Thread: Cigars - Got the Itch

Originally Posted by Bayamontate

Not uncommon, some people like their strong Partagas, Bolivar, RA and R&J Cazadores strong with under a year on them. Nothing wrong with that, taste is subjective.

Bingo. I've not aged cigars, but with my pipe tobacco I enjoy many of my virginias at different stages of fermentation... sometimes I want a bright, peppery young leaf, sometimes the same leaf a few years old and mellow and sweet is more my taste. It's all about finding what you like...

...and having variety is always great. If you like a young cigar, buy a box and smoke half... then restock. Try one of the old half every year or two, and see what happens... happy is the man with many choices.

Originally Posted by BKratchmer

Bingo. I've not aged cigars, but with my pipe tobacco I enjoy many of my virginias at different stages of fermentation... sometimes I want a bright, peppery young leaf, sometimes the same leaf a few years old and mellow and sweet is more my taste. It's all about finding what you like...

...and having variety is always great. If you like a young cigar, buy a box and smoke half... then restock. Try one of the old half every year or two, and see what happens... happy is the man with many choices.

Right on! I remember a few years ago, I bought a cab of Punch SS #2 that were basically un-smokable (by me anyway) because they were so strong, stronger than the present day R&J Cazadores. I let them sit, smoking one every few months and some a year. 7 years in, when their strength met their complexity, they turned out to be great cigars.

Originally Posted by cmontgomery

Love the Boli RC's and the RASS, those are my go to cigars. I like the 06's the best. My absolute all time favorite cigar is probably the RA Belicoso from 05, I have a box sitting in the humi!

'06 was a great year. I am glad I bought a few boxes of the RYJ Cedros Deluxe #2 and a few boxes of the RASS (among others) tagged in 2006. No humidor is complete without some RASS' thrown in there imo. I fell in love with the Bolivar RC a few years ago ... I found them to be quite strong at first, but mellowed out very nicely with some age. Of course, they lost some subtle nuances due to the age. I bought a few boxes of those RC's way back in 2003 and just recently finished them up.

I go minimum 1.5 years time in the humidor before I smoke a cigar.

Really, it takes that long to humidify them.

Only after proper humidification,can the aging start !

Glad to see some smokers are on this board !!

Boli. RC from 08 were amazing right off the rollers bench, highly recommended.

I'm just waiting for the cold and snow to leave so I can enjoy a Montecristo No. 4 on my deck. Go global warming....

Been working on a box of Puerto Ricans I had hand rolled for me while visiting there recently. Bull

Business has been good and the itch needed scratching, so I went after some vintage Bolivar's on CI's MMAO. Went through:

Bolivar Vintage 2001, Da Vinci Tubo, Box of 20: $100.00 for 1 unit.($100.00 total)

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I spotted a box of 25 Chateau Real Maduro's by Drew Estate. The size was right up my ally at 5.2" x 46. They are listed at $108 on CI, so I put in an offer for $75. It was deliberating last night, but I woke up this morning to see that it went through. I've heard good things about Drew Estate cigars but have yet to try one. I figure even if it's just pretty good, it's still not bad at $3 per stick.

Congrats on the purchase Holli! Cigars International usually has really good deals, though sometimes once you start shopping on there its hard to stop until you realize you've spent half of your paycheck and have a boat load of cigars on the way . Just be careful when you're buying samplers from them and research the cigars that come in them first especially if you're picky about your cigars and don't want to run into a few dog rockets once in a while (and if so, I'd avoid the brown bag sampler, it's a gamble and some people get peeved with the result). On the other hand they've got some really good samplers as well that would allow you to taste before buying an entire box of anything.
Drew Estate makes great cigars and they can be very creative with them, some of them are a little too creative though (ex. The Wafe and The Egg; their shapes are cool, but also causes them to burn funny and be less enjoyable). Drew Estate cigars happen to be one of my favorite brands. I haven't had a Chateau Real yet (maybe I'll pick one up tomorrow night and give it a test run), but I've heard good things about them.

It's supposed to be a rule of thumb to either smoke a cigar during the first 3 months of production or after at least a year; the time in-between is called to be "sickness". Now, as it's hard to determine the exact production date of a stick, I always age my cigars for at least 1.5 years. On the very special ones I wait more, like on my Partagases and Cohibas (cuban), however today I had an extraodinary Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur that a friend of mine gave me two years ago and it was fantastic.
Good luck and congrats !!!

I had a Rocky Patel 1961 last night....I've gotta say I was actually disappointed. I expected something really special...not saying the cigar wasn't good; it was definitely not a dog rocket, but it was just more plain that I had imagined it would be. On the plus side I picked up a Tatuaje Noellas to make up for it....I'm digging Tatuajes at the moment. I think next I'll try the Patel Brothers cigar.