La Riqueza
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tatuaje noellas
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Both
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Nothing comes to mind.

My cabaiguan BFs don't seem cuban in taste to me, although they are very nice cigars and do look Cuban. Tats ... well, never had one even close. Been confused in blind tastings before of course ... but I know of no NC that I smoke and say "damn, this tastes & looks Cuban".
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:-)

Been fooled twice in blind tastings. Once by a Montecristo Platinum and second by a Pepin blend, Vegas Cubana, I think. Occasionally a puff or two of an NC will have a bit of the "twang" but it never lasts the entire stick. :-)
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The last two Tat Noellas I had I would have guessed cuban in a blind taste test.
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monte platinum
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I have a box of Tat Havana IV Angeles that are nowhere close to Cuban tasting. They taste like a Nic puro and only that. Is there that much difference between the red and brown labels?

Actually, the first box of Cusano C10s that I had I thought were ringers for Monte No. 4s. I sent a couple of MoTheMan who wasn't convinced they were at all close. I trust his opinion more than mine as I don't smoke that many of those cigars. C10s I've had since were not as close as what I remembered from the first box (was on a waiting list so they were the first batch of boxes sent out).
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there is a huge difference between the brown and red labels, brown are fuller, earthier coffee bean peppery slightly sweet than the leathery dark fruit reds, at least IMO.
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I don't find a lot of DPG's blends offering the Cuban-esque flavors that a lot of other folks do. Maybe a few of them with a little rest time on them (Blue, White, Cabiguan), but I find way more pepper in most of his other blends than I associate with Cubans.
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:-) LOVED this stick!!!!!!! A++++++++ :-)
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Oops, double post.. :-)
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i think we need to hear from moki and fredster...

:-)
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As far as looks, IMO there aren't many NC's that could fool you. First off they would need to have a triple cap. Not all Cubans have triple caps, but the vast majority do.

So that narrows the field down considerably for NC's. Pepin and a couple others are really the only ones using the triple cap. To me most of the Pepin blends are darker than most Cuban wrappers. So that again limits the field. Then you get into sizes, which again limits it. So you are left with a small number of smokes that may look similar to Cuban but do not taste like them.

If looks are not important, then the field is wide open. I think you will get a wide variety of answers on what taste 'Cuban' to someone. I have done a good number of blind taste tests and I have been fooled badly on ocassion.

The only cigars that fooled me on taste alone are a RyJ Reserva Real and the Fundacion Ancestral Pinar del Rio 1941.

With the RyJ Reserva Real I swore it had to be Cuban because it had a strength of flavor that I didn't think many NC's had. And with the Fundacion Ancestral Pinar del Rio 1941, it had a nice grassy taste which I associated with aged Cohiba's.
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My response was based on taste alone, regardless of the looks. Blind taste tests can play tricks on you, no doubt. But when you light up a cigar, with the band on knowing exactly what it is and think it tastes "Cubanesque" then you have a real find (assuming you like Cubanesque :-)).
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Well that's just the thing about Blind testing. If a group of people told you that so and so cigar tastes like a Cuban, and you went out and bought one with that pre-notion in your mind, it could sway you to think the same. Or at the very least give you pre-concieved ideas about it's taste. Where as with blind testing, there is no pre-concieved ideas on how it is going to taste. (unless, of course, you throughly examine them)
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Understood and agreed. But when doing a blind test, someone may want something to be something that it's not and fool themselves into thinking it is what it isn't. (Does that sentence make sense? :-)) The mind can be a very complex thing!
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Also, the first stick may numb some of the taste buds to the flavors present in the second stick... Its a tough call...

Although, since it is being asked
Tatuaje Noellas (brown label)
Davidoff Millenuim

Also, the Davidoff #1 and #2s have tasted like a mild CC before, at least to me...
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DPG's original release Little Havana Overruns PC from Holts.com were by far the most cc nc for me...

Taboo's were a close second...
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Funny...
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