Storing & Aging Cigars

Michael Herklots, CMT Academic Contribution

Certified Master Tobacconist #1776

Storing & Aging Cigars

 

 

Fortunately the cigars available in the American Market are for the most part ready to be smoked. The manufacturers have invested the time to age the cigars appropriately before shipping to the retailers. However like fine wines, additional aging on cigars (box age) will change those cigars over time. Not all cigars will benefit from long-term aging. As a general rule of thumb, the stronger and more complex a blend is to begin with, the more potential for that cigar to change from additional aging. The milder the cigar is to begin with, the less the potential the cigar has for drastic change over time. Aging allows the essential oils within the tobacco to “marry” and to mellow as well.  What is aggressive and obvious on a newer cigar will become more complex and subtle.

I recently lit up a Davidoff Millennium Lonsdale (one of my favorite cigars to age) that was 4 years old. Now, the Davidoff Millennium Lonsdale is also one of my favorite cigars right out of the box. It’s full-bodied with abundant flavors of spice, earth and leather yet still balanced. With four years of age, the cigar was toned down a bit. Though still full in body, the obvious spiciness I expect in a “new” Lonsdale was slightly muted making the overall flavor a little more delicate and restrained. It was almost velvety in character, with an incredibly long and complex finish. I can’t say I prefer one to the other, but rather I enjoy both equally just for different reasons. But to experience the difference between the two is quite interesting.  And, since cigars are manufactured in a “non-vintage” style, it’s possible to compare new and old side by side.

A great humidor is essential for proper aging and storage. For long-term aging, it’s always best to purchase cigars by the box. This way you have enough cigars to gauge how they’re changing month-by-month or year-by-year.

A desktop model can hold any where from fifty to several hundred cigars.  Most desktop humidors are wood lined and utilize a passive humidification system.  This is generally a sponge-like element that holds water within it without letting the water drip out.  As the water evaporates, it maintains the humidity within the humidor.  Generally these humidors need to be refilled with distilled water every 3-8 weeks depending on the humidor’s seal, interior, and the system itself.    Additionally, desktop humidors require the cigars to be removed from their original box and stored as “singles” within the humidor since the passive humidification system is usually not powerful enough to penetrate a sealed wooden box of cigars.

If you prefer to store your cigars in their original boxes, a cabinet humidor is the best method of storage.  They range in style from end tables and credenzas to industrial “retail” style cabinets.  These cabinets use active humidification systems.  Usually only requiring a standard electrical outlet, this type of humidification system works in tandem with a hygrometer and actively regulates the humidor’s humidity by turning on and off accordingly.  These types of humidors tend to be much lower maintenance than their little sister desktop models, and are also much more stable as the active humidification does not produce the same “ebbs and flows” of a passive humidification system.  This steady humidity as well as the increased capacity permits the collector to keep cigars in their original boxes within the humidor, making absolutely certain that the cigars are stored and aged exactly the way the manufacturer intended.

If your cigars come in cellophane, and you’re storing several different kinds of cigars next to each other in a desktop model humidor, simply push the cigar’s foot to the open end of the cello and wrap the excess cello around the cap.  This ensures all of the tobaccos (including the fillers) are exposed to humidity.  If you’re storing your cigars in their original boxes in a cabinet humidor, then you can remove the cellophane and place the cigars back in their box.  This brings the cigars a little closer to the humidity, and also allows the cigars to marry with each other in the box as they age.  If you’re not aging for the long term, then frankly it doesn’t much matter.

So buy a box of your favorite smokes, write the date on the bottom and enjoy one every month. Keep a little Dossier of your own tasting notes in order to gauge how they’re changing and if you like the changes that are occurring.

Natural Shade-Grown Tobacco

This photo depicts dark (cigar) tobacco being grown in a palm grove in Cuba around 1905.  It is an important historical document because it shows “Shade-Grown” tobacco could be grown before cheesecloth or other man-made techniques were employed.  Very interesting!  Now, let’s see if we can convince some cigar makers to re-create this natural and historic method for shading tobacco.

