does aging really help?

slickric

i was curious. does aging a cigar really make a difference?

Teege

Yes it can change almost every aspect of the cigar. Some cigars you will find you like better "fresh" others you will find you really like how the cigar taste after a few months/years.

slickric

i don't think I've ever had a fresh one and an aged one of the same kind. i have some in my humidor that have some age on them, i'll have to go pick up a fresh one of the same kind

dennisking

yes.
my recommendation is this. get a box of MOW PA and smoke half of them fresh and let the others sit 6 months. you will notice a drastic difference. the peppery burn through the nose that stick has fresh is almost gone at 6 months. also try this with a Diesel Unholy Cocktail. give that Diesel 2 years and it's almost as good as a Fuente Anejo. no crap.

kuzi16

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

howtobass

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

MmmMmMmMmm...... Coffee.......

KCW

dennisking:

Diesel Unholy Cocktail. give that Diesel 2 years and it's almost as good as a Fuente Anejo. no crap.

Whatch you talkin 'bout Willis? I'll have to try that.

j0z3r

Over the past 4 years, I've narrowed down a certain criteria in cigars that tell me it may age well. It's not bullet-proof, but my track record is pretty good. A couple things I look for are strength (not an absolute, but stronger cigars hold up better in general), complexity ( if a cigar is not complex fresh, aging won't make it so...again, not an absolute). The question I ask myself when trying to determine if a cigar is a good aging candidate is simply " is this a quality cigar that I want to invest my time in?" So in my experience, yes aging can help make a quality cigar into a memorable one, but there is really no hard and fast rule that all aged cigars will be good.

The Sniper

slickric:

i don't think I've ever had a fresh one and an aged one of the same kind. i have some in my humidor that have some age on them, i'll have to go pick up a fresh one of the same kind

This happened by accident for me... found some sticks in the humidor that I hadnt had in quite some time (turned out to be nearly a year by the date stamps). Fired one up and could not BELIEVE the difference! Took a really good stick and made it PHENOMINAL! So thats the key - buy enough cigars that you have some you forget about. LOL

bigharpoon

dennisking:

yes.
my recommendation is this. get a box of MOW PA and smoke half of them fresh and let the others sit 6 months. you will notice a drastic difference. the peppery burn through the nose that stick has fresh is almost gone at 6 months. also try this with a Diesel Unholy Cocktail. give that Diesel 2 years and it's almost as good as a Fuente Anejo. no crap.

Holy, this coming from a well established lover of Anejos! I must get some more UC's and age them for two years!!!

wwestern

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

IMO the Graycliff double espresso suffers alot from age all the coffee/espresso/dark chocolate type flavors get muddled after 3 months and get worse with time. ROTT though it's a fantastic stick.

chemforever

wwestern:

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

IMO the Graycliff double espresso suffers alot from age all the coffee/espresso/dark chocolate type flavors get muddled after 3 months and get worse with time. ROTT though it's a fantastic stick.

Sounds like it's time for a double espresso hef for me then. I suppose most sticks are pretty fresh from online vendors at least, but I doubt this is the case for most sticks purchased from b&m stores.

BigT06

wwestern:

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

IMO the Graycliff double espresso suffers alot from age all the coffee/espresso/dark chocolate type flavors get muddled after 3 months and get worse with time. ROTT though it's a fantastic stick.

I've never had a Graycliff DE that burned worth a damn... so I wouldn't know about those. lol

but I do know what you're saying, though. I love the JdN DC ROTT so much that I am scared for them to age, cause I don't want mine to mellow out any...

j0z3r

wwestern:

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

IMO the Graycliff double espresso suffers alot from age all the coffee/espresso/dark chocolate type flavors get muddled after 3 months and get worse with time. ROTT though it's a fantastic stick.

That's another funny thing about the aging debate...I completely disagree about the Double Espresso, to me it's best after 12-18 months. Personal tastes factor in pretty heavily.

