THE STAGES OF CIGAR AGING – FROM FRESH TO VINTAGE

[Dadof3]

I had a box of RyJ Celestiales Finos from a regional factory in 1999. The ones that have been smoked have all been great. Draw and construction have been fine and the taste was top notch by all accounts. So anecdotally even what should have been the poster children for the problems at the time might be okay.

[Bagman]

13 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

My vacuuming boxes was due to necessity. I was out of room in the Aristocrat. The wine cellar can get too humid and is not very steady in RH.

I am curious to hear reviews on older vacuum sealed boxes. I don't have it in me to open one yet.

it's hard to quantify the total impact, but in my boveda in a bag test, which is still going on, I'm showing that humidity does go through. Not much, but I feel some crunch in my boveda in a bag. My outside ambient is around 50-55, so not super dry. Coming up to 2 years, but I noticed it after a year. Probably be fine, but I wouldn't leave them out over many years.

[BrightonCorgi]

On 4/10/2026 at 7:33 AM, Bagman said:

it's hard to quantify the total impact, but in my boveda in a bag test, which is still going on, I'm showing that humidity does go through. Not much, but I feel some crunch in my boveda in a bag. My outside ambient is around 50-55, so not super dry. Coming up to 2 years, but I noticed it after a year. Probably be fine, but I wouldn't leave them out over many years.

I looked a few boxes this morning. They are drier than when I first put them in, but hardly "dry". I'm going to put some boxes in the cabinet for a month and then reseal them. It'll take a few months to get through them, but considering how long they sat for.

Unless you have a better idea?

[joeypots]

10 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

I looked a few boxes this morning.  They are drier than when I first put them in, but hardly "dry".  I'm going to put some boxes in the cabinet for a month and then reseal them.  It'll take a few months to get through them, but considering how long they sat for.

Unless you have a better idea?

Store vacuum sealed boxes in a coolerdor with a few big Bovedas.

[Nevrknow]

Been following this. Different question/outlook?

I have way more boxes than I can go through. Smoke one from a box and if it's on point of aged THEN vacuum seal? Try to keep it in the sweet spot? Or just wasting bags?

[Bagman]

On 4/11/2026 at 10:23 AM, Nevrknow said:

Been following this. Different question/outlook?

I have way more boxes than I can go through. Smoke one from a box and if it's on point of aged THEN vacuum seal? Try to keep it in the sweet spot? Or just wasting bags?

It's never too late to seal up a box, but I wouldn't intentionally wait until it was perfect then seal. It doesn't stop aging, is just slows it down. So the sooner you get it in the better. When I was buying, I would wait 1 year and then seal them up. But I'm hearing how much today's Cubans are ready to go from day one. I'm assuming due to more accidental aging at the factory due to a loss of rollers. Perhaps only 6 months or less now?. For non-Cubans that are always ready on day one, I give them just sixty days until I seal them up. But I don't expect them to be able to age as well as my pre-2022 Cubans. I'm really starting to think that current Cubans and non-Cubans have a much smaller limit on how long they can age. So if you have a lot of them, seal them asap.

On 4/11/2026 at 4:12 AM, BrightonCorgi said:

I looked a few boxes this morning. They are drier than when I first put them in, but hardly "dry". I'm going to put some boxes in the cabinet for a month and then reseal them. It'll take a few months to get through them, but considering how long they sat for.

Unless you have a better idea?

I don't have any experience in re-humidifying them back while sealed up. I would thing that would take 5+ years. Perhaps open a box and if it is dry either get them all in a tupperdor and wait 5 years with higher humidity like 70%, or (painful), open them all up, give them ninety days then seal them all back up. Tupperdor + boveda + gauge is like 60 for all. Holds twenty boxes. For sure, it's the way to go going forward.

[BrightonCorgi]

16 hours ago, Bagman said:

It's never too late to seal up a box, but I wouldn't intentionally wait until it was perfect then seal. It doesn't stop aging, is just slows it down. So the sooner you get it in the better. When I was buying, I would wait 1 year and then seal them up. But I'm hearing how much today's Cubans are ready to go from day one. I'm assuming due to more accidental aging at the factory due to a loss of rollers. Perhaps only 6 months or less now?. For non-Cubans that are always ready on day one, I give them just sixty days until I seal them up. But I don't expect them to be able to age as well as my pre-2022 Cubans. I'm really starting to think that current Cubans and non-Cubans have a much smaller limit on how long they can age. So if you have a lot of them, seal them asap. 

I don't have any experience in re-humidifying them back while sealed up. I would thing that would take 5+ years. Perhaps open a box and if it is dry either get them all in a tupperdor and wait 5 years with higher humidity like 70%, or (painful), open them all up, give them ninety days then seal them all back up. Tupperdor + boveda + gauge is like 60 for all. Holds twenty boxes. For sure, it's the way to go going forward. 

