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Aging Habanos vs. Nics and Doms

Mr. McSquirelly

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Just asking for some advice by experienced cigar smokers. Why do Habanos age better than Nics and Doms? And is it really worth aging Nics and Doms past 12-18 months. From what I've read here and heard from experienced CC people, most CCs need 12-18 months until maturity. But Nics and Doms don't seem to need this window of rest. Why is that?
 

StogieNinja

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It's a VERY broad generalization. Some NCs age beautifully. I've got some old My Fathers that are excellent. I've got 4-5yr old DPG Blues that are excellent. Old Opus are the only Opus for me. Etc, etc.

On the flip side, I've smoked several 2015 CCs that were already tasty and smokin well. They'll have an upside with some downtime, but they don't require it.
 
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It really depends on the cigar. I mean, you grab a Graycliff with a 15 year old Cameroon wrapper and aging it ain't going to do much. You get a Partagas Serie D rolled in January and aging can't hurt it at all.

I've had the opportunity to speak with a roller from the Dominican Republic. What I took away from the conversation follows, but there was some language barriers. One of the main differences is that a lot of non-cuban cigars are allowed to rest longer before boxing. From what I could understand it is pretty common to let the cigars rest any where from a month to six months in a cedar room before boxing. They also tend to use tobacco that was aged longer before being rolled. It isn't uncommon to see a non-cuban brand brag abut a five year old binder or aging the cigars for two years before selling them.

That being said, I had the chance to smoke a three year old Paul Stulac White Blinding Light and it was very tasty. It didn't have the same sinus clearing pepper blast as a new one, but it was still enough to make me skip the retrohale for about an inch. It was more complex than a new one but all of the tastes were still very present and easy for even a slob like me to define.

It is very hard for anyone to set hard and fast rules about how long to age a cigar. There are general guidelines, but it is an organic product that will vary from brand to brand and even line to line.
 

D Quintero

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in a general sense , dpg smokes are best ready rott or soon thereafeter - @2years and gradually lose their pique , going beyond prime in about 4years .
Dominican premiums tend to hit as early as rott to a more realistic 3-12 mos hitting there stride and maintain an evoloving enjoyable complexity for many years.

pre '96 Habanos were bleneded in such away to become aged to heirloom antiquated status if desired. after a mass habanos post 96 lightened reblend strategy , bad crop yield vintages, and cuba just being cuba , it plays an albeit much greater negative factor with still better than average chances at aging to a nice 10 year mark.
 

Cigary43

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Aging/Resting always comes up and again it's generally accepted that Resting cigars is from when you get them to about 5 years....Aging is anything term after 5 years. Here is the real consequences of each term....resting cigars is something most of us do while Aging is a completely different deal because you put cigars down for a long time which means you deal with continuity, care and most of all concern as you can't allow for bouncing numbers like RH and Temps. That is going to be counterproductive and for those who have actually taken the time to Age cigars you know what I mean...aged cigars have a different quality about them and they are better...which is why Cigar Aficionados age them.

As far as which cigars do well with resting/aging is all about the strength...mild cigars do not do well resting much less aging. Full bodied cigars tend to age well and as far as resting goes....I've rested NC's for 1 year to 4 years and there isn't any benefit to resting any NC for more than 2 years unless you like a Full strength cigar that has been brought down to a medium with a little kick to them. If you are a bold, full bodied smoker you'd probably do well to smoke em up after 9 months.

There is no hard or fast rule to what we like because our tastes are not uniformly the same....there can be quite a degree of variance so what is good for the goose isn't good for those f'n ganders so it becomes a journey of what we like with some generalities to start a baseline. YOUR own tastes will decide what you like so experiment...have fun with different cigars when it comes to resting times.
 
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Depends what it is and how it's been stored.
Good point. But in general would a box of HUHC that are dated 2013 be good to smoke after just a couple weeks rest from the travel? I mean they're already close to 3 years old...

Just something I wondered with these box codes.
 

Mr. McSquirelly

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How do you age cigars?
That's a good question. I guess there's a big difference between 'aging' and 'resting'? I'm not currently equipped to 'age' any cigar properly. I have one large coolidor where I keep five boxes of Habanos and 5 cedar trays of Nics and Doms. I keep that coolidor at 70% and 62 degrees. But I probably open it 3-4 times a week. So I guess I'm not really 'aging', but 'resting' them.

Thanks for the input, fellas. It all makes a ton of sense now. The different process of production, and the age difference of tobaccos used in production, explain everything. So essentially that box date on a box of Habanos means that the cigars were rolled with tobacco from that year, and also that they were boxed in the month and year indicated?
 

Mr. McSquirelly

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As far as which cigars do well with resting/aging is all about the strength...mild cigars do not do well resting much less aging. Full bodied cigars tend to age well and as far as resting goes....I've rested NC's for 1 year to 4 years and there isn't any benefit to resting any NC for more than 2 years unless you like a Full strength cigar that has been brought down to a medium with a little kick to them. If you are a bold, full bodied smoker you'd probably do well to smoke em up after 9 months.
So essentially, I get a box with DEC 15 stamped on bottom. The cigars I should assume--typically--will be too harsh and young for enjoyment and need rest for at least 18 months before they're ready to smoke. And that's because they were rolled last month with last year's tobacco, and they need to 'mature' / 'rest' in order to become enjoyable. But if I took that same box, put it in a proper storage environment that's well regulated with temp and RH, and let it sit for 5-10 years, that would be considered 'aging'?

Generally speaking, NCs/DOMs in regular production are made with tobaccos that have already arrived at that 18-month (or longer) maturity point, and therefore need little or no rest before they smoke well?

And finally (please forgive long-windedness), it's been your experience that Habanos 'rest' to become better and more flavorful, whereas NICs and DOMs (typically) will lose strength and do not generally increase in flavor over time? I know I'm speaking in generalities, and there's no hard and fast laws for this process. Essentially, Habanos change their flavor profile over long periods of time but still retain strength, whereas NICs and DOMs tend to lose strength without gaining new flavor profiles over long periods of time?
 

StogieNinja

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Good point. But in general would a box of HUHC that are dated 2013 be good to smoke after just a couple weeks rest from the travel? I mean they're already close to 3 years old...

Just something I wondered with these box codes.
Yeah, they absolutely should be. The wrinkle is that a LOT of what was released in 14 and 15 is smoking well now too, so the old rules are out the window. For just about everything, I'm now going with "try one and see if it's great, if not, lay it down for 6 months and try it again."

For example: ABR 14 means cigars were rolled and boxed in April of 2014 with tobacco from the 2014 crop?
Not necessarily. IIRC there's some speculation that the crops are being treated or fermented differently in the last decade, so there's no guarantee cigars rolled on a particular month/year are being rolled with fresh tobacco. I could be wrong about that, I'll let the more knowledgeable BOTLs attempt to answer that.
 
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