As some of you know, I work for a museum. Somebody recently offered to donate to us two cases of authenticated pre-embargo Cuban cigars. We were thinking of having a high-end, limited-ticket event with them, where everybody gets two (one to smoke at the event, one to take home) and we do a fancy bourbon, scotch, and/or cognac tasting. So my question for cigar people is: how much(ish) would you pay for that?

Pre-embargo? Are they even still good? Honestly, Cuba cigars are very easy to find, even up in New England.

300+ cigar humidor. I buy them by the box. The cheapest cigar I keep is at least $5 per stick. Do I qualify? :-)

Pre-embargo should be fine if they were kept in proper humidifcation, but I honestly don't care for Cubans. I think DR and others make just as fine or finer cigars.

Also, what brand. Just because they are pre-embargo doesn't even mean the brand was any good. Real Cohibas, decent cigar and I'd pay $60-70 just for the cigars, As a fund raiser, you can obviously bump it to probably twice that and get people to come. If you want exclusivity on the guest list, even higher. But if they aren't Castro's favorite brand, they are just cigars and not worth as much as an Fuente Opus X and probably not as good as a Fuente Hemingway Classic.

Can I just ask why you smoking them? Shouldn't you be putting them on display or locking them away somewhere.

As someone who doesn't know shit about cigars, just like you it seems, have you thought of an auction? I know that's not your original plan but the money lies right outside the box and if you don't know your cigars...

Your plan could be the 'after-party' if you don't sell everything on the auction... Then you have more of a feel what people want to pay...

Also what Maniac said. It seems a bit weird. You asked the donator if smoking them is cool?

Cigar's serve no purpose outside of smoking them. They will eventually start to ferment to the point they crumble, but that takes more than the 5 years old these cigars are. Cubans from the 30s might be pushing it a bit, though.

<cough cough...> Bullshit <cough cough....> Clinton... <cough...> Lewinski...

Love a good Century Sam. Empty the tobacco out, add that good good, smoke and enjoy.

Is it AT the museum and, if so, is there pre-event access included?

That should have been more than the 50 years old...

And krelltroll? What the fuck does Clinton and Lewinski have to do with pre-embargo Cubans? Clinton had Castro send them over via Guntanemo Bay air courier. They weren't pre-embargo.

Come on. I was eight when it happened and I get the joke.

I guess I don't get it. Unless the coughs are because he is choking down one of the cigars that had been stuck up Monica for a time.

Come on hecks, more information. What brand and type are the cigars, how old are they, and how have they been stored?

Were they properly maintained in 72/72 dark?

I find swisher sweets are best. You can make a small slit down lengthwise to easily get the tobacco out and the paper is sugar coated, so when you lick it it gets sticky and reseals with minimal fuss.

@YJ...and what, pray tell, might you do with an empty swisher sweet? And can you pack one if coffee and send it my way?

They've been stored in a humidor. The donor found them in his grandfather's humidor in his father's darkened attic when they were cleaning out his father's house. They're estimated to be from 1961. I don't know the brand right now, but can find out. We wouldn't keep them because our museum is a historic house museum decorated by a famous designer, which retains all of its original furnishings from 1860.

Thus the cigars are neither in our period, nor in our focus area of decorative arts. The donor is giving them with the intent that they be smoked.

The event will be held at the museum in the early summer. Cigars can't be smoked inside the house because of the original interiors, but the smoking will be on the historic piazza. Pre-and post event access to the museum is included with special tours, but not *while* smoking.

I'd have to find out the brand. The donor himself isn't a smoker, but brought them to our local cigar shop to have them authenticated. The dealer described them as "authentic and wonderful" and supposedly drafted a letter of authentication that's floating around in the ether somewhere.

The only way to authenticate pre-embargo is with receipts. Be careful the donor wasn't taken to begin with and, with the donor not being a smoker, I would be concerned with he quality of their maintenance.

Just read where they were found. Get them to a maintained humidor. An old one in the attic will have gone through extreme temperatures and not had it's humidity level maintained.

Yes, they're being stored in a proper humidor now.