Just how old IS that tobacco anyway?
EllenJ
Posts: 16 ✭
If a cigar is released in 2010 and the product description says the tobacco is from the 2005 harvest, and they're still making this cigar in 2024, are they still using 2005 tobacco? Or just 5-year-old (2019 crop)? Of course I'm not counting the fact that they don't use up all the crop in a single year. I'm just wondering if the crop years given in the descriptions have any real significance when you're buying these cigars online twenty years later.
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I have wondered that too.
My guess;
It would depend on the amount of tobacco originally on hand and the number of that cigar made/sold. I imagine some of the bigger growers like Plasencia may have kept enough of a given crop to pull it off. But now that I think of it, it would mean keeping enough of every component of the cigar on hand. So, my guess is that they are not the same cigars 10, 15, or 20 years later.
I have heard blenders state that one of the most difficult parts of their job is keeping a cigar tasting the same when the supply of one or more tobaccos runs out, so I'd wager every cigar as old as you're talking about is using different tobacco. If we can't tell when it's been changed, huge kudos to the blender.
Thanks for the instant response! I tend to feel the same way, which is why I have such awesome respect for such master blenders as Kelner, Fuego, Fores, et al.
Do you mean that Romeo &Juliet cigars arent 149 years old? This is gonna take some time to assimilate.
Trapped in the People's Communist Republic of Massachusetts.
This kind of question makes me wish @kuzi16 still came around. He'd probably know.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
At some point in the past I would been very interested in this discussion, and slowly over time realized that the industry is not in any way an open book that allows these subjects to be truly understood. I now only hope to enjoy the cigars I buy and hope not to get sidetracked buying cigars that I don’t enjoy.
But you can't smoke it past the band.....
Generally when a cigar is released in say…. 2010 and is said to use tobacco from 2005 as you said… it is generally for that initial release. Then if that release has success the makers will try to emulate the blend year after year. They will try to do so by using tobaccos of the same age if they have them…but not very often the same vintage. Mainly because as Peter stated, very few if any manufacturers can house the quantities for each component of the cigar for years on end. Plus, going into the blend they don’t know what kind of success it will have on its initial release.
The best they can do is try to replicate by continuing to use tobaccos of the varying ages.
Bob also brought up a good point about the industry being far from an open book. That’s why they will use wording like “on its initial release” or “it was released with”. They’re telling the truth while covering the fact that things constantly change.
I guess a great example of this is/was the Gran Habano Vintage. The first couple years were outstanding. I remember telling my wife "It's like I'm getting a ten dollar cigar for $1.85!". Ten dollars was about my limit back then, and considered a high price by most. Sigh.
At any rate, a couple years in and I got a bundle that was way sub-par. I thought I'd just gotten a bad batch or something, and bought a few more over the next year hoping for a return to the original. It never happened.
Do they still make them? I don't know, but the price would have to be $1.85 for me to try one.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Camacho PE
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This right here... as humans we are insatiable in our desire to explore and understand. Care must be taken that the pursuit of knowledge doesn't erode the enjoyment. In the world of hi-fi you have some nuts that pay so much attention to how it sounds, they forget to listen to the music.
It's good to know why you like (or don't like) a cigar but it's just as important to not overthink it. I think.
This reminded me when AJ did the label and box change over to brown, from red (after the threat of the whole brands in market scheme), for the New World Puro Especial and they were blowing them out for $2 per. I bought some but should have bought much more. That’s probably one of the best buying opportunities I’ve seen period and I just shake my head whenever I smoke one now and think “what a putz!”. 😭
Oh, and I also think that they ran out of wrappers and it wasn’t just about the box/label continuity because the red label ones had much darker wrappers and are full bodied eat a meal first cigars and the new brown label was as described as medium bodied and has lighter wrappers.
The new ones are not medium bodied. they're full for sure.
Like you would know about an AJ cigar 🙄
Yeah you know me. Just guessing.