To Age (NC) Or Not To Age

[timj219]

No expert but I have inadvertantly kept some cigars for 2-3 years. I like what happens to the Oliva O serie with that amount of age. I like Tat browns too with 2 or 3 years.
Also, never tasted one but I've seen people jump at the chance to buy old Oliva cloth bands so someone must like them even after 10 years.

[JohnnyFlake]

I have offered this information before, many times, over the years and I'll do it again, one more time. For whatever it's worth, the advice I have picked up over the years from many, many old timers is that all blended NCs will improve within a year, even two years, from the day they are produced. The big, big problem, is that it's almost impossible to know that date, as NC Boxes & packaging do not normally provide that information.

You need to smoke one or two from a box to determine if they are really young or have some age on them, 6 months plus. If they seem young, some ammonia and bright spices, they will probably age well for a couple of years, before starting to go in the opposite direction. If they seem smooth, with deeper spice and the smoke is heavy & creamy, they are probably over the six month point, but should still age well for at least a year.

Now, with respect to Puros, all tobacco used is from the same country, they can age very well, for many years, five or six, at least and even many more, depending on the quality of the tobaccos used. Cuban Cigars are known for aging well, long term, and the simple reason being, they are all Puros!

[RWhisenand]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlake

Cuban Cigars are known for aging well, long term, and the simple reason being, they are all Puros!

Even those rolled with Domincan tobacco?

[JohnnyFlake]

Originally Posted by RWhisenand

Even those rolled with Domincan tobacco?

To my knowledge, and historically, no/zero Cuban Brand Cigars are rolled using tobaccos from any other country. In fact, unless their laws have changed, Cuba does not even allow for the importation of bulk tobacco leaf from any country. They do allow for the importation of pre-rolled cigarettes.

[CEC_Tech]

It seems to me like the stronger / richer smokes age well and mellow with some age on them. (2 yrs or more). Fuente stuff of course and drew estate sticks like Liga Privada and Undercrown do well with some more age on them.

Like others, I buy a box and have a couple and put the rest away. When your collection starts to grow, you won't get to any of your "aged" smokes for a couple years anyway. If you buy regularly or don't smoke as often, you will get to a point where your smoking your oldest stuff first. Use a first in first out method in your rotation.

At least that's what I do. Just my .02

[Ashcan Bill]

So the question is whether it's worthwhile to intentionally age NC cigars?

I don't really know and the true answer may lie with your own personal preferences, but I can share with you some of my own experiences regarding older NCs. I have a fairly good sized humidor that I toss loose NCs into. I've owned this particular humidor for ten years, so it has ten years of cigars of various age sitting in it. It's had a chance to accumulate a wide range of NCs over the years. Usually a half box of this and a half box of that that I picked up to try and then lost interest in. And I still occasionally add to it.

While it was never my intention save and age NCs, it has become an interesting time capsule to reach into and pull something out of one in a while. I have found a couple of older cigars in it that had unexpectedly improved. One is the Pepin original Blue Label, which has turned into a quite enjoyable smoke. The other was a real surprise - some old inexpensive Fuente Maduro Privada No. 1s that developed a somewhat sweet and complex profile. The Privadas are 10 years old and the Blue Labels around 8 years.

On the other hand, I tried an old Diamond Crown Maximus that I thought was well past it prime and pretty flat. And there are a few pedestrian Padrons in there that I think are also flat, though a buddy who prefers milder smokes really loved a couple I threw his way. These are also in the 9-10 year range.

The only NC I have set aside to intentionally age are some Fuente Anejos. I do believe they improve considerably with time. And I know I have a box of Fuente Don Carlos something or the other put away I need to drag out and try, and probably toss into the NC humidor.

If you have time and the inclination, you might get a good size tupperware container and start tossing stuff into it. Then start firing things up in about ten years and get back to us with your impressions. Who know what you'll discover.

[smokin5]

I typically don't smoke my NC cigars until they've had at least 2 years of rest.
Many have 6-9 years on them.
I find I like them better, but that's me.
Some I've found do NOT improve with age, so I now smoke them within a year
of acquiring. Included are Punch Gran Puro, Rocky Patel (1990 & Decade),
and Carlos Torano in general. Most my other inventory smokes better, especially
Padron x000 series, Pepins, Fuentes, Camachos & Perdomos.
As they say, tho, YMMV.

[RWhisenand]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlake

To my knowledge, and historically, no/zero Cuban Brand Cigars are rolled using tobaccos from any other country. In fact, unless their laws have changed, Cuba does not even allow for the importation of bulk tobacco leaf from any country. They do allow for the importation of pre-rolled cigarettes.

You are correct, unless you follow some of the conspiracy theories, rumors that Cuba dose indeed import tobacco to keep up with demand. Who would know if half of the tobacco rolled into Upmanns and RyJ machine made cigars were made with Dominican leaf? Would you know? I sure couldn't tell.

Our government breaks its own laws, all governments break their own laws. Is Cuba any better?

[mosesbotbol]

I've only had two different cigars brands rolled with Cuban and Non-Cuban tobacco mixed; both are European brands (Dutch and German).

[RWhisenand]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

I've only had two different cigars brands rolled with Cuban and Non-Cuban tobacco mixed; both are European brands (Dutch and German).

Did you like them? The proposition that blends could be made from both NC tobacco and CC tobacco is interesting to me.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by RWhisenand

Did you like them? The proposition that blends could be made from both NC tobacco and CC tobacco is interesting to me.

Yes, I like P.G.C. Hajenius cigars (http://www.hajenius.com/nl/). Very European style cigar, usually short filler. The mix of Indonesian and Latin tobacco's gives a real "complete" flavor this is easy to smoke. They've been making cigars for a long time and know what they are doing.

There are some other Euro brands sold here that probably don't have Cuban tobacco (they very may well have some and no one noticed) that taste similar to Hajenius that worth giving a go if you've never tried their style cigars.

The other brand I had, I can't remember the name, but the packaging was very similar to Davidoff and was long filler. Not as distinctive though (this goes back to late 90's when I tried it).

[RWhisenand]

Thanks Moses! What a cool site, I couldn't read too much of it since it was in Dutch, bummer, my last name is from a very old and prominent Dutch family. A little sad that I haven't kept up with my roots since when introduced, my last name raises some eyebrows with old school Dutch people.

Been there a few times, just not at all fluent!

[AdamJoshua]

There is a link to the English version.

http://www.hajenius.com/en/links