Rhamlin

Got me a couple Cohiba red dots that have about 6 months had one a couple weeks ago that was just awesome, but I wonder about how long before they start losing their strength.

camgfs

I vote for aging. Some of my sticks have 10 years on them, and they are crazy good! As far as the strength goes, I find they will keep much of the strength, but they will be 'smoother' so that the strength sneaks up on me and catches me off guard!
I do have to admit that much of my collection are ISOM sticks, and in general, those do much better with age because of the tobacco and how they don't age their tobacco much before rolling.
I have had sticks that I don't like fresh, and aging them over a year did not help at all. Probably just my taste was not for that brand/size.

kuzi16

6 months to a year in my opinion isnt much age at all. most would consider this "rest"
this is till good because the cigar has been fully acclimated to the humidity of your humidor and has seen stable conditions.

one year may be short enough that many cigars are in the aging room at the factory longer than that.

oils within a cigar dont "flow" they move slowly, and at best "seep"

for oils to really marry and mellow you need at least a year, probably more.
in my opinion age begins at 2+ years

Ken Light

Also, just something to keep in mind, but your pallets are aging along with those cigars. To really understand the age effect you'd really have to do a side-by-side with a fresh one. Of course, the cigars that won't change blend or be discontinued in a couple years AND are worth aging are...well, I'm sure you guys could do better than me at naming potential candidates so I won't bother.

dennisking

to build on what kuzi said, there are sticks that don't benefit from aging. a 5 Vegas gold will probably not benefit. the same for a Macanudo Cafe. the more complex and powerful the stick, the more (in my palette) it benefits from age. all those "rough edges" seem to smooth out and make for a better smoke. The first Cu-Avana Intenso I smoked was awful. It was so tannic and had such a formaldehyde flavor that I put it out instantly.

I smoked an older Ruination the other day (cello was yellowed) and it was fantastic. such a rich smoke with no rough edges. it's the reason for aging. I also see drastic changes in the Opus X when aged. that initial pepper blast mellows and it becomes a even more awesome smoke.

Bucking W

I see almost everyone agrees. I have sticks that have been in my Humis for almost ten years. I have some Cubans that have been in there a little longer. However, I can say that your Cigar will mellow over time and become smoother as long as you keep them managed well. I get teased a lot from the guys at the Cigar Lounge, they think I am crazy to let some of the one I have that nobody can get their hands on sit for the time they have sat in my Humi. Tell you the truth 6 months to a year is good enough. I think the reason why I keep the ones longer is because they are very rare and I like opening the box and looking at them.

beatnic

This conversation reminds me of my youth. All of the kids in the neighborhood would scrounge for change and cash to get fireworks for fourth of july. Well, one of the kids was kinda rich and he talked his dad into buying him a giant box of fireworks. He was so proud of his collection, that he got really stingy. We're all out by 8 o'clock and he has a giant, full box that he wouldn't use. He keeps it for a year, walks out the next forth of July, and all of them had dried out.

Aging cigars for a year or two to mellow flavors is one thing> Collecting them for years is wasteful. IMO.

dennisking

Bucking W:

I see almost everyone agrees. I have sticks that have been in my Humis for almost ten years. I have some Cubans that have been in there a little longer. However, I can say that your Cigar will mellow over time and become smoother as long as you keep them managed well. I get teased a lot from the guys at the Cigar Lounge, they think I am crazy to let some of the one I have that nobody can get their hands on sit for the time they have sat in my Humi. Tell you the truth 6 months to a year is good enough. I think the reason why I keep the ones longer is because they are very rare and I like opening the box and looking at them.

the gentleman that owns my local B&M has first year Opus still resting in his collection. I see no problem with 10 years of rest on certain cigars like that.

would you care to share what cigars you have that are over 10yr. old. It's not a bad thing in here to tell what you have.

j0z3r

beatnic:

This conversation reminds me of my youth. All of the kids in the neighborhood would scrounge for change and cash to get fireworks for fourth of july. Well, one of the kids was kinda rich and he talked his dad into buying him a giant box of fireworks. He was so proud of his collection, that he got really stingy. We're all out by 8 o'clock and he has a giant, full box that he wouldn't use. He keeps it for a year, walks out the next forth of July, and all of them had dried out.

