Forgery is a multi billion pound industry that seeps into all walks of life, so naturally the Cigar market is no stranger to this, in any Cigar group or Forum you will find pictures of premium cigars with hordes of commenters claiming they know the secret to identifying fake cigars and why the band is not shiny enough or has too many squares. While some of these aficionados may know their stuff their are methods to objectivly tell if your Cigar is Authentic which i will outline below.

1.Check the serial number

Not applicable for all as some receive Cigars as Singles/Gifts and not all cigars are Cubans but the most sure fire way of checking if you cigar is from a legitimate source, at https://www.habanos.com/ you can enter the serial number associated with your box and find out very quickly if they are the real deal, alternetvly if you are concerned about a shop and if it is legit you can check some of their boxes against this database before you make a purchase.

2.Size and Symmetry

Standards in Cuban cigar factories are part in parcel of the reason why they are renowned as being the best in the world, huge effort goes into making the cigars identical in size and the same techniques for wrapping the cigars by hand passed through the generations provide very similar results for every cigar, https://cigaramigo.com/cigar-size-chart/ this chart is a great one to measure up against, if your cigar is an inch bigger than it is supposed to be, you can be sure it hasn't come out of a Certified Cuban Cigar source.

3.Price

The age old additive “If something seems to good to be true, it generally is” comes to mind, especially in the UK we face set fees on importation, VAT and as i will mention in the point below their is only 1 legit source for Cubans in the UK, with this in mind if some website is selling Cohibas for half the retail price of everyone else you can be sure that something is up.

4.EMS, H + F,

ukcigars Over at https://cigars.co.uk/about-us/ems/ you can find out that hunter and Frankau are the only certified importer of Cuban cigars to the UK, on their website you can also find a list of ALL the cigar retailers whom they sell to(Churchills tobacconists being one of those) making sure you purchase from an EMS certified company is a surefire way to stop yourself from using a supplier who uses less trustworthy channels.

5. Visual elements

I have left this point until last as i will provide below some images to serve as a visual aid with this point, There are 3 stickers/tags that go onto boxes of cigars which you can look out for, the Habanos stickers, Cuban sticker and for the UK the EMS(English market standard) as shown on the pack of number 5 montecristos. I hope these tips will help you in your quest to identifying your Cuban Cigars, for more help or any information on a specific Cigar please do not hesitate to contact me, drop a comment on this article or send a message to Churchills on our website. Thanks for your time and stay smokey