Leave cigars sit after purchase

Chuck,
The idea behind the rest period is to let the cigars acclimate to YOUR conditions. If you ordered from Cigar.com in July, when it was ungodly hot, and received your shipment fresh from a roasting hot brown truck, would you suppose that the cigars were at the perfect state for smoking?
Of course not.
The resting period allows them to gradually get back to an appropiate temp and RH level. (Everyone has different opinons on what is "appropriate")
You will find that cigars acclimatized this way will burn and taste better overall.
:wine:

yeah, what he said.

if you get the cigars froma good place cigar.com or CI then you should be "good" in two or three weeks. I presume that these two places (that share a warehouse) keep their cigars at 70% RH and 70*

Im also sure they package them well with a temporary humidification system. The temp outside is almost never 70
and i keep my humi at 65% RH

gotta let em sit for a moment.

This also brings up the question of age.
how long does one age cigars?
how long is "aged?"
Ideal contition for age?

that last question is the hard one.
Whatever you feel is a right RH and temp... go with that. Some say cigars age best (fastest) at 70/70. I have only 65% beads in my humi so i age at 65%RH. itll take longer but im ok with that. im in no hurry.

I think real "age" begins at 2 years. this gives the cigars time to mellow out a bit, and lose any harshness that may be around. This will also even out the burn to some extent.
the flavors should be a bit more smooth as well. The oils have time to "marinade"
In general terms: the longer you age a cigar the more refined it will be.

Some say that age "improves" a cigar. Im not sure about that. A strong cigar will round out a bit over time making it a better smoke but all in all its the same cigar with the same tobacco. A cigar made from the bottom of the barrel tobacco will not "improve"
it may lose some harshness and it may burn a bit better, but it will still be crappy tobacco.
in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age.

seriously though, how long do you age a cigar?
someone here told me this trick.
buy a box of cigars you wish to age. (maybe two if you have room). after the initial rest period smoke one. see how you like it. then let them sit for 12-18 months. Smoke another one. then smoke one every 6 months or so to see how they are doing. when they get to the flavor/strength.smoothness/evenness of burn, smoke em as fast as you can. some cigars "peak"

but that brings up another point. (damnit. this post is long.) there is such a thing as "too much age" this is rare, though. Cigars are a natural product. They break down at some point. after so many years the oils kinda dry up. Yes, it may be awesome that you have a 1922 Cuban cigar thats been kept in correct conditions its entire life, but after 85 years its probably way past its prime.

if you read Cigar Aficionato they almost always have a "connoisseur's corner" in the cigars section. most of these are between 10 and 15 years old. some older but not too much.

stronger cigars seem to age better for me. I find that a mild cigar loses most taste after 18-24 months.

as far as rotation... once every 6 months AT MOST. I, myself, only rotate the aging humi ONCE A YEAR. oils may settle, but we arent talkin liquid here.

I hope that helped.

Depending on conditions I will sometimes smoke one of my new aquisitions and then let the others sit a while. I like to be able to compare my notes on how they may change as the cigars rest until lighting day.

dbrad4d said:

Depending on conditions I will sometimes smoke one of my new aquisitions and then let the others sit a while. I like to be able to compare my notes on how they may change as the cigars rest until lighting day.

Click to expand...

This is what I've been doing. I'll buy a selection and smoke one make my notes on it and let the others sit for a while. I've been very pleasantly surprised with what just a few weeks of age does for a cigar that I wasn't particularly pleased with when I opened a box.

--Scott

Kuzi,
The only statement that I would take issue with is:
"in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age"

In some of the world's cigars, the age on the tobacco is VERY low. Pehaps only a few months. Allowing these types of cigars time allows the disparate elements that make up a certain vitola to blend, marry, and harmonize.

Cigars that I recieve via mail, PIFs etc, I'll let sit a week or two. Cigars from my local B&M I smoke right away, usually on my way back home :lol:

As far as aging, I've never had a cigar sit longer than twelve months. Although I wouldn't mind trying it one day.

rmrdaddy said:

Kuzi,
The only statement that I would take issue with is:
"in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age"

In some of the world's cigars, the age on the tobacco is VERY low. Pehaps only a few months. Allowing these types of cigars time allows the disparate elements that make up a certain vitola to blend, marry, and harmonize.

Click to expand...

