Originally Posted by
earcutter
Be forewarned I am no pro but generally speaking Andrew, aging a cigar is done over years and resting one is well, placing it in your humidor for under that amount of time. Of course like any hobby, the two years thing vs say 1, 3 or 4 is debated.
Again generally speaking, you allow a cigar to rest to acclimatize after some sort of shock, like say shipping where it has been exposed to too much relative humidity (RH), or too little. You age a cigar to allow it to ferment or re-ferment as the case may be.
If you are buying your cigars on-line and having them shipped to you, yes you really should rest them as vendors usually "moisten up" the cigars for travel which will seriously effect the property's of the smoke upon lighting before a little rest. I like to do so for a min of 3 months if I can wait that long. Some cigars need more rest than others though. Some need less.
If you are buying them at a store though, you shouldn't need to rest them at all. If the store is reputable, they'll have rested there.
Again, generally speaking, you wouldn't need to age an expensive cigar. <- and saying that will really get the conversation going, but the reason they are expensive short of the cigar being trendy, is because they have already been aged. Some cigars though... oh how some cigars age ever so well :).
Speaking in absolutes on anything is risky, but especially so with cigars. Each cigar has its own thing going on. I hope that helped.
Oh and note too - cigars on-line (in America at least) are way cheaper than in a brick and mortar (b&m). So saying you smoke $30.00 cigars isn't as descriptive as you might think. That's not meant to be derogatory in any way, but stating brands is more helpful. For example were you to tell me you are smoking a Padron 1964 a $15 on-line vs $30 at a b&m, I could tell you that if bought at a b&m then you don't need to rest them and no - they don't need to be aged at all either. Their slogan after all is why would you buy an expensive cigar if you had to let them sit for years - or something like that anyway :).
Happy Herfing!!
