This is funny
Pissed myself reading this article.....
- Thread starter The EVP
- Start date
Maybe you need a good fixing
THEMISCHMAN
SGT Hulka
The article was from Faux News, I mean Fox News, so no wonder it was shit. I bought a Gurkha sampler once and smoked two and gave the rest away. This was when I first started with cigars and I haven't tried one since. And that whole Louis the 13th cognac crap, if I want some quality booze with my cigar I'll take it in a glass.
StogieNinja
Derek | BoM June 2014
You're gonna send him an HMR? BUT THEY RETAIL FOR A THOUSAND DOLLARS?!
Stogie_Bear
Chulo Savage
Agreed!
Yeah That's way too generous....let me at least give you $500 for it
herfdog
I am no rocket surgeon
Translation: smoke a cigar. Then smoke a gurkha. Those dog rockets are so bad you'll see the difference compared to quality cigars. The Gurkha tastes like no other cigars as no other taste like shit like gurkha does.
herfdog
I am no rocket surgeon
Exactly!
I like trashing Gurkha as much as the next guy, but here's something to think about. Like many here, my experience with Gurkha had been with product purchased from CI/Cigar.com/Cigarbid. My experience had convinced me that all Gurkhas where total crap.
A few years ago, I saw Black Dragons going for dirt cheap at another auction site. They looked really good, and where going for under $10 a fiver, so I took a chance and grabbed 2 lots. I have to tell you, I was shocked at how good they where, especially for the price. Perfect construction, consistent from cigar to cigar, intense chocolate/earth/espresso, gobs of smoke, and a wet oil line behind the burn from light to nub. I enjoyed them so much that I grabbed some from Cigarbid. What a disappointment! Bad construction, terrible burn, muted "meh" flavors and no oil line. Not even close to the Black Dragons I had gotten elsewhere. I was perplexed until I discovered that the LPHs that had suddenly showed up at CI for cheap, where not the same quality cigars I had been buying from other sources. Then I starting reading blogs, reviews and posts, stating that a "certain" company would buy the rights to discontinued name brand labels, slap them on cigars of their choosing, and pass them off as the original.
With Gurkha, I suspect it may go beyond just the discontinued labels. Gurkha makes 1000 boxes (20,000 cigars) of the Beast a year. A quick search shows that Cigarbid alone has sold almost 5,000 of them. According to what certain Cbid managers have claimed on their board, Cbid accounts for only a few percentage points of CI's total sales volume. Even if it was as high as 10%, one could conclude that CI sells far more Beasts then Gurkha claims to produce.
It makes me wonder how many of us have actually tasted a Gurkha that has not come from CI's inventory? Keep in mind that CI owns over a dozen E-tailers, so just because you are not buying from them directly, does not mean you are not getting their inventory. I have also been told that CI has a wholesale division that sells to B&Ms, so unless you know for a fact that your local does not purchase from CI, you can't be assured that the expensive Gurkha you just bought at the B&M is also not CI inventory.
Maybe some regulations like labeling, are needed in this industry. Wouldn't it be nice to know who actually owns that label, what factory rolled it, and the origin of the tobacco used? It may help to reduce the current "bastardizing" of the industry.
A few years ago, I saw Black Dragons going for dirt cheap at another auction site. They looked really good, and where going for under $10 a fiver, so I took a chance and grabbed 2 lots. I have to tell you, I was shocked at how good they where, especially for the price. Perfect construction, consistent from cigar to cigar, intense chocolate/earth/espresso, gobs of smoke, and a wet oil line behind the burn from light to nub. I enjoyed them so much that I grabbed some from Cigarbid. What a disappointment! Bad construction, terrible burn, muted "meh" flavors and no oil line. Not even close to the Black Dragons I had gotten elsewhere. I was perplexed until I discovered that the LPHs that had suddenly showed up at CI for cheap, where not the same quality cigars I had been buying from other sources. Then I starting reading blogs, reviews and posts, stating that a "certain" company would buy the rights to discontinued name brand labels, slap them on cigars of their choosing, and pass them off as the original.
