How to Spot Fake Cuban Cigars - Mexico Style

This is just a heads up to anyone that will be in certain touristy parts of Mexico, specifically Playa del Carmen, where I was last week.

***Most parts of the Caribbean sell all kinds of fake Cuban cigars – Especially Cuba!. So you have to be careful anywhere.

Always, always, always stay clear of any individual that offers you Cubans cigars on the street.

If you go into a shop, especially looking for a box, be very, very careful. Most of the stores I went to have pretty accurate prices, compared to guys on the beach or street that offer you boxes for $40. However, they have some pretty obvious fakes in these stores. I myself went into 3 stores on 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen and took pictures in one.
These pictures are an example of how a little knowledge about what you are buying will help you.

The cigars themselves look pretty good, in fact perhaps very nice by many standards. But, they are not what they claim to be and that is important, especially if you are paying $20 USD a piece.

The cigars in these photos are obvious fakes:

2001 Cohiba Sublimes do not exist. They were released in 2004, end of detective work.



Hoyo De Monterrey Churchills do not come with this label. The correct label is pictured below the fakes. They may have come with this label previously, but not in the last few years, and this box was from 05.






2001 Cohiba Piramides come with the old, black Cohiba band. They do not have gold gilded and embossed letters on the bands. Also, it is hard to tell in this picture but when I saw them they just didn’t look right the ends look way too pointy. The Montecristo No. 2’s were the same way. This is a slippery slope though, as every cigar looks somewhat different, but use your best judgment and if you’re sceptical don’t buy anything, because it will make you enjoy it less regardless of its authenticity. The tip-off for me was the rolling table in the store with un-banded vitolas that are identical to the ‘Cubans’ they are selling. For fuck sakes, if you are going to roll and sell fakes, do it behind a closed door jackass. That’s just disrespectful!





Habanos labels are another great way to tell if something is real. Throughout the years they have changed slightly but not much, my best advice is to look at every box a vendor has, if the Habanos labels on the corners of the box are different from one another they are probably fake. Maybe not all are fakes, but that’s gambling, and you should be at a casino. Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the Habanos labels here.

So that’s about it. Again, it boils down to being careful. Anytime you aren’t at your loyal and trusted home-base-vendor, use your noodle. If you can buy Hookers, Timeshares and Chihuahua T-shirts next door to the cigar shop you just went into, you might need to reconsider.