Apparently there is an increasingly significant issue when it comes to counterfeit Cuban cigars. Factory workers steal them right from the lines. Official retail store workers swap out real cigars for fake ones & sell them to unsuspecting tourists along w a bullshit CUC$40 “handling fee” the workers pocket. All to sell on the black market. Due to its brand recognition & popularity among tourists, Cohiba is apparently the worst – making it difficult to even get consistently high quality cigars on the black market. Monte Cristos are next. While I’m no cigar aficionado, I wanted to pick some up for a friend so I asked my casa owner & the tapas resto owner where to go. They both use the same black market guy located in the hood in el centro Habana. Even at 10:30 in the morning, I don’t think I’d make the 20 minute walk on my own & the guy would certainly not trust me. So my casa owner gladly accompanied me to this shady dude’s real nice house in the ghetto where he put on a fairly formal presentation, displaying all of his goods on a velour cloth covering his kitchen table. My casa owner then walked me through all the steps to evaluate the various cigars & I settled upon Romeo y Julieta, the most popular brand amongst local wealthy Cubans who are in the know bc they aren’t quite as popular w tourists so quality is better. And boy did I get a deal bc the government retailers will sell them for CUC$13-15 per stick while I got them for CUC$8. So now I feel pretty confident buying a product that I’ll never personally use. But the experience was pretty amazing.