When putting them back in the cabinet, I meant taking them out of the vacuum sealed bags.

[BrightonCorgi]

My plan is to take out several boxes from cabinet, vacuum seal them and swap with currently vacuum sealed boxes for a few weeks and then swap again.

[papatrips]

I use glass or ceramic jars in the cabinet. For me, it creates a more constant microclimate and is easier to sample and see how the aging process is going. I believe it is a solid alternative to going the vacuum sealed route. Downside is taking up space if you have a cabinet or running coolidors. 

[yuppie]

On 4/9/2026 at 4:19 AM, Bagman said:

I know you were joking, but I'm sending two to @yuppie this week for his channel. I may include you next time, you just have to do a full honest review. My goal is to spread the word and more honest reviews of sealed up boxes the better.

Here's my video, sorry it took so long! Weather hasn't been cooperative recently. Overall, I enjoyed the smoke and I think it had aged wonderfully without losing anything to time. But, I'd never smoked a Punch DC before, so don't have much to compare it against and maybe these cigars have better legs than others.

After the first impressions, I'm just ranting about pipe tobacco and current events, so don't feel like you need to watch the whole thing!

[Bagman]

On 5/4/2026 at 12:58 PM, yuppie said:

Here's my video, sorry it took so long! Weather hasn't been cooperative recently. Overall, I enjoyed the smoke and I think it had aged wonderfully without losing anything to time. But, I'd never smoked a Punch DC before, so don't have much to compare it against and maybe these cigars have better legs than others.

After the first impressions, I'm just ranting about pipe tobacco and current events, so don't feel like you need to watch the whole thing!

Late in my reply here! Great video. I also did a video, eventually I will post it. Your process is better than mine. I really suck at presentation!

As I mentioned at YouTube, vacuum sealing is sort of losing it's purpose. When you could buy a 50 cab of these in Havana for 560 dollars, buying a bunch and stocking up made sense. If you were in Cuba and you saw Fundadores for $US260 a box, how many would you buy? I would clean them out each time I went! Hence my mission to focus on how to preserve everything I got. Nowadays, mass stocking up is a thing of the past. I guess for those that have the supply and want to stretch it out, vacuum sealing is for you. More of a niche thing now.

[yuppie]

20 hours ago, Bagman said:

Late in my reply here! Great video. I also did a video, eventually I will post it. Your process is better than mine. I really suck at presentation!

As I mentioned at YouTube, vacuum sealing is sort of losing it's purpose. When you could buy a 50 cab of these in Havana for 560 dollars, buying a bunch and stocking up made sense. If you were in Cuba and you saw Fundadores for $US260 a box, how many would you buy? I would clean them out each time I went! Hence my mission to focus on how to preserve everything I got. Nowadays, mass stocking up is a thing of the past. I guess for those that have the supply and want to stretch it out, vacuum sealing is for you. More of a niche thing now.

Thanks man! And thanks for the cigar. I've actually started smoking more Punch since trying that vacuum sealed DC, there is something fruity and floral about these cigars that seems to be growing on me.

Overall, I thought it was just a very well preserved cigar. I can see the benefits of vacuum sealing, but agree that in today's market, you're not preserving the acquisition price (as far as we know). I don't smoke more than one per day, so I've got years of supply if I stop buying now, which is unlikely to happen as I keep chasing new Regionals. So, I could see a vacuum sealer being a good thing for me, even if it's just to help in trades and stuff.

I'm not really sure what to do with the YouTube channel, I'm always wondering if I should do another video or what topic I should cover. We'll see if I have the interest to keep it going, not sure what people want to see or hear.

[Bagman]

12 hours ago, yuppie said:

Thanks man! And thanks for the cigar. I've actually started smoking more Punch since trying that vacuum sealed DC, there is something fruity and floral about these cigars that seems to be growing on me.

Overall, I thought it was just a very well preserved cigar. I can see the benefits of vacuum sealing, but agree that in today's market, you're not preserving the acquisition price (as far as we know). I don't smoke more than one per day, so I've got years of supply if I stop buying now, which is unlikely to happen as I keep chasing new Regionals. So, I could see a vacuum sealer being a good thing for me, even if it's just to help in trades and stuff.

I'm not really sure what to do with the YouTube channel, I'm always wondering if I should do another video or what topic I should cover. We'll see if I have the interest to keep it going, not sure what people want to see or hear.

Aside from the main vacuum video, few will care about my reviews. I do it more for myself. I find that I pay more attention to the cigar when I review it. Plus it is a video reminder for myself. That, and I can chart my hair loss/weight gain over the years. Good times. I have a bunch that I shot, but have yet to post. I'm actually doing my most interesting box video to date - Royal Rubusto that I had mold issues with. I wiped it down and vacuum sealed it up. Today I opened the box, and got a little bit of a surprise. Bagman still has things to learn clearly! More soon on that discovery.