Aging Boxes of Cigars - Which to put down?

[celtmick1984]

While I'm sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum in some prior post, I am interested in obtaining a survey of FOHers regarding which cigars they've had the best fortune putting down and any general estimates as to when they found the cigar to "peak" or "hit its stride" or what have you. Having recently enhanced my collection capacity, thanks Dee!, I'm interested in putting a few regular production sticks down.

Any suggestions? Any sticks that, while good fresh, start to lose something after 3-5 years? Feel free to comment on unique storage conditions, appearance of cigar, etc., if you think it made a difference in your case.

This question comes with the implicit assumption that tastes vary, blends may have varied, and storage conditions do as well. I'm not looking to overcome all Cartesian doubts or answer Humean objections, just some guideposts. I will not hold you liable if my experience isn't yours.

[PigFish]

Lets assume that you buy a cigar to smoke it. When you smoke it; is it all that important? Is it more important than what it tastes like? Is an old bad cigar better or worse than a new good cigar?

Buy and smoke what you like today. Smoke another day any cigar that you cannot consume today!!!

Aging to me is coincidental to hoarding. When you buy quality cigars, quality confirmed by your own palette, that is the best assurance for a quality smoking experience in the future. None of us have a crystal ball. There are no better cigars to age than others if smoking experience is the final arbiter.

On the other hand a 20 yo box of popular Cohibas may be worth 10 times what you paid for them, while the 20 Rafael Gonzalez may be worth 3 times. Popularity and smoking experience are not necessarily correlated, cost has little to do with taste. Understand why you buy cigars and let that be your focus.

Cheers. -Piggy

[maverickdrinker]

well said Piggy. I tend to buy what I like at this point in time in bulk so that I can enjoy them in the future. A nice side effect is that they will age over time.

It's always fun to see how a cigar evolves over time. Sometimes a cigar will be awesome and then next cigar from the same box could be not as good and then the next cigar could be mind blowing. All this occurs over time.

Buy what you like and smoke what you like.

[mk05]

Good in, good out.

But there are exceptions where certain cigars are terrible young, but get much better with age.

soooo....buy everything

[celtmick1984]

Worki

Good in, good out.

But there are exceptions where certain cigars are terrible young, but get much better with age.

soooo....buy everything

Working on it . . . Good thing my wife is a forgiving lady.