Chateau Fuente SG

I ordered a 5-pack of these off billboardtobacco.com (great service - insanely fast shipping, will definitely return there soon). Anyway, I've tried 2 already and both time band was slightly off at the overlap and the glue from the band tore the wrapper to bits when I tried to remove it. The first time I tried removing it before lighting by sliding it off, and with the one I enjoyed tonight I waited until the ash was close to the band to see if the heat would help (it was better, but not much).

I had a maduro Chateau in the beginning of the week that was perfect (liked it so much that I just ordered a box - my first box purchase )

The cigars themselves were great, but once I smoked down to the damaged area it burned all wonky (granted it was near the end of it's life, but the nub is where all the 'good stuff' is ). Is this a usual 'defect' in the banding? The real question is, how do you remove the band without damaging the stick in a case like this?

I've found that when I have a stuck band, I smoke it with the band on. Usually the heat will loosen the glue enough to remove the band before it burns down that far

Jim

Tenpin said:

I've found that when I have a stuck band, I smoke it with the band on. Usually the heat will loosen the glue enough to remove the band before it burns down that far

Jim

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That's what I was hoping would happen with the second one. Maybe I'll try heating it up with a little heat from the flame next time.

I smoke a lot of fuentes (approx. 6 a week) all kinds and have this same problem.
I usually wait as long as i can to try and remove the band. For some reason fuente bands seem to "stick". Have found no real good way to remove them other than getting them started when theyre hot and usually destroying the band as opposed to the cigar. This is a dilema that has no real easy fix.

Let the cigar age a little at low RH(%65). As the cigars release moisture, the volume will decrease and the cigar will shrink a little. This gradual shrinking will give the band a little for freedom.

Emo

never thought of that .....now i must put it to the test