H.C. White Co. Publishers. A shaded tobacco field within a palm grove, Province of Havana, ca. 1905, 3 1/2" x 7" gelatin silver print stereograph. The Ramiro Fernandez Collection; I Was Cuba - Kevin Kwan.



Stalk Priming

American Photo Services. Tobacco leaves drying, Havana Province, ca. 1920. From the Ramiro Fernandez Collection: I Was Cuba, Kevin Kwan.

For the better part of 2009 we have been researching and studying a very unique dark tobacco harvesting method known as Stalk Priming.  This is an exclusive presentation of an agricultural and processing method which has been hidden or lost to the contemporary world of cigar smokers.   We are calling this content “in development” because we would like to re-create these harvesting and processing conditions and ultimately taste the final product; that will take money, time, and more effort.  In addition, this is considered CMT Curriculum, or ‘advanced’ content which will eventually go into the testing process for Certified Master Tobacconists.

Regardless of all these details, none of the research and writing we do has any value if we do not share it, so here it is…  Please feel free to comment and share.

Thanks to Jose “Don Pepin” Garcia for sharing his time, experience, and wisdom during the development of this content.  The astute observer may have noticed that we included a definition of Stalk Priming in The Tobacconist Handbook and TU Glossary, but this is the first preview of the academic curriculum.

We Are Better Than "Them" Bigotry

   
“We are better than them” is a notion that anti-smokers and the anti-smoking movement hold close to their hearts and minds.  But they do not have a monopoly on that sentiment, as I just heard a cigar salesman tell me that “we are better than them” when referring to cigarette smokers.
 
We know that cigars and pipe smokers enjoy tobacco very differently from cigarette smokers and the products themselves are very different.  But, dependency and patterns of use does not make anyone better than another.
 
Are you better than me because you work out four days a week and I only work out three?  Are you better because you eat more vegetables?  Are you better because you are thinner?  better looking? have more hair? etc…..  The notion that one person is better than another for the pleasures they choose, their tastes, and/or preferences is absurd, divisive, and it is the reason all smokers are losing their rights.  The anti-smoking/nanny-state/pleasure-police movement capitalizes on the notion that ‘they know better’ and that ‘they are better’.  But, this is a fraud and it is the essence of their bigotry.  The only qualitative measure of a person should derive from how they treat other people.
 
Ultimately, we must all respect each others’ rights and freedoms in order preserve our own.  Tobacco users are not “dirty”, “filthy”, or “disgusting” people any more than non-smokers, fat, or ugly people are.  In fact, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and taste is subjective, so who are we to judge?
 
Tobacconists and tobacco lovers are clearly the besmirched underdog in this society and we are going to have to change the way we view the world in order to make significant progress.  We must change our perspective, become less divisive, build more coalitions, and teach others to respect our freedoms and choices as much as we respect theirs.  If every cigar lover, as 5% of the population, convinced 12 people to respect our freedoms, then we could have a chance at surviving the tyranny of the majority.
   

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

    

- Benjamin Franklin

The Worst Freedom Is OK

As a retail tobacconist I have paid half a dozen floor taxes and tax increases this year alone.   The campaign against all smokers is in full effect around the globe while smoking bans (both indoor and outdoor), de-normalization, perpetual and unreasonable tax increases, continue to usurp our freedoms.  But the hallmark of 2009 is the prohibitions that have been put into place by the FDA (banning flavored cigarettes) and now NYC banning ALL flavored tobacco; again, under the intellectually bankrupt logic that these products are ‘attractive to children’ – even though it is illegal to sell these products to children.

Today Dr. Michael Siegel, a famous anti-smoking advocate, wrote in his blog “the anti-smoking movement is very much a religious-like one and that it is based largely on ideology rather than science.”  Now we should be able to see things clearly; smokerism and the relentless taxation is not based on science, but rather bigotry.  And smokers, along with other freedom loving people, have been saying for years that the health police/nanny state will come after soda pop, obese people, and alcohol soon enough.  Well, soon enough is already here!!!  Taxes and bans on fatty foods are becoming prevalent while European cities have started to ban happy hours!

