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Does your own stash of cigars better with age?
Nickerman
Posts: 37 ✭
I am aware that when tobacco leaves are aged in a warehouse it increases the flavor quality. But what about your own cigars. Will their flavor get better if they set on the shelf for a few years?
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Depends, maybe
-- Winston Churchill
"LET'S GO FRANCIS" Peter
My cigars do. But yours might not. Then again, they might. You don't give us enough to go one. Tell us more.
I use "Flavashelves" so yes.
What more is there to say
Also why would your flavors increase and not mine
Could be the cigars your smoking. The common thinking is stronger cigars benefit from age.
So what are flavashelves? I googled it and came up with nothing
You should try baby carrots
?
You will need to get on the Vherf some night and @Stubble will explain. Its a delicate process which you can not explain in text
They are fuçking with you bro. Bottom line is what Chris said. I agree with what you said up front, the cigars are aged at the factory.
How would Acid Kuba Kuba's and Romeo and Julieta's age?
The infused cigars will lose their infusing after a time and just be plain cigars.
Trapped in the People's Communits Republic of Massachusetts.
If you age an acid long enough, it might loose all of that "flavor. Plus, if you're aging them, you don't have to smoke them
Seriously, don't bother with those cigars. Aging will do nothing for them.
This! @Nickerman you'll get a different answer from everyone on here and, if you ask them a year later you'll probably still get a different one than they're original. Taste is so subjective! Even for you, you'll notice how you smoke a cigar when you have a steak you'll love it, but after a dinner of fish, it tastes completely different. Or if you smoke sitting out in the sun in the afternoon vs at a campfire at night, may taste very different. Not even mentioning how our tastes change over months, seasons, and decades. Moral of the story, find what tastes the best to you. If that means aging Acids for 5 years, go for it. Maybe don't post about it or you'll get ****. But if that's what you like, great.
But take some general consensus shared from folks with way more experience than me! " The common thinking is stronger cigars benefit from age." @Yakster
BTW I've got a couple R&Js Real Reservas sitting in a small humi with some Javas just for grins. Been there for 6 months, and may think about trying soon. Finding out if infused flavors transfer and if its good.
No to Acid....
R&J maybe..... try a bunch for yourself. I have a ....few.... from 2013 and earlier. Some fantastic with really unique flavors. Some have lost all of the flavors that most enjoy out of that particular cigar. But that’s the fun part right? Just go medium-full and let the games begin.
Like... what kind of cigars... some age well, others don't.
Like... how are they stored during aging... we can't assume someone who has to ask that question knows how to store their sticks.
https://lmgtfy.com/?q=aging+cigars
Most non-Cuban tobacco is already aged and you are not going to see the huge benefits that you see when aging Cuban cigars.
I do like about a year on the Le Bijou and the La Duena.
Some get better with aging. Some go flat.
As for Acids, why would you even want to?
My opinion, nothing helps Acids.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Nelson Alphonso of Atabey interval-ages sticks which, according to him, accelerates the process threefold. He keeps them at 70 percent for 3 months, then takes them out of humidity and "dry boxes" them for a month, then repeats the process several times (only do this with full boxes, not singles). He claims that after a year, it's like aging them for three. The theory behind it is that the oils in the leaves redistribute during the dry boxing stage, allowing all of the different tobacco to blend quicker than they normally would, which merges the flavors.
Of course, I don't know what his dry boxing humidity is. I'd guess it's higher than the 16 percent we have here in Vegas, so it's not for me.
interesting @VegasFrank . I imagine you'd have to keep them boxed so the wrappers doing get destroyed. Finding out what his dry box humidity would be good to know.
Honestly I would have thought the opposite, that the oils would distribute more when it is more humid then "condense/solidify" at a lower humidity.
Smoke that DPG and throw it into your calculator. 🤓
Less than 5 years isn't really aging to me, just a little rest time.
All the aging was done before the cigars were rolled, and more than 5 years as a cigar can yield some really great transitions or mellow out some stronger sticks. I haven't really found any of mine that have been aged to 4 years+ to be significantly impacted, but a couple brands have come alive and that's a bonus. I don't buy mild cigars anyway, so I should be fine for the most part.
Why is this even a concern?
Are you really going to age your cigars?
I mean, cigars I have, I don't purposely set out to age.
If they sit in there for years, it is because I haven't gotten to them or forgot about them. Yes, half my cigars are older than 5 years old, but that wasn't by design.
Do I think they benefit from sitting for 5+ years? Some, maybe.
As some said, the flavors blend in well on some cigarrs.
Others, definitely not. Some have gone flat, overly mild and one dimensional.
Do I still smoke them? Absolutely. Even a flat cameroon is still pretty good.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
Right? I never thought to myself.....I’ll take 7 years off and see how these turn out.
Some cigars that you do not enjoy or cigars that burn like $hit can become a totally different stick with a year of rest. Some of the AJ stuff, Diesel for example, becomes a totally different cigar after a year or two of rest. If you have a great Nicaraguan cigar that is burning perfect and hits your palette, smoke them. I would not expect it to change much for the better
Hell yes! My aged cigars are the best. Truly fantastic expressions of the blenders intent. In fact, i generally don't enjoy much of my newly acquired purchases until they're aged for a few years. Sounds crazy but I've come to that conclusion. Five years is about optimal IMO. Anything beyond that is just gravy. Every cigar I smoke from 2011-2013 has been epic as far as flavors go. Buy for the future, it's worth it!
I would disagree that it expresses the blender's intent. Steve Saka has said as much, And he always smokes his stuff right off the boat, if not the truck. Other than habanos, I don't think any of the manufacturers intend for you to sit on them for 5 years, even though they know that you might so.
I'm not saying that aging doesn't add value. I think it does add value! I just don't think that blenders think that the majority of their customers are going to sit on their blends for a decade.
I am, from what I have read of 007, probably aligned with his flavor profile of a cigar. I love the nuances of an aged cigar (90% of the time as a few have lost a lot of flavor). I have yet to smoke a 7+ year old cigar and ran into any undesirable flavors, burn issues or tough/tight draw.
I remember that cigar authority podcast, I think the number the were shooting around for dry boxing was 40%... but that is neither here (Charleston) nor there (Vegas)