expiration date?
this may sound like a pretty stupid question, but i was thinking how long can cigars last in a humi? is there a certain time period before they actually start going bad and expire? or are they smokeable forever? i was bored and just had that weird thought in my head!
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I know I have heard of 5 year old plus sticks smoking and tasting great.
There are also some bundles of fillers out there which have 40 - 50 years on them or better, or at least that is what they claim.
Being an agricultural product, they must have some kind of "shelf life" but I think it is more to do with the individual "ingredients" of the cigar and the way it is stored that would be the deciding factor. IMO
For me there are three stages: fresh, rested, aged.
There is a bit of overlap in these.
Well, not fresh. To me, a fresh cigar is one from the shop or right out of the mail box. 0- 4 weeks.
A rested cigar has spent some time in MY humidor. It is at MY humidity. It isnt aged but it isnt brand new or fresh. 2 weeks on up to about a year is rest for me. I will almost never smoke a cigar that is younger than 6 weeks. I find that I enjoy them more with some resting.
Aged... that is a harder question.
This all depends on the fullness or strength of the cigar.
This all depends on the fullness, or strength, of the cigar. A cigar with a Connecticut shade wrapper can have an aged taste as early as one year (or maybe even before) I find for this mild wrapper type any more time ages away the flavor. They become so smooth that it becomes harder to taste. The burn is great though.
A medium strength cigar can take longer to age but again after a while its not going to make much difference.
A full strength cigar can take the longest.
Scratch that. Tubos take the longest. Some say that cigars in tubes can take 10+ years to age. The near air tight container makes all the difference.
In theory, a cigar can be good indefinitely if kept up on. In practice, a cigar is a 100% natural (organic in some cases) product. There are no preservatives. This means that from the moment the leaves are picked they begin to break down. How the breaking down process is controlled is up to us and this is what makes a cigar good/bad. This breaking down of the oils in the cigar is what makes it less harsh. Eventually you will get to a point where there is nothing left to break down or it has broken down too far. I dont know why you would want to, but you can over age a cigar.
I am conducting an experiment in aging. I had 5 El Cobres. I smoked one before I started doing my reviews. A few weeks later I smoked and reviewed this one:
http://www.eotacforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=359883
About a year after placing them in my humi I reviewed this one:
http://www.eotacforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=423011
Three or so years from now (5 years from time in humi) Ill smoke and review the fourth one. Five years from that (ten total years of age) ill smoke the last. I know you guys cant wait for that. Better hop in your time machine.
I also have a few in tubes that will see 10+ years.
When I have a kid er- IF I have a kid I will run out a few days before the birth and buy 3 cigars. One I will smoke on the day of the birth. The others will be shared on their 18th birthday.
But 18 years? Isnt that too much age? In Cigar aficionado there is a connoisseurs corner with some damn fine smokes in there. I picked up the one on the floor next to me (Oct 07) and opened up to said corner.
- HDM double corona 1992 (15 years age) rated 99
- Davidoff Château Margaux 1988 (19 years aged) 98
- Cohiba robusto 1991 (16 years aged) 96
Too old you say?
I hope some day to have a 20 year old Cuban.
so where does age start? depending on the cigar, 1- 5 years.
Personally, I tend to smoke most at about the 6 month range. Special ones will last longer. As with many things in the cigar world, it comes down to your own taste.
link
in reference to the "over age" paragraph...
for the most part, unless the cigar is super strong, i would say that 10-15 years is a bit much on the age department.
of course this is all just opinion
the cigars did exist before 1989 but they were an Indian (as in from India, not native american) company and did not sell much, if at all to the US.
there is a good chance that these cigars were either dry cured or machine made. the texture and feel that you describe could be on account of that. you can also be assured that the image and branding of the cigars has changed in the last 30 years -- let alone the last 20 years. they may be unrecognizable to most.
"reviving" them may not do a damn thing.
...if he even has actual 30 year old Gurkhas.