Devo15

I was curious how much age you should give the Cohiba Panetela before they've reached a nice blend? I'm not looking for when they're amazing at 10+ years, I'm curious when the soonest would be that they're complex and balanced if you're not looking to save them a long time. We all know they'll get better the longer you can ignore them in your humidor, but the Min Ron Nee book is always pushing for 3-5 years minimum for most Cohibas due to their raw tobacco and "sick period". For such a nice cigar, is a short period of time like 6 months enough before you start enjoying them or do they really need a few years? I'm tempted to smoke one every month or two and see the improvement, but I also don't want to burn through too many before they're ready.

I was wondering if storing full boxes on their sides is a bad idea in my humidor? I was reading the PDF about the step-by-step building of a humidor by Ray, and in his picture of his finished humidor it showed boxes stacked whichever way they’d fit. Is that ok for the short term, but a bad idea for longterm storage? I’ve been careful to stack them flat but that leaves a lot of voids in the humidor where I could easily slip another 5-10 boxes in sideways. My other thought was to possibly rotate, every few weeks, the ones that are on their sides with ones that are flat. Any advice would be appreciated.

I’ve had the same issue, do you recall how they turned out?

Welcome, I’m a bit of a newbie still myself but it’s a great community. Sounds like you’re in deeper than me, but I think I’m on my way too.

I’m a bit if a newbie but I’m enjoying my first good box of, what’s to me, a high-end cigar with Connie A’s (LUB JUN 15). I’m still trying to distinguish flavors, etc. any help would be appreciated as to how to appreciate the smoke, and I have a good buddy that’s well versed to help me understand things but I thought a few other options would be good to hear too. I’ve been buying some aged boxes and some new stock to age myself. A few questions I had: 1.) Why does the flavor change as you smoke the cigar-it’s all the same tobacco leaf inside right? 2.) What’s the difference between the Connie A’s, 1’s, 2’s? Is there one that’s considered better between them or just personal preference? 3.) How do you know when it’s the right time to smoke a cigar that’s been aging? I’m trying to put 2 years or more on my boxes but I can’t find articles letting me know when each box has aged long enough-I know it’s specific to each box and brand. I also would like to keep some boxes aging for a decade or longer as an investment, but I’m not sure how to know which boxes would benefit from that much age, and which ones max-out after a short period of time (like one year or two years) and the additional age doesn’t really help their quality. Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, glad to finally get on FOH and get the right post in the Newbie section. A good buddy @Markspring1978 got me a nice cuban recently as a gift and now I'm in, looking to expand the collection and appreciation for good cigars.