Aging cigars for a year or two to mellow flavors is one thing> Collecting them for years is wasteful. IMO.

Apples and oranges if you ask me...which you didn't. Aimlessly stockpiling and considered collecting are quite different to me, impulse versus planning and anticipation.

docbp87

beatnic:

Collecting them for years is wasteful. IMO.

Then what do you say about cigars like the Hoyo Des Dieux that need 8 years in some cases to really open up, and come into their own? I guess I just don't see what the argument AGAINST aging is, except in the cases of cigars that are known to not benefit from age, or that you personally prefer fresher. That said, if you haven't had a particular cigar both fresh and aged, how can you argue against aging it legitimately?

Tokinstogie

Aging anything is a hit an a miss, odds are if you took say an assortment of 100 stick and stowed them away for 5-10 years, most of them would improve. I've been smoking stogies for 40 years and 'm pretty sure I probabley have a few sticks in my humi's that have 30 years on them. I don't pay attention to when I put them in or how long they've been in there. with well over 1000 sticks, I don't waste much time desiding what to smoke. I have a hummi I put the new purchases in for at least 6 months, than spread them around the other ones where they get lost in the rotation. So long story short. Every now and than I pull out a real turd, some are realy good, most are really realy good and some are just plain undiscribable. Get a 100 ct hummi and throw a couple out of every order in there and don't open until chrismas, in about 40 years, you'll know what I mean...........

kuzi16

im assuming that 30 years ago you were buying only cigars that you liked. do you think that if you put a crappy cigar away that long ago would you like it now? ... or would it be just a milder version of the same crappy cigar?
ive had some cigars with some good age on them that were nothing special even though they started out special (ASHTON VSG ROUND comes to mind.

slickric

i will say this... i had a perdomo fresh roll and it was EXCELLENT (for the price). my buddy gave me one that he had for a couple of months and it was gross. perdomo fresh rolls are definately not meant for aging

Tokinstogie

kuzi16:

im assuming that 30 years ago you were buying only cigars that you liked. do you think that if you put a crappy cigar away that long ago would you like it now? ... or would it be just a milder version of the same crappy cigar?
ive had some cigars with some good age on them that were nothing special even though they started out special (ASHTON VSG ROUND comes to mind.

Like I said, hit or miss, some take to aging some don't.....and crap usualy stays crap

kuzi16

Tokinstogie:

kuzi16:

im assuming that 30 years ago you were buying only cigars that you liked. do you think that if you put a crappy cigar away that long ago would you like it now? ... or would it be just a milder version of the same crappy cigar?
ive had some cigars with some good age on them that were nothing special even though they started out special (ASHTON VSG ROUND comes to mind.

Like I said, hit or miss, some take to aging some don't.....and crap usualy stays crap

its always nice to have my suspensions confirmed by someone that has been in this game for far longer than i have.

phobicsquirrel

kuzi16:

it doesnt always help though. there are times where it will hurt. it will bring out aspects that you dont like.
for instance, the LP9 is great fresh but after a year it gets more coffee notes that i dont like.
thus is life.

You can always get some cream added... ;-)

phobicsquirrel

Tokinstogie:

Aging anything is a hit an a miss, odds are if you took say an assortment of 100 stick and stowed them away for 5-10 years, most of them would improve. I've been smoking stogies for 40 years and 'm pretty sure I probabley have a few sticks in my humi's that have 30 years on them. I don't pay attention to when I put them in or how long they've been in there. with well over 1000 sticks, I don't waste much time desiding what to smoke. I have a hummi I put the new purchases in for at least 6 months, than spread them around the other ones where they get lost in the rotation. So long story short. Every now and than I pull out a real turd, some are realy good, most are really realy good and some are just plain undiscribable. Get a 100 ct hummi and throw a couple out of every order in there and don't open until chrismas, in about 40 years, you'll know what I mean...........

wow, there's some good advice. I've had some sticks change for the better more than not. Then again I don't usually smoke mild smokes. So that may be something to note. Though I've had some nice Ashton cabinet's that taste really good after some years in the humi.