Question on aging

[Bruce T.]

I just read the news that some curing barns containing Alec Bradley tobacco burned down. Alan Rubin said that it wouldn't affect production because the tobacco was to be used in 2025, meaning that it would be aged at least 5 years.
That got me thinking about the leaf we buy from LO and WL. I have found my home-rolls are much better with a year or two on them. Unfortunately I seldom have the patience to wait that long. I assume the leaf we buy is not aged much. Do you think that leaf that is aged in a curing barn is better than leaf that is aged in a rolled cigar?

 

[webmost]

Don't you hate answers that start with "that depends..."?

But there you are. If you like Alec Bradley cigars better, for example, then, yes, you need five years in that special shed in the tropics where a guy who's been doing it all his life ever since he learned how from his Abuelo turns a pilon of hot fermenting leaves every so many weeks, sprays those leaves with special magic petuning juice, and tests from time to time. But if you don't, you don't. Many times, WLT will tell you that a certain supply of leaves was harvested in a certain year... but that doesn't tell you what happened in between. Was it fermented? What was used to petune the pilon (if anything)? Was it tested at any point? Or is it just leftover stuff sold to the norteamericano to get rid of it? Just thinking logically, the last is prolly the answer.

In this process, I don't think it's a mere matter of years. It's the guy, the fermenting, the petuning, and so forth.

Then there's this question: What're you going to do about it? Do you have generations experience aging the stuff? Do you have a big shed in the tropics full of piles and piles of tobacco? Is Alec Bradley about to tell you the recipe for their magic sauce? If none of these, then forge ahead.

Or perhaps you have never had a cigar made from pure air-cured American tobacco? It's totally different; but it works.

That said, I'm smoking a gar today that I rolled in February 2020 because, yes, time does improve them, to a point. I think that point is reached just six months down the road, tho. But a ro9lled gar will shed some roughness in it's first six weeks, and most all its roughness in six months. No fermenting required.

I'm not the one to provide you the scientific answer tho.

I lit it. Damn, this is a fine gar.


One year did wonders.

 

[blisscigarco]

I just read the news that some curing barns containing Alec Bradley tobacco burned down. Alan Rubin said that it wouldn't affect production because the tobacco was to be used in 2025, meaning that it would be aged at least 5 years.
That got me thinking about the leaf we buy from LO and WL. I have found my home-rolls are much better with a year or two on them. Unfortunately I seldom have the patience to wait that long. I assume the leaf we buy is not aged much. Do you think that leaf that is aged in a curing barn is better than leaf that is aged in a rolled cigar?

Well, some of the WLT leaf has a crop date on it, like the "Habano 15." So there you go.

I think there is a little bit of weighting to the first part of the curve: a blend that sucks can get good at 1 month, great at 2-3 months. Not sure there's even a doubling in greatness between 3 months and a year. Basic Great's good enough. Especially since most of us ain't going to wait no year.

 

[Marc L]

I assume the leaf we buy is not aged much. Do you think that leaf that is aged in a curing barn is better than leaf that is aged in a rolled cigar?

The leaf we buy is aged and, can be found in the cigars you buy at your cigar shops.