Bruce,
I didn't express it well, but I was thinking that they'd be 'hurt' more by the 'publicity' of repetitive posts about 'bad' cigars, than by the financial cost of being a stand-up company. I may be way off with each of my suppositions.
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Oh I gotcha.

If anything, I see it helping more than hurting. Having a manufacturer so willing to stand by their product is impressive in my mind.
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I decided to give it a shot and sent them a very friendly email. Definitely won't change my view of DE either way it turns out, but would be nice to give the No. 9 another try.
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Only problem I have with the Liga no. 9 is that there aren't more of them in my humidor.

But seriously, sounds like you got a dud. It happens. I've always had good draw and construction with the Drew Estate products I have experienced.
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Best of luck. Jonathan might be the better person to e-mail. Steve's a nice guy in person, but from what I've experienced -- his e-mail inbox also generates dust.
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I got an email from John Brooke (jbrooke@drewestate.com) and all he did was blame it on over humidification in the ziplock bad I stored it in, and a few tips on how to store cigars. Although the recently calibrated hygrometer never peaked 66% and the other two cigars in the bag smoked perfect. I thought over humidification at first but these two points lead me to believe it wasn't that. Maybe later on down the line I'll pick another one up.

As a cheap college student, I normally don't spend more than $8-9 on a cigar so this was an exception. Ooohhhh welllll. Thanks for all the comments!
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Sorry it didn't turn out as you had hoped. There are many more Ligas out there, just hope this one experience didn't ruin the Liga line for you.. Good luck in your future smokes, Chris.
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His reasoning is a solid one but either way as others mentioned it's a hand made product and you will have tough draws from time to time. It comes with the territory of being a cigar smoker. I would say I experience it at least one out of ten sticks of various brands and price points. I do find cigars with Broadleaf wrapper tend to absorb humidity more than non Broadleaf wrapped cigars which is why I usually try and keep those cigars in the drier part of my cabinet. Could that stick have had direct exposure to the water pillow? With your storage conditions I would look into picking up an old cedar cigar box to use as a dry box and dry box for a day or two prior to smoking to avoid smoking sticks that could possibly be over humidified.:-)
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I made sure to put a small cedar sheet between the pillow and the cigars. I was starting to consider dry boxing but I smoke on a very irregular basis so it's hard to determine a couple days out if I'll find the opportunity to smoke.
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Brooke is probably right. Correlation does not equal causation. Just because the other two cigars were ok, doesn't mean that the LP wasn't over humidified. Could have happened before you bought it, could have happened in the bag.
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I certainly wouldn't rule it out, but the conditions were the same for all. Same humidor, into the same bag, for about the same time.

One of these times I'll give it another shot, but probably not soon.
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Some pics of the culprit. About as far as I got with it.

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It's a bummer when you shell out money on a stick and it's a dud. My first and only Anejo had an incredibly loose draw and wouldn't stop going out, I bought it in Hawaii so it cost me about $18.00. I haven't tried another one since, and I probably never will.

On the other hand my first Padron 64 was dried out and nasty, and all of them I've had since have been great.

Liga No. 9 is a great cigar, while I wouldn't suggest that as a college student you forgo a weeks worth of Ramen Noodles for another one. You should definitely make it a priority to try one if you hit the lotto, they're among the best cigars you can buy IMHO.
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How do you know how long Abe had them? Or how long they were in Florida at the DE warehouse?

Let's assume that they actually were all exactly the same age, which I highly doubt, but for the sake of example, let's go with it. Liga Privada's don't come in cello (unless they are from a factory mazo) while UCs and MUWATs are in cello. While cello is permeable, it does serve as a buffer to the passage of humidity, so if the humidor at Smoke Inn was a bit high, the Liga is going to suck up that extra moisture faster than the other two. You only know the ambient conditions of the bag, not the amount of water that was in the cigar before you put it there. Now, while the converse about cello holds true when you put the cigar into a lower RH environment, going from 70+ to 66 (assuming your hygrometer is in fact accurate), unfortunately it's not going to drop that quickly in that environment, especially since water pillows have very limited ability to absorb excess moisture from the air.

Furthermore, not all tobaccos retain moisture at the same rate, the thicker, heavier tobaccos in the LP are more likely to hang on to it than some other tobaccos.
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Looking at these photos there is nothing that screams bad construction so it really could be either construction or over humidification.
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Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like either a punch or a very thin cut as I can see all of the cap. I always start off with a thin cut (just taking the top of the cap off). When I run into draw issues, either with a punch or thin cut, I first try to cut the cigar at the shoulder and this will often open the draw enough to enjoy the cigar.
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I did note that you mentioned the cigars spent a couple weeks in the zip lock. Say the cigars had been over humidified their whole life, around 70-75% which is common for my B&Ms around here. I don't feel that 2 weeks in an an air tight bag at ~65% would be enough time collectively lower the sticks humidity. :-)

Either way I'm sorry to hear you got a bad one, it bound to happen at some point. I wouldn't give up on LP as they have some great smoke. Its really hard to know what the true cause of this might have been.
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Thanks for all the input guys. Not much I can do but suck it up I guess. Like I said maybe later on down the line I'll try another, but probably not anytime soon. I'll stick to Undercrowns.
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Just scored a fiver of Undercrown Gran Toros for $25 from Cigar Monster so that will suit me :-)
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