Cigars became bitter

[gerryliao]

Recently I received some boxes of cigars, most of them are nice but some boxes taste bitter.

Are there any reasons for cigars to fade out and become bitter?

These boxes came from one local cigar dealer and those bad boxes are vintage.

I rested all boxes for over a month in my fridge maintained 19 degree C and 65% humidity.

And I picked one stick of each box to smoke after that. I found those bitter cigars came from 3 particular vintage boxes. I meant bitter all the way down. From the appearance of cigars I cant tell any differences from normal ones.

Do u have similar experiences?

Thanks

GL

[LordAnubis]

Hi mate,

Welcome to FoH. Post up an introduction of yourself in the new members section

It could just be that the cigars aren't very good? Some cigars are good, some are bad, some get better the longer they rest, others don't. That is part of the parcel of this hobby.

[PapaDisco]

Big changes in humidity are the quickest cause of short term harshness in a cigar, imho. I'm not sure why that is, but when I take my 65%rH sticks to high heat/humidity environments I really have to let them sit a lot longer than 30 days, and I'll even 'wet box' them in the local environment for a week before smoking. The same is doubly true (again IMHO) for vintage (like 10-15 year old stuff). And even if the vintage boxes aren't going with me to the jungle, I find that they are better with a 6 month rest, ziplock sealed, than with the 30 day rest.

I have several boxes of the HDM Churchills '01 and a few of the Punch Churchills '99 and both tasted much, much better after 9 months in the humi than they did ROTT. That's not much of a statistical sample, but it seems to be consistent in my experience.

And if that doesn't work, dump the offending vintage sticks in an empty humi and cover them with Skoal 'Minty Fresh' for a month. Should do the trick!

[jacksfull]

Hi mate,

Welcome to FoH. Post up an introduction of yourself in the new members section

It could just be that the cigars aren't very good? Some cigars are good, some are bad, some get better the longer they rest, others don't. That is part of the parcel of this hobby.

Yep. Gotta' wonder if that's the reason the vintage cigars were still available.

[Colt45]

Are there any reasons for cigars to fade out and become bitter?

Perhaps they've had it tough and never caught a break. Maybe a long term relationship went sour. Could be life simply beat them down.......

Or perhaps, as mentioned, they were never good to begin with.

[JohnS]

I have to agree with PapaDisco in regards to environmental conditions as they can make a cigar smoke great and smooth or alternatively tight and bitter.

My experience in regards to bitterness in cigars is to remind myself to slow down and let the cigar cool, thus preventing tar buildup. One way I practically do this is try to get a good ash length on every smoke (at least an inch).

[mk05]

Bad cigars intrinsically.

[avaldes]

If only the vintage boxes taste bad, I would suspect poor storage conditions over the life of those boxes.

One time I found some vintage Hemingway's at a local shop that looked good but tasted like a fish tank! You know, one that has algae growing on the side! That box went straight back to the shop. I have often wondered if they just sold them off to another sucker.

[gerryliao]

Thank u very much for all your opinions.

I have already sealed the box and wish it tastes better next year.