Is it real, or is it Memorex?

We have an intern at work that wants to enjoy the finer things in life.  He is from Ecuador, very young and impressionable.  He likes good Scotch, bourbon and food, but he thinks wine in a box is a technical marvel and loves it.  He is going to throw a party for his friends and wants to add cigars into the mix, so he has been asking a lot of questions on what a bunch of newbies should smoke.

In comes his brother with a box of Cuban Cohiba Esplendidos.  I offered to store them in my humidor since they have been sitting in an office for "a while".  We opened the box when he brought them into the office, and they looked really good, for a while.  I wanted to be sure of what he had, so I took them down to my buddy Steve's cube.  He noticed right off the label on the outside was not positioned where it should be.  Steve pulled up websites where we could compare and what we found was the inside label had white showing, not a good sign.  And the little piece of paper was missing the tobacco leaf.  And to put another nail in the coffin the bottom had no stamp for manufacture date.

My Ecuadorian friend wanted me to smoke one to see what I thought.  Hey, I am here to help.  All signs are that it is Memorex (fake), but it was a very nice smoke none the less. The ash was a decent grey, the smoke was relatively think, but I did have to touch it up a couple time where it wanted to burn uneven and it smoked a bit fast for a Churchill (1 hr 15 mins).  Then the final nail, the band was a little thin and virtually no embossing.

After revealing my findings, my good buddy Steve brought in one of his, pictured in this blog as being given to him by a Cuban friend.  He wanted to know if his were real, so he offered it to me to smoke so I could compare.  Hey, still in a helping mode, so I took another one for the team.

Yet another very fine smoke, but with some differences.  Even being in a humidor for just 3 weeks after 5 years of sitting in a box dying, this cigar smoked for more than an hour and a half and burned even, no touch-ups necessary.  The smoke was thicker, heavier and the ash was a little darker grey.  And this one was stronger and grew as it went along where the first one was very mild throughout.

Very interesting experiment and I was more than happy to assist.  One is counterfeit and one is real and you can tell the difference.  However; not sure it would have been so noticeable if there was a couple weeks between them.  As it was, I had 3 Cuban cigars in 4 days and one turned out to be Memorex, but I think my friend and all his buddies will still enjoy it and probably better for a first smoke.

Thank you Luis and Steve and do not hesitate to call on me again. :-)

Oh yeah....The band on Steve's Cohiba was wider, better quality, slightly heavier paper and it was embossed.

Here is the bands for you to compare, they are actually starting to get better than they used to be.

Which one is fake and which is real?  Scroll over the letters hidden below with your mouse to see.
The one on left is real, notice the comma after Habana and the squares are more consistent.