Behavior and pleasure control has never been about health, because happiness cannot be measured in years or numbers.  As a society we must accept that cigarette smoking is the absolute worst personal freedom and then move on.  It’s OK; there will always be a WORST Freedom.  But, the key to living in free and democratic societies is to preserve freedoms, not constantly whittle away at them.  Today, smokers pay more than their fair share of the ’societal’ (health care) costs associated with smoking; they are not a burden to non-smokers.  So it must be time to leave them alone.  Otherwise, our government is just punishing people who they do not like and that is reprehensible.  At this point, it will be up to non-smokers to stand up and say “Enough Is Enough”.   Even the worst freedom is OK, now lets get on with our lives!
 

“You can only be free if I am free.”

- Clarence Darrow

 

Tobacco Prohibition 2.0: Banning Flavor

Today, the New York City city council voted 46 to 1 to ban/prohibit flavored tobacco products.  The ban does not include Menthol or Mint, like the FDA ‘Protect Your Family from Smokers’ bill, and it does not ban flavored pipe tobaccos - yet.

All of this is happening in the same city where the nanny-minded mayor changed the law so he could stay for a third term in office, banned indoor smoking, and is now trying to ban outdoor smoking in parks and beaches – because ‘children should not have to see smokers’.
 
Where are all of the infuriated people?  Where are Americans who value freedom? Individual Rights?  And not just the rights you use, but all individuals’ rights?

Within thirty minutes of this news breaking, I have witnessed emails, facebook, and twitter messages from industry members and not one of those messages had anything to do with the usurpation of our freedoms.  Topics did include: tonight’s featured bottle of wine to drink at home; something about farmville; a note about splurging on a ribeye steak because it’s ‘hump day’; a bejeweled score; what you are watching on TV or the internet; what you are smoking; what you are wearing for Halloween; what game you are watching tonight; who you are rooting for; and something about a golf tournament.

Sadly, many NYC tobacconists did not find out about the vote until the day before; so some of us are being rail-roaded and disenfranchised by the system.   But, the real problem is our own apathy and lethargy.  Where is the anger?  The vote was 46 to 1!

These prohibitions started with the FDA justifying a ban of cigarettes that have a ‘characterizing’ flavor that ‘can be attractive to children’.  Yet, this is the most bankrupt and illogical justification because IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL TOBACCO TO CHILDREN.  So, that should be the focus – stop sales of tobacco to underage children!  It’s not rocket science; you don’t have to be a genius to figure it out.  The prohibition of products that are ‘attractive to children’ is the most insipid legislative trend I have ever seen in my lifetime; it is as bad as McCarthyism, Racism, anti-Semitism, and any other ‘ism’ which is based on an ideology of hatred and bigotry.

One hundred years ago men congregated in bars, pubs, and clubs to discuss matters of the day… at the time, most of them smoked.  Yet today, we are not allowed to congregate, smoke, and talk in the same place – except for the rare retail tobacconist.  And now the walls are crumbling around us….  The guiding principle behind the founding of America was ‘the individual pursuit of happiness’…. so it was.  What is the guiding principle behind America today?

Unfortunately, the path to freedom is wrought with challenges and sacrifice.  For starters, join the CRA, get Certified, and finally, get your head out of your arse and take half of the time you spend watching TV, sports, or shopping for crap, and start fighting for your freedoms.  Otherwise, all that is worth living for, the simple human pleasures, will be lost.

Cigar Myths: Body = Strength

Body = Strength
 
Myth: The body and strength of a cigar are the same and/or related.
 
Truth: Body, in terms of flavor (taste+aroma) profile, does not necessarily correlate with the Strength of a cigar.  Strength refers to nicotine potency or the intensity of spice – two separate factors.  Body is a flavor descriptor which can refer to the depth, breadth, and richness of a tobacco (flavor).

So, a strong cigar can be medium bodied, while a full-bodied cigar can be mild or medium strength.  As an example, imagine that chicken has a mild body, while beef has a richer body, yet both can be spicy/strong, depending on how they are seasoned.