In a way Rob, I agree with Kuzi. You can never make bad tobacco good just by aging it. But what you can do is allow it to "open up" all its flavors. so I guess you are gaining flavors by allowing the settle nuances to come out. But a dog rocket is still a dog rocket no mater how old.

That being said the cigars coming out of Cuba are said to be using tobacco that is three years old and are smoking much better much sooner.

Barcochris said:

rmrdaddy said:

Kuzi,
The only statement that I would take issue with is:
"in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age"

In some of the world's cigars, the age on the tobacco is VERY low. Pehaps only a few months. Allowing these types of cigars time allows the disparate elements that make up a certain vitola to blend, marry, and harmonize.

Click to expand...

In a way Rob, I agree with Kuzi. You can never make bad tobacco good just by aging it. But what you can do is allow it to "open up" all its flavors. so I guess you are gaining flavors by allowing the settle nuances to come out. But a dog rocket is still a dog rocket no mater how old.

Click to expand...

So these Thompsons I've been aging for nearly two years are not going to turn into psp#2's...heheh


Letting stuff sit is always a good idea but then much like my brother Dean (must be a Bama thing) I like to try one when I get them to see how they change.

Barco....

If you go against the family again.....

:uzi:

(remember Sonny at the tollbooth??)

Barcochris said:

rmrdaddy said:

Kuzi,
The only statement that I would take issue with is:
"in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age"

In some of the world's cigars, the age on the tobacco is VERY low. Pehaps only a few months. Allowing these types of cigars time allows the disparate elements that make up a certain vitola to blend, marry, and harmonize.

Click to expand...

In a way Rob, I agree with Kuzi. You can never make bad tobacco good just by aging it. But what you can do is allow it to "open up" all its flavors. so I guess you are gaining flavors by allowing the settle nuances to come out. But a dog rocket is still a dog rocket no mater how old.

Click to expand...

i can see what you are saying. maybe its how its viewd. to me the "youth flavor" is covering up the flavor of the aged tobacco. In my mind you arent gaining a new "aged flavor" you are losing the young taste.

it is a good point worth pondering.

And Matt,
I will concede that poor quality tobacco is just that.
You are right that age will not make it better, smoother maybe, perhaps less harsh, but quality will not improve..

It may have simply been the way the statement read...

"in short there is no way to gain any flavor from age"

Just looked like a blanket statement...

Semantics....blah

8)

I think this will get inot the old question of do cigar flavors "marry"

Barcochris said:

I think this will get inot the old question of do cigar flavors "marry"

Click to expand...

i wish i could remember who said this here but it ran something simaler to this:
If flavors marry from one cigar to the next then all id have to do is get a box of honduran primeros and throw one Padron 1926 Anniversary in there and eventually they would all taste the same. (with any luck like the Padron)

though i dont have much personal experiance with this (mainly because my cigars dont last too long and i only have a 20ct for aging) i can imagine the flavors from one cigar transfering from one cigar to the next all that much.

unless they are never rotated and left for years and years on end next to the same cigar inthe same humi with little or no air exchange.

maybe someone with a longer standing collection or a large aging humi can tell us their experiance. i think that right now my oldest cigar is 18 months in my humi.

A rule I blindly follow is the "Van Rule." Allow your cigars to sit in your humidor for at least 30 days prior to smoking. This time will allow your cigars to acclimate to your preference for humidity and temperature. I've never known this rule to fail me.

I am more partial to what Loren suggested to me a few years back - I like to smoke one of the truck to taste it young and then compare it to what it tastes like a sometime later.

Just my 2 cents.

On the subject of flavors marrying. I know this is an extreme example but it is always said to never put infused/flavored cigars in with normal cigars because they will be affected. Isn't it reasonable to assume that if you have a full bodied full flavored(or stronger) cigar next to lets say a very mild cigar there will be some kind of transfer of flavors. Now i'm not saying you can change the taste of one cigar into that of another, but isn't it is a reasonable assumption that there might be some kind of flavor transfer in the wrapper at least??. I'm sure it would be very slight but there must be something going on. Think about the construction of a cigar. The aging process is to "let all the flavors marry" in the blend. Although all the different tobaccos are wrapped together rather lightly, they are meant to blend and marry flavors to create a specific taste. I see no real difference with different types of cigars laying side by side one on top of the other so shouldn't it hold true that cigars can marry flavors in the humidor??

Cigars coming by mail in the summer endure heat way above hatching temp. for larvae...should i be concerned with the smokes from cigar.com? have they been frozen to kill the buggers?