Resting period/aging for NC's

[Smokin911]

In the last 30 days,  as a result of the current realities of the cuban cigar market,  I have sourced 60-70 NC's,  many which were recommended here.  I've been strictly Cubanos for the last 10 years. 

 

What is your experience in resting NC's after delivery?  How long required,  if any?   And effects of aging?

[garbandz]

burn 'em.

I have NCs from 2001 still smoking well, some brands hold up nicely with time.

generally I find that the strong sticks benefit most from a few years of age.

I always age them with out cello, in a cab, the old fashioned way. 

you can get a smoother, more balanced smoke ,with nuances you did not notice when the cigar was young.

[BrightonCorgi]

Generally, no aging is needed for 99% of NC's.  Acclimation to your humidor is the same as CC's.  I wouldn't bother aging them unless you have no choice due the volume of cigars you have.  Look how clean and white the ash is on many NC's compared to CC's.  That alone should be an indication that no additional aging is required.

[Bijan]

I have found the opposite of how it used to be. CCs smoke well young, many NCs require years and years, especially the stronger ones.

[Bijan]

I think it's been 15-20 years or more since you could routinely get a CC that was unsmokeable young (too strong, or too tannic) without 5+ (or even 10+) years of age on it. But that was normal with certain vitolas when MRN wrote his book at the turn of the century.

[MrBirdman]

Even lighter NC light Davidoff really reward at least a year of aging, though I strongly advise keeping the cello on. 

[Ford2112]

6 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

Even lighter NC light Davidoff really reward at least a year of aging, though I strongly advise keeping the cello on. 

What is your reason for keeping cellophane on the cigars? 

[Bijan]

14 minutes ago, Heels82 said:

Would you purchase 2003 Bolivar stock?  

I think 2003 is good in terms of the issues at the turn of the century which affected 1999-2001 or maybe 1998-2002. (Rolling/plugs during one sub period, and blends during another).

But on the other hand I would want to be real sure of the storage on any older cigars (10+ years).

Edit: also there's a fair bit of 2002-2003 that's revisado of 1999-2001 boxes (restamped after quality control review).

[KCCubano]

5 minutes ago, Bijan said:

I think 2003 is good in terms of the issues at the turn of the century which affected 1999-2001 or maybe 1998-2002. (Rolling/plugs during one sub period, and blends during another).

But on the other hand I would want to be real sure of the storage on any older cigars (10+ years).

Edit: also there's a fair bit of 2002-2003 that's revisado of 1999-2001 boxes (restamped after quality control review).

Yep. Had several boxes with Revisado Stamp. Really meant nothing. Had a box of Sancho Corona's with stamp. ALL PLUGGED!

[Bijan]

2 minutes ago, Heels82 said:

 

Yeah basically you want to get them from someone who bought them 2003-2005 and put them in proper storage since. Or from a vendor like rob who bought them from a distributor at the time or a few years later.

What you don't want is to buy them from someone (either individual or grey market vendor) who bought them dried out from the back of some random store with marginal storage in 2015.

[Bijan]

8 minutes ago, Heels82 said:

Gotta love you Canadians.  Keep in mind the Stanley Cup will still reside in Florida. 

I'll let that slide for now, unless you're a flyers fan 🤔

[Chas.Alpha]

Go Lightning!!!

[Bijan]

4 minutes ago, Heels82 said:

I'm a Caps fan, the Flyers are terrible.  

As someone who grew up in Montreal and now lives in Toronto, I know which teams are terrible 🥲.

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Ford2112 said:

What is your reason for keeping cellophane on the cigars? 

They age better and maintain much more of their flavor. It’s a personal preference but there is no downside other than slightly slower aging. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

We were just chatting about this last night while burning some Habanos.

I think it's interesting that my stash of Cubans continue to increase in value and enjoyment over time, and yet my horde of NCs, many of them limited and hard to find, truly remain at the same level as current pricing despite many being at 10 years or over.

Some stronger NCs can definitely mellow or harmonize to be more approachable after 9 months or more resting but I think ultimately if they're quite full bodied or very spicy, and that's not really your thing, they probably won't become that much better. Connecticut or lighter blended NCs can become quite soft when aged for too long and certainly will age out entirely.

In general I've found smoking after a few months after purchase, especially for new releases, they'll be at peak smokability.

[Cairo]

2 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

What is your reason for keeping cellophane on the cigars? 

I always keep cello on my NCs because some wrappers (Cameroons most especially but also some Connecticuts) can get very delicate after years of storage--don't want to damage them when pawing through them.

[Ford2112]

Interesting.  I store my smokes sans cello but I'm 99% cubans. I am looking to stock up on certain NCs soon

[wineguy]

6 hours ago, Bijan said:

As someone who grew up in Montreal and now lives in Toronto, I know which teams are terrible 🥲.

Lets go Pens!!!

[LordAnubis]

Good question! I often don't consider NCs to have ageing potential. Not that i'm a NC smoker of any definition. A lot of NC's are marketed as "7 year aged finest tobacco" blah blah blah... and they're still rubbish. So really i have no idea. Some people in NC circles claim there is ageing potential, but i find most of the responses i have read are "it mellows out" ... so basically a powerhouse quadruple maduro all ligero that manufacturer couldnt forsee came as absolute shock killed people after 3 puffs. Age that sucker for a few years and maybe it's less dying and more kind of ok smoking. 

