What is your purpose?

[Wasch_24]

For collecting and ageing that is.

Since you guys bombed me with that Aristocrat Mini I have been constantly thinking about this.

Do you buy to age and smoke?

Do you buy to age and age and age?

Do you buy just for the sake of collecting i.e. just to have them?

The more I think about it the more I feel like I am buying to age for smoking, in the long haul.

To me, it is obvious that if the embargo ever ends Habanos are either going to go to shit or become so expensive only the really elite can afford them, kinda like Zino Platinums and such.

My feeling is that I would like to establish a large enough collection to still be smoking 3 or 4 cigars a week 30 years from now regardless if Habanos become legal and out of reach, price wise, for me or not.

I would like to have a couple boxes each of my current favs, making sure to procure new found favorites along the way, ageing at all times in such numbers as to where I can smoke a couple of each every few months or so.

I really look forward to the day I can be smoking a 25 year old cigar that was rolled around this time and be able to look back upon my own experiences with that cigar through the years.

What do you guys aspire towards?

 

[AZsteelman]

Hell, I'm just getting started...only been a year now and at this point, I'm just a collector. I do, however, intend to have a huge stash and let them age for better days. Buy them now, while I can afford it and smoke them later when I'm old sitting on the deck...

 

[cvm4]

I'm about 1/2 collecting special stuff and 1/2 collecting to age. Haven't smoked in about 2 weeks so there's a good byproduct :smile:

 

[jcgoldner]

Sounds like a great plan Todd!

Right now I am trying to buy cigars with a few years age on them and ready to smoke now. I have nothing to store smokes in for long term aging, and the budget to buy a cabinet humi or the smokes to fill them will not be there until my youngest son finishes college in a year and a half.

My long term aspiration would be to have a good size cabinet humi and purchase my favorite smokes in cabs for long term aging. I'd like to pick up special edition smokes along the way too. After a few years I'd like to always be smoking aged cigars at their prime and enjoy them till the day I die!

 

[thebigo]

I've read an edition of the Cigar Companion and was reading about aging. I was wondering if anyone with a butload of experience on aging could post a new thread talking about what happens in the aging process (does it mellow them out, do they lose some of their bouquet, which is what the book says. After 10 years a darker cigar will lose its bouquet and less for lighter cigars), what happens, at a chemical, etc level (ammonia is diffused and released from the cigar?), the time limit or goal for cigars and certain cigars, etc. I will post if I have any other aspects of aging I can think of.

 

[Wasch_24]

BigO, you need a copy of MRN buddy. :thumbsup:

 

[thebigo]

I need elaboration about "MRN buddy :tumbsup:"

 

[Wasch_24]

Min Ron Nee

He wrote an encyclopedia on Havana cigars and within that 'pedia is an excellent section describing the ageing process.

 

[MichiganM]

I'm just getting back into cigars after a year or so out of them. At my prime I had about 500 primo cigars. I've never been the kind of person to not enjoy what I have...I'm definitely not a pack rat. My goal this time around is to have a collection of about 40-60 boxes within 10 years...with all of those boxes being cigars I know I truly enjoy through taste testing. I'd like to have a couple trays of singles for rainy day cigars that might be special..but I would limit that to maybe 100 or so cigars. Cigars are for smokin to me...I've had cigars with a little time on them and I like them. I also like young ones. I just want a large collection because it adds to the hobby for me. I try to smoke every day though, so I'd need a collection that large just for "current" stock.

 

[N2Advnture]

Todd...email me please :thumbsup:

 

[thebigo]

thanks wasch

 

[Headbanger]

I bought a buttload of NC 5 pk samplers & a few cheaper boxes to try. So now have probably 200 sticks in a cooler and a 150 ct humidor half full. Problem is, I am walking down the dark path recently and want to BUY, BUY, BUY to TRY, TRY, TRY those also. Cause I really do not know what I like fully yet. Even confusing me is the NC vs CC situation now as well. So for now, I am accumulating tons of different smokes until I figure what are like my top 20 to 25 smokes or so.

I am really interested in a Mini cab also in the very near future. Then would be to start buying boxes I like until there ready to smoke. I smoke only a few sticks a week. For me, nothing truely long term like 10 years of anything. So when I do buy the boxes I would buy at different times so they would be ready at different times and be ready to smoke.

