Quote:
Originally Posted by troutbreath
I'm looking at a baggie of bands here on my desk. I have never noticed all of the gold medals on these bands. There are 6 on the RyJ Habana Reserve, 4 on the Fuente, 4 on the LGC Serie R . . . where do they hand all of these out?
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If you look at the box art, all of the Cuban marca gold medals were handed out a century or more ago at various world's fairs and such. For example, Romeo y Julieta's boxes have the medals labelled Jerusalem, Melbourne, Paris, Brussels and "Alveres" handed out between 1885 and 1900. H. Upmann has Chicago, London, Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Porto and a bunch from Spain from the late 1800s as well. One of the medals on the Cuban Bolivar band says "Leopold Roi des Belge" in reference to the famous (infamous perhaps) King Leopold of Belgium. Unfortunately the ones on Partagas, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, Por Larranaga, El Rey del Mundo, Ramon Allones, La Gloria Cubana and Fonseca art and bands are indeterminable or don't say at all. As far as non-Cuban brands like Arturo Fuente and La Aurora, I think the flanking gold medals are part of a generic, classic cigar band design that you see among lots and lots of brands like El Rico Habano, Punch, La Gloria Cubana, La Aurora, Arturo Fuente, Gran Habano and many more I can't think of right now.
As for my favorites and non-favorites, I'm a classicist, so I like the old-school Cubanesque designs, with La Aroma de Cuba [and Edicion Especial] being a favorite as well as La Riqueza, La Aurora, all Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey bands, Cuban H. Upmann (the new colored band), Cuban Punch, Cuban Romeo y Julieta and Cuban Fonseca. I dislike most generic, modernistic and cheap-looking bands. CAO, non-Cuban Dunhill, Arturo Fuente (excepting the Anejo version), Flor de Oliva, Arganese, Taboo, Drew Estates, Buccanero and Rocky Patel are the worst offenders of my taste. Contrary to logic, band art does have an affect on my buying habits. As for contemporary designs, I do have a weakness for the Ashton Magnum, Diamond Crown Maximus, Davidoff, San Cristobal and Tatuaje bands. Some of the Camacho bands are pretty cool too.