Would you rather buy young and age yourself, or pay the premium for 10+ years box age?

[Havanaaddict]

9 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Aged cigars were never more expensive 15-20 years ago. Same price as the current release.

I do remember those days sending an email, asking for an updated list of all box codes, then picking all the aged ones out and buying them at the same price as fresh. Those were the days. 🤗

[griller]

I'm a buy & age, but grabbing the occasional aged box at a premium could make sense in certain circumstances that have already been mentioned here. Especially true with the discontinued sizes from SLR, Diplomaticos, Bolivar, RG, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have the cash to afford today's aged & rare offerings on BR so not really dealing with this dilemma.

I started smoking Cubans in 1996 & went through a "down" period where I kind of got away from smoking from 2006 - 2016. I really wish I had held more "old stock" during that period. Now most of my stuff is 2019 or newer and the quality has been solid. It was wild back in 1999 when an entire annual production run was stigmatized as poor quality at every level (leaf quality, bad construction, etc). The phrase "The Curse of 1999" was all over the place on the old forums for the crap Habanos put out that year.

[Ford2112]

I buy to smoke. My cigars are lucky to make it to 3 years.

[Cestis4]

Yes to both. I quit for 20 years so I have a lot of catching up to do.  

[Boss Hog]

Age my own stock. Way too many clowns out there with questionable/inadequate storage conditions, despite them trying to convince you otherwise.

Some people will say practically anything to make a buck. 🤣

[DeeBeezy]

Not close on this one. Generally I find many cigars at 10 years are already past prime, and even if they are not many of them are about to be - window is shorter.  The price difference suggested above as well is also too unreasonable. 

Those factors aside, I believe Cubans are smoking better young than they ever have. Many times I even prefer a cigar with 1/2/3 years than 7/8. Ultimately all comes down to the quality of the box with Cubans. This isn’t the Non-Cuban world where everything on the shelf is presented as ready to smoke, when I buy a box of Cubans I am investing in the journey. The hope that they are good now, can be even better and that I will have time to enjoy them over the coming years. I’m not ready to open the window immediately. 

I could talk about this topic all day but that’s it in short.

[yuppie]

14 hours ago, DeeBeezy said:

Not close on this one. Generally I find many cigars at 10 years are already past prime, and even if they are not many of them are about to be - window is shorter.  The price difference suggested above as well is also too unreasonable. 

You think that 10 years is the max across the board? I've heard this said before, but then there are those who love smoking a pre-Revolution stick or cigars from the 80s. I hope that with the right conditions, many cigars can just go and go, continuing to develop.

14 hours ago, DeeBeezy said:

Those factors aside, I believe Cubans are smoking better young than they ever have. Many times I even prefer a cigar with 1/2/3 years than 7/8. Ultimately all comes down to the quality of the box with Cubans.

I believe the same. Some of these guys from 23/24/25 right out of the box have been great.

14 hours ago, DeeBeezy said:

when I buy a box of Cubans I am investing in the journey. The hope that they are good now, can be even better and that I will have time to enjoy them over the coming years. 

This is such a good way of looking at it. Going along with the box to accompany them on their evolutionary journey.

[DeeBeezy]

13 hours ago, yuppie said:

You think that 10 years is the max across the board?

Not necessarily. Each blend is different and even 10year aged boxes across the same cigar will taste different, all depends of quality initially of the box. I'm saying that generally speaking most blends don’t hold up for 10 years. For example - would much rather smoke a young Bolivar or Montecristo (excluding the No.2) than a 10 year aged version? And many of them that do hold up and age beautifully. They may get worse after they’ve peaked at around the 10 year mark - the HdM Epicure Especial and H.Upmann Magnum 50 spring to mind. 

Again ,these are generalisations.

[Lucas Buck]

I love well aged Cuban cigars. Buying young and aging myself was always my preference but as I’m up in years now I will pay the premium for aged stock if it’s not crazy money. Still I am buying young stuff because I can’t seem to help myself.