So I would fall under the age until ready to smoke catagory. I hope I made sense.

 

[Jwrussell]

Hmmm, I guess my goal would be the same as yours Todd. Right now my goal is to fill my wine cooler to the brim so that I have a decent stock. I like variety, and I like participating in all the things we do around here so I like having a decent number of various sticks. Unfortunately, I'm a collector at heart, so I'm sure I'll get caught up in that aspect at some point. Right now, my purchases tend to be about 3:1, smoking stock:full box to keep. That will probably stay about the same until my means increase, lol.

 

[indyrob]

I buy for selection,I like to be able to have a choice in what I smoke. I try to get something that is ready now, as opposed to letting it age. I'm not really that disciplined enough to set something aside and not touch it.

I like my cigars to punctuate certain events or moods. My cigars help bring peace to a crazy day or add a high note to a night out with friends.

I'm all over the board as far as what I got in my humidor (highend N/C's, medium to high end habanos, to low end M/M habanos) and I think that no matter what the future holds for the availibility of the habanos, I'm sure I'll be able to find the right cigar for any paticular moment.

 

[David]

I kinda fall into same category as Cliff in regards to how often I have been smoking. I do not smoke in the house due to 2 reasons...my wifes asthma and to be quite honest with you, I just do not enjoy the smell the next day. On special occasions such as poker, I tend to "break" those rules but it does take 7 days of burning candles to get back to a normal smell.

In the summer I smoke about 1-2 sticks per week. In the winter time, I smoke maybe a stick every 2 weeks.

My point is, I am by no means going through a cab at an alarming rate. I buy a cab and could very well have over 50% of it 10 years down the road.

If my smoking schedule increased, I suppose I would go by the 2 cab rule: 1 to smoke and 1 to age but given my current consumption, it is not really feasible.

I currently have about 15 years of darkside sticks (based on my current rate of consumption)and a handful of NC's that will last 30 years. :grin:

 

[Black Dog]

I buy both to smoke and age. There are a few cigars that I particularly like, such as RASS, ERdM Choix Supreme and QdO Coronas to mention a few, that I plan to buy a box or two a year for a few years. Each succeeding year I plan to start smoking out of the newer box and then go back and sample the previous years periodically to see how they compare as they age. Within a few years I'll have enough of those to last quite a long time. Some of the larger cigars, like my box of RyJ Churchills will last a long time since I don't often get time to smoke that large a cigar. Those I'll buy every couple years. As the collection grows it won't be necessary to purchase as much current production and I intend to focus more on vintage and collecters smokes.

I'm with you on what may happen when the embargo ends. I've been thinking about that for quite some time. I see demand outrunning supply which will cause quality to suffer and prices to go through the roof. By then I hope to be sitting pretty on top of a substantial collection so I won't have to worry about it.

 

[Wasch_24]

...I'm with you on what may happen when the embargo ends. I've been thinking about that for quite some time. I see demand outrunning supply which will cause quality to suffer and prices to go through the roof. By then I hope to be sitting pretty on top of a substantial collection so I won't have to worry about it.

Either that will happen or they will price them so high for the U.S. you and I won't be able to afford them anymore...who really knows though.

 

[Kurtdesign1]

I pretty much am a buy to age guy but I also buy JUST to smoke.

If I'm buying current release (Post-98) I buy it to hold onto. If I buy vintage, i buy it to smoke over the coming future. I'm similiar to Dave in my smoking habits. Rarely do I have one on concurent days. Maybe I smoke 2 a week, maybe. So, if I crack a cab and smoke nothing else until it's gone (would never happen, but lets pretend) It'll be 6 months before I smoke another box.

 

[Wasch_24]

I think I am going to slow my roll and smoke cigars a couple times a week from now on to help with the acquisition of cigars.

Hello pipes, my new best friends. :hysterica

 

[tripp]

I wished I could buy them faster than I smoke them. Supplies are getting low again. But maybe I will win the lottery.
the cigar lottery or the real lottery.

I have a couple of sticks that are being saved for special occasions.
I am looking forward to 2006 to be a much better year for my business and make it possible to purchase a box a month to smoke and a box a month to age.