[sageman]

This is interesting. Ageable wine will have high acidity, high tannin… not as dependent on where the grapes were grown but more the typical characteristics of the grapes (do they produce wines with high acid/tannin profiles). In tobacco it sounds like people are saying that place has a larger influence and that characteristically “bigger” NCs have less aging potential than lighter CCs. I think flavor development or evolvement are one reason to age something, but also the mellowing of characteristics is another, and that to me says NCs would have good potential for aging. I definitely do not have an answer, more just comparing these two aging processes. 

[Bijan]

20 minutes ago, sageman said:

This is interesting. Ageable wine will have high acidity, high tannin… not as dependent on where the grapes were grown but more the typical characteristics of the grapes (do they produce wines with high acid/tannin profiles). In tobacco it sounds like people are saying that place has a larger influence and that characteristically “bigger” NCs have less aging potential than lighter CCs. I think flavor development or evolvement are one reason to age something, but also the mellowing of characteristics is another, and that to me says NCs would have good potential for aging. I definitely do not have an answer, more just comparing these two aging processes. 

Yeah this was the case with CCs 20+ years ago. Cigars with "tannins" were supposed to mellow sweeten, become creamy, etc with a lot of age.

Then CCs became lighter and ready to smoke young and NCs became stronger (well at least a subset of NCs are way stronger than any current CCs, and in general the old idea that CCs=strong, NCs= mild doesn't hold).

But people's ideas about aging didn't change. CC reddit is still obsessed about box date and aging, even when people are starting out and have a box and a half worth of cigars in their collection, they'll say I'm going to sit on these cigars for x years until they're ready.

Edit: I used to kind of believe in aging more, but I'm coming around to @PigFish's view. There's not much aging and the main thing that happens is that cigars expire or fall apart due to poor storage over the long term. And what people think of as aging is just an illusion due to the random variance in the performance of individual cigars in a box or cab. And really the goal in "aging" is to maintain the cigars in good condition, rather than facilitate any kind of chemical reaction.

[Bijan]

7 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

I think it's interesting that my stash of Cubans continue to increase in value and enjoyment over time, and yet my horde of NCs, many of them limited and hard to find, truly remain at the same level as current pricing despite many being at 10 years or over.

I think this is due to chasing the next new thing in NCs vs tried and true in CCs (CC regular production, over the last 20 years had had way more vitolas get discontinued than were added).

Just look at special production in CCs and you'll see that there's much more interest in Punch Mantua, or whatever flavour of the month, than some random 10 year old R&J EL.

Edit: my comment is mainly about value, and not about enjoyment. I'm not criticizing your palate!

[clickbangdoh]

Personal experience is that a lot of US vendors store their sticks waaaay over humidified. So I generally find that they can take a month or more to get down to a good smokable state. I will try one ROTT but don't be surprised if they are horrible without some rest. I've taken to, with some cello wrapped boxes, leaving them out for a few days to dry out a bit before sticking them in the humi to give them a head start on this process. A recent example, bought some HVC 500 year that were terrible when I first got them, left the box out for a week, they were better, a month more time in the humi and now they are smoking very well and very enjoyable. Had another box of sticks that literally took 3 months to dry out enough where I could smoke them without constant relights, and they've made a very noticeable turn in flavor for the better. TL;DR version : vendors sometimes drown their sticks in the warehouse, give them a few months to acclimate if they are harsh or require relights.

[sageman]

54 minutes ago, Bijan said:

And what people think of as aging is just an illusion due to the random variance in the performance of individual cigars in a box or cab. And really the goal in "aging" is to maintain the cigars in good condition, rather than facilitate any kind of chemical reaction.

I see a decent amount of aging talk on foh as well… this opinion would really throw all that for a loop! It seems like a reasonable possibility. I need to do some more research. Maybe we can get bill nye to weigh in. If the above theory holds. I couldn’t see a reason to be holding a large amount at any given time as you’re holding/maintaining a diminishing asset. 

[Bijan]

5 hours ago, sageman said:

I see a decent amount of aging talk on foh as well… this opinion would really throw all that for a loop! It seems like a reasonable possibility. I need to do some more research. Maybe we can get bill nye to weigh in. If the above theory holds. I couldn’t see a reason to be holding a large amount at any given time as you’re holding/maintaining a diminishing asset. 

Well prices go up, and cigars get discontinued (in the CC world). Look at the auction prices for La Gloria Cubana No, 2, etc. And what has happened with Cohiba, before and especially recently.

So these are the incentives for holding old CCs. But yeah I think there's about a 20 year window before you're rolling the dice on cigars being expired. I've yet to see someone smoke a substantial proportion of 20+ year old cigars (I mean obviously that's hard to come by, but some old-timers must have a ready supply).

The same doesn't generally hold in the NC world (or at least people care more about new cigars than the old ones that are gone). And to me the effect of the above on the economics of new vs old cigars is clear.

Also it is important to distinguish talk vs action.

Look at the daily smoking thread and people are generally smoking recent cigars with the odd old one every now and again.

Those same people are much more likely to think that certain wines absolutely need 10-15 years age (otherwise they're undrinkable or its a waste) than to think any CC needs 5+ years age. The only exceptions maybe being Cohibas and PLPC.