With Gurkha, I suspect it may go beyond just the discontinued labels. Gurkha makes 1000 boxes (20,000 cigars) of the Beast a year. A quick search shows that Cigarbid alone has sold almost 5,000 of them. According to what certain Cbid managers have claimed on their board, Cbid accounts for only a few percentage points of CI's total sales volume. Even if it was as high as 10%, one could conclude that CI sells far more Beasts then Gurkha claims to produce.
It makes me wonder how many of us have actually tasted a Gurkha that has not come from CI's inventory? Keep in mind that CI owns over a dozen E-tailers, so just because you are not buying from them directly, does not mean you are not getting their inventory. I have also been told that CI has a wholesale division that sells to B&Ms, so unless you know for a fact that your local does not purchase from CI, you can't be assured that the expensive Gurkha you just bought at the B&M is also not CI inventory.
Maybe some regulations like labeling, are needed in this industry. Wouldn't it be nice to know who actually owns that label, what factory rolled it, and the origin of the tobacco used? It may help to reduce the current "bastardizing" of the industry.
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The B&M I worked at carried "real" gurkhas. They were alright. I knew CI had been pulling a bait and switch on people for years. Last time I smoked a Gurkha was during a deployment to Iraq in 2004. So its been a while. I didn't smoke the real ones where I worked either purely because they were pricier than other things I would rather buy. I think CI make it very hard to sell the "real" smokes due to their bargain basement pricing style vs the price of non CI Gurkhas.
It is well known that CI buys labels and turns them to dog rockets.
But, gurka's business model is actually part of the issue with their reputation.
Most cigar manufacturers come up with a blend made at a specific factory from a specific batch of tobacco, and sell that blend. Gurka sells a blend concept to the retailers often without any samples to try. Simply a "this cigar should be medium body and spicy" cconcept. Once they sell whatever their goal is, they find a factory who can make a cigar like the concept as cheap as possible. Whether or not it is the same blend or even the same tyoe of tobacco they sold to the retailer. They overship many retailers (order 100 boxes get 400 in), and tell them to just keep them (so already supply is higher than it is supposed to be). If a retailer reorders, they wait until they have a quota a second tike before they process any orders. When reorders come in they find the chepaest factory to roll it, and have no care for whether the second batch under the same label is even the same blend or types of tobacco.
Thats why you can have a gurka you like, but trying to find that same experience from that blend a second time is near impossible.
But, gurka's business model is actually part of the issue with their reputation.
Most cigar manufacturers come up with a blend made at a specific factory from a specific batch of tobacco, and sell that blend. Gurka sells a blend concept to the retailers often without any samples to try. Simply a "this cigar should be medium body and spicy" cconcept. Once they sell whatever their goal is, they find a factory who can make a cigar like the concept as cheap as possible. Whether or not it is the same blend or even the same tyoe of tobacco they sold to the retailer. They overship many retailers (order 100 boxes get 400 in), and tell them to just keep them (so already supply is higher than it is supposed to be). If a retailer reorders, they wait until they have a quota a second tike before they process any orders. When reorders come in they find the chepaest factory to roll it, and have no care for whether the second batch under the same label is even the same blend or types of tobacco.
Thats why you can have a gurka you like, but trying to find that same experience from that blend a second time is near impossible.
I'm not trashing Gurkha. I've smoked many Gurkha's....some were pretty decent, some were just freaking horrible and never should have been rolled. Are they worth what they charge? No. At best, most Gurkha's should be in the $5-$8, not the $13-$18 price range. As Problemsolverjc stated....getting a 2nd smoke to be like the 1st rarely happens.
I understand the cigar industry is very competitive as well and self-promotion is key, but if Kaisad expects me to believe that he scours the world looking for the most exotic tobacco, he's delusional. I mean, who's he trying to convince, me or him?
I understand the cigar industry is very competitive as well and self-promotion is key, but if Kaisad expects me to believe that he scours the world looking for the most exotic tobacco, he's delusional. I mean, who's he trying to convince, me or him?
I didn't know this about Gurkha. Thanks for the info.
