No more aging cigars for me

[gibbleguts]

Ok it's official I will no longer buy any cigars to age that are any less rare then regionals. EL's not remotely close to rare enough. Now I know unfortunately this isn't the same for everbody but here's the story. 3 years ago some friends brought me back a box of punch punch's from 05. I figured that punch not being available in canada this would be a great box to age. Not that long ago Punch's started arriving in Canada and a box showed up at the store I work at from 03. That was 3 years of not smoking from the box to find older ones on a local shelf. At the festival I picked up a box of sancho panza non plus from 97. I am not going to say that it was the best cigar that I have ever had but it is the only cigar that I have smoked 4 of in a day and still looked forward to the fifth. If I had known they were going to be that good I would have saved them and brought them back. Worst part is that I still expect to go back next year and find another box of them. I also picked up a box of SP#2 from 03 just to smoke while there. Today I went into a B&M I don't normally go to and picked up a sancho panza belicoso from 02 that I am smoking as I write this(it's amazing). They also had EL's from 01,03,04 and 05. I didn't pick any up yet but it just drives me crazy to think that any cigar I would ever think to age I might be able to find on a normal shelf.

Just my rant of the day.

 

[jgaeta]

haha, feel free to send me any cigars you were planning on aging and i will take over from here!

seriously though, that is pretty awesome that you can go to a local shop and they sell aged sticks. i went to a shop by my buddies house this weekend and they made a big deal over a box of RyJ something or others that were 3 years old. i didn't buy any because they had marked them up over the current year something or others. then again, i guess aging cc's is more "beneficial" than nc's (over a long period of time).

 

[hdroadglide]

:sadcry::sadcry::stickbeat:sadcry::sadcry:

 

[Danilo]

sucks that after you put time into a box, you walk into a store and find an aged one.

 

[Phi Delt]

Crazy stuff, eh Aaron. Where was it that you went to?

 

[jwintosh]

dayum! sucks to be you!! :lookaroun

 

[Moro]

All the Punch? Or ye can only get a few right now?

 

[ezrider]

dayum! sucks to be you!! :lookaroun

that's funny.............LOL................:bickering

 

[smokinghole]

Not that they're anywhere on the same plane but I know of some aged cigars where I work. We have some original white boxes of Drew Estate Naturals left, think the perfecto and the "white rabbit". Then we have some sort of NC HDM artsy fartsy cigars with a fancy picture on the box. They have some old stock from when they bought the prior owner out.

 

[Moglman]

It's great that you can get boxes with a little age locally. For me, every box I've aged myself has been better than those picked up from elsewhere with the same age. This may be partially because I made the effort, but mostly I feel it's because I know exactly the conditions it has been in the entire time it's been sitting. There have been too many aged boxes I have picked up that are too wet, too dry, musty/dank smelling, moldy, etc. and it's obvious the storage conditions were far less than optimal.

 

[Harvard]

I would just love the opportunity to walk into a store and purchase CC's over the counter. Nice problem to have! If it makes you feel better you can send the young ones you've been aging to a good home here......

 

[CSMoFo]

Man, it sounds like it's all good.

 

[Hardcore]

Sounds like a luxury problem Aaron!

 

[e-man67]

Yeah...I got a box of Partagas sent to me and I was shocked they were from 2000! Wow! :smokingbo

 

[njstone]

I feel your pain..but it seems like a rare and COOL find to score a nicely aged box at a shop. I personally have only seen a couple aged things at local shops, and they were all the super expensive sticks (hence them sitting so long).

 

[cigarguy71]

I could only wish that we could have that problem sorry Aaron.

 

[smokem94]

I wish I had your problem.....can't go to the festival and my B&M doesn't have aged habanos!!:grinFU:

 

[hdroadglide]

can't you just feel the love with this thread, aaron??:rolling:

sometimes you just get a little sand in your mangina!!

 

[tubaman]

The one thing that you can never replace however if you buy your own box and age them yourself to 10+ years is that you KNOW that you (hopefully) aged them in a proper environment. When you buy aged stock, you really don't have any idea what the storage conditions were like for all of those years. There are times when you can ascertain the provenance of the cigars, but most of the time it's a crap shoot. THIS is where a long, steady relationship with a vendor that you have taken the time to get to know, instead of flip flopping between whatever vendor has the best price, will help you get the real information on vintage cigars.

 

[gibbleguts]

The one thing that you can never replace however if you buy your own box and age them yourself to 10+ years is that you KNOW that you (hopefully) aged them in a proper environment. When you buy aged stock, you really don't have any idea what the storage conditions were like for all of those years. There are times when you can ascertain the provenance of the cigars, but most of the time it's a crap shoot. THIS is where a long, steady relationship with a vendor that you have taken the time to get to know, instead of flip flopping between whatever vendor has the best price, will help you get the real information on vintage cigars.

One thing on that is almost no stores in Canada carry enough inventory for there own aging. So every thing on the shelf is there only box of it usually. Whether is is young or old it has been through the exact same hands. Unlike Hong Kong or Switzerland the only one with any real stocks is the distributor Havana House. They get their cigars straight from Cuba. The only times I have noticed any issues with cigars in Cuba they were visible signs of improper storage. All the aged boxes I have smoked out straight from Cuba have been the best cigars I have ever smoked. I agree that it would be nice to have all the control of aging but I have had dud fresh boxes as well as old. It is very nice being able to try the box already aged before buying stocks. Now that said the longest I have ever aged a cigar on my own is 5 years and it was good but just much nicer to buy a 10 year old cigar off the shelf and if you like it buy the rest. We really see a lot of that in our store. We always stock black princes that were discontinued in 02 when we get a new box everyone tries to be the first to try it because when they are on that person takes the rest. Now some of this inconsistency could be storage issues but then you just wait for the next one.:thinkidea