[mosesbotbol]

Well cured tobacco should have a white ash with a definition of the leaves' pattern. The ash should be fairly firm. Some do the technique of resting the cigar upside down on the ash to determine if it is firm or not, but that can be easily seen just looking at the cigar. This tells a lot about cigar. A dark ash means a lot of stuff didn't burn clean, like impurities within the tobacco or not cured fully.

I find the that non-Cuban cigars tend to have better cured tobacco from the start, but many box age Habanos long enough to correct this.