attempts of seal tampering, removal or openings. Every Cuban brand cigar are exported by Habanos S.A (exclusive worldwide distributor) and will have two seals specifically located on every box with a unique serial number and a security Hologram as shown below: 

The Habanos seal is always placed on the top right hand corner of the box in an angle to always measure approx 59mm from the top end of the box to the bottom end of the Habanos seal. The Warrenty Seal will always be placed on the bottom left corner of the box leaving a 3mm to 6mm space from the edge to the seal and bending up to the front right over the center of the Cote d´Arms whenever possible (see below image).

a unique bar code is printed on every single box which has saved information on a database allowing the identification of this product everywhere, whom this product was addressed to as well as the Invoice number, and other relative details.

•  Second - Open the box and examine the Cigars as well as their bands. Look for color, uniformity, embosses & stamps and if anything unusual that stands out then compare it with a different box of the same brand. Try to eyeball the gauge size of the cigar as well as the tightness of the roll, this helps if you are familiar with the cigar. 

• Third - If you have a smartphone or access online go to the Habanos S.A website to verify the serial number of the bar code on the spot as I demonstrate below:

Visit http://www.habanos.com/Sellos/Info/VerificaSelloCajon 

Enter the serial number and choose the format it came in

Confirmation of serial number should return with its authenticity

Yes I was lucky enough to not fall for a counterfeit COHIBA 1966, now to just enjoy your cigars without suspicion. I wouldn't worry too much about fake or counterfeits cigars if I deal with a trusted distributor. Of course you can also get on the Habanos S.A website to find local distributors/shops close to where you live. Please feel free to test this system out with some of your Cuban cigars and if any lucky person spots a fake in their collection, please share with us!

Enjoy!