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BOTL UPCOMING MAINTENANCE
Hi Everyone, as mentioned in my introduction post, BOTL needs quite a bit of updating, patching and whatever else I might come across. Over the next few weekends BOTL may be unreachable on occasion as I do migrations or updates, etc. Just be patient - we'll be back! I'll generally try to keep these maintenances until later in the evenings.
Optimal resting/acclimatization time
- Thread starter Jrfoxx
- Start date
This depends so much on initial condition, but I recommend 90 days. So many vendors seem to ship super wet, so I've found over the years that there is a huge benefit to letting them settle down and (usually) dry out a bit. Flip side is if they are too dry, this will also give them time to rehumidify. This tends to hold especially true for CC, as I find a lot of them ship super wet, and you generally want them at lower humidity anyway (62-65RH). You can solve some over humidification issues by dry boxing too. I store all my cigars at around 65RH, but live where it's super humid as well and smoke outside exclusively, so tend to dry box everything anyway before smoking.
Thebutcher
testing testing.....is this thing on?
It seems to me that suppliers are more worried about dry sticks and cracked wrappers then mold, most of the NC's I get are wet when they arrive I go 30-90 days.
Interesting anecdote ,when I had a small humidor (50 or so sticks) and I purchased from the local B&M the RH went up 2-3 points in my humidor for a few days every time.
I keep mine at 63-65 RH. I haven't orderd enough CC's to have an opinion.
Interesting anecdote ,when I had a small humidor (50 or so sticks) and I purchased from the local B&M the RH went up 2-3 points in my humidor for a few days every time.
I keep mine at 63-65 RH. I haven't orderd enough CC's to have an opinion.
It depends on the supplier. I will smoke singles from Neptune right off of the truck. For most companies that send sticks with a humidity pack I will try one off the truck to test for potential.
For boxes and non-humidified shipments I find two weeks is good for the first test. Two months is when they usually reveal their true nature/potential.
Over time I've come to believe 1-2 months is best, but it depends on the brand. I got some Oscar Altar Q cigars and everybody is saying 3-4 months is best for the first smoke.
So, long story short, it isn't universal.
For boxes and non-humidified shipments I find two weeks is good for the first test. Two months is when they usually reveal their true nature/potential.
Over time I've come to believe 1-2 months is best, but it depends on the brand. I got some Oscar Altar Q cigars and everybody is saying 3-4 months is best for the first smoke.
So, long story short, it isn't universal.
This thread makes me think of my poor Ashton Maduros. Tried a single and it was the most delicious thing ever, so I bought a fiver to age. Not sure what the hell happened...they've hit around a year in the tupperdor but EVERY one I've tried so far has been hard as a rock and tastes like a wet ashtray. All the other sticks that I let mellow in there a while only got better. Not these poor fellas. 
So, standard disclaimer: not all cigars react favorably to aging. And by aging, I'm talking about multi-year, say 3 years and longer. Anything under that is just rest/acclimation. If a set of cigars really reacted that bad to rest, I'd question whether my storage conditions were ok or if those cigars are ones that truly benefit from different storage conditions. There are some cigars that are noted for smoking a bit better in higher humidity (Illusione Rothschild's have been called out for this trait as an example) so you may want to set one or two aside and into a different RH environment to see if they smoke better with more or less RH than your common storage environment. If that is the case, then you can make the determination on whether you want to setup a separate storage environment for them (assuming they need more RH) or change tactics and use dry boxing (for lower RH loving sticks).This thread makes me think of my poor Ashton Maduros. Tried a single and it was the most delicious thing ever, so I bought a fiver to age. Not sure what the hell happened...they've hit around a year in the tupperdor but EVERY one I've tried so far has been hard as a rock and tastes like a wet ashtray. All the other sticks that I let mellow in there a while only got better. Not these poor fellas.
It can seem like a lot of work, so then you can also make the determination to just skip those sticks altogether, and focus on the ones that smoke right in your ideal storage conditions.
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- Aug 27, 2019
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It all depends on the cigar and the retailer. Wait 'til you get a "sick" cigar that tastes like ammonia
.This only has happened to me with a new cigar release from a mega-retailer, but it did suck!
I typically smoke everything after a month to rest and acclimate and honestly have found them all to be just fine in every regard.
To be fair, most of what I have received has been 2019 or 2020 box dates, so they came with a little age on them
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