How Old Do You Prefer Your Cigars

[Herf N Turf]

Pretty simple question, but begs a lot of complicated answers. Watch out, this one's gonna get frisky!

The premise is pretty simple; IN GENERAL, you lik'em fresh and smok'em as soon as you gett'em. One to six months rest, six months to a year of rest, 1-2 years rest, or >4 years? I thought these were pretty sturdy and generally accepted categories. I think it'll be really fun to see how the votes go. We'll no doubt get all the whys and why'fors in the thread.

Have fun with this!

[OnePyroTec]

Loaded question!
IMHO any cigar "I" would buy is ready ROTT. Look in my humidor, and AGED is dominating.

[Joe k]

I like to let mine sit for 12-24 months

[CamoSutra]

How old do I prefer my cigars to be when I smoke them? Most cigars, anywhere from one to five years; I clicked on "four or more".

How old are my cigars when I smoke them? That's a totally different question. I'm stocked up enough that some of them might survive a year or so, provided I buy plenty of others to smoke ROTT.

[T.E.Fox]

I'll always give my cigars a week or two in the humi to rest after shipping. Then they just wait their turn. I care not for the age they have on them as most I wouldn't have an exact clue. What I care about is if it tastes good when I set it on fire :D

[Tman]

I think at least half the cigars in my humidors have spent over a year in there. I do smoke some cigars ROTT just as an experiment and couple months down the road. I find most cigars benefit greatest with a month of rest. Improvement tapers off after that in increments of 6 months, 1 year, then 3 years. I'll smoke anything that tickles my mood though whether it being 5 years old or ROTT.

[piperdown]

Skipped right over 36 months huh…….

[B daddy]

I only started purchasing in any real volume about 4 years ago. So, I don't have many cigars older than that. Now everything I buy goes into the tupper for about a year or more. Then it moves into one of the desk tops. I smoke from those and they probably take a year or so to turn over. By the time I smoke it, I've had it about 1-2 years.

[Indyhp]

I started smoking cigars 3 years ago, and started real slow, a cigar a month or so for the first year. I now smoke a cigar per day most days, and only recently acquired a large enough humidor that my stash will last more than 6 months.

I buy to smoke, not to age, but now some of them should go a year or more before I finish the box.

[CPallday]

I wish I had any type of stock to have them age. One day it will happen, just not today...or tomorrow!

[Upstatemax]

I usually have at least one with in a few weeks of coming off the truck. After that I usually let them sit for at least six months and start to slowly go through them.

By the time I'm done with a box, the last few to be smoked will have over a year of rest on them.

[Jordan23]

Tricky question. So many "it depends" involved. But based on the choices, I'm in the 12-24 months bracket.

[Puff]

I clicked on more than four years. Although, that's just because I buy far too many cigars than I can smoke. I'm getting better the past year or two but still can't help myself at times.

[droy1958]

Actually, I prefer mine light, but MOST don't make it past a year.....

[Branzig]

The bulk of my cigars have 3+ years age on them. Not because I really choose to rest them this long, more so because I smoke a pipe 99.9% of the time over a stick. The added benefit? All my cigars have tasty age, the curse of the situation? Now I only like well rested sticks.... :rolleyes:

[Ilroy]

At this point I had to say 1-6 months because I only started buying cigars to hold for any length of time a few months ago. Ask me again in a couple years and my answer will likely be different.

[boro62]

to be honest, I never really bought cigars with the intent to age, I just kept buying and buying and don't smoke faster than I buy them. Now I just rotate through them, but most stuff has over a year on them at this point.

[jhedrick83]

Almost all of mine are 2-3 years at this point with the exception of a fresh batch of opus I picked up in November. It started because I have CAD and can't help it once I find something I like, then I tried a few that had a couple years on them and loved them even more. There is one cigar that is a bit of an exception for me. There's a shop in Charleston called Lianos Dos Palmas that rolls is shop some great maduros (IMO). When they are truly fresh rolled they are awesome! Then they have a sick period that can last a few months where I won't touch them, then back to awesome! So those, I tend to either smoke ROTT or after several months.

[RocknRoll]

I'll always give my cigars a week or two in the humi to rest after shipping. Then they just wait their turn. I'm not a "buy to age guy". I'm a "buy to smoke guy". Like Fox said, I try to give mine a few weeks rest to acclimate, then they wait in line. Accounting for the frequency at which I buy and smoke, I guess I'm currently right on the border of 1-6 mths and 8-12 mths by the time a cigars number comes up. Since the time frame has been slowly edging higher since getting serious about this hobby a couple years ago, I voted the 8 -12 months option.

[mgcrunch]

Smoke one with two weeks in the humidor. Then decide on the time it needs. I have Viaje that will sit for 1 to 3 years, production CC that will sit for 3+, etc.

Typically don't crack into a box for at least six months. The number of years really depends on the cigar.

[jp1979]

Everything I have in my humi is in danger of death by fire any time I open it.

[Myfirstandlastname]

I'm not into spice bombs and am a nicotine weakling, so if I can let cigars sit for long enough or pick them up over 4 years old I do.