Cigar Companero Premiere Edition 2008 Cigar Aging

     I walked into a local cigar shop which was
more like a smoke shop with a small humidor,
and headed right into the humidor which is for
me like walking into a candy store. The
store has not been doing too well I guess and
there are lots of empty boxes and some full and
some half full with no extra stock in sight. Down
on their luck it seems like the person in the store
was a lady who obviously knew nothing of cigars,
as I walked out of the humidor with a couple of
Punch andLa Gloria Cabana cigars and placed
them on the counter. They were decorated with
some nice little white spots all over the top and
the lady says to me "Let me wipe them off for
you or would you rather pick some that do not
have them spots on them." I told her," If you do
you just lost a sale." I then explained to her that
the spots were a good sign of an aged cigar. She
says that the boxes were brand new and they had
just received them recently. Knowing that she
was nowhere in the same world as I was when it
came to cigars I told her these are fine, I will take
a discount if you that would make you feel better,
so I got a 15% discount on 4 cigars. Then she was
very thoughtful and gave me a copy of Cigar
Magazine at no charge. I picked up the cigars gently
and asked for a bag to put them in and gave her the
prices off them as I did not want them mishandled,
which was a possibility with her being naive of cigars.
      Cigar aging, the marrying of the tobacco leaves of the cigar, is an art form itself. Many pick up a cigar see dark spots or white spots and think they have a bad cigar. Leaving the store I felt pretty good about myself in finding my little treasure spot, I think this was a good as find as finding that little Opus X selection in the local mall tobacco shop. I will be back now that I have taken a few off the top of the box and see how the rest are doing, I am sure I will go back in a couple of weeks and find some more little white spots growing on the ones that are not on top getting some air. Yes, the key to aging warm humid air. The warmer the better but you probably do not want to go much higher than 75 degrees.
     Cigar aging is an art form within itself, and essential to those who collect cigars and to the cigar manufacturers prior to packaging and shipping a cigar. Manufacturers after rolling a cigar at least have to shelve the cigar for 2 to 3 months. Most manufacturers today shelve them for a year or two; the best are shelved for 4 years. I recently had the opportunity to smoke a cigar that the tobacco had been aging since 1962 at least, the pre-embargo Cuban Tobacco. WOW, this is something out of this world, I imagine it had been stored and sealed for some 40 years and it was probably cured and aged prior to being stored for all this time. Now it was rolled up and not sure how long it was aged after rolling, but you can literally taste the age of this cigar. Not bitter but well aged and potent. Has to be the best cigar I have ever smoked. This cigar cannot be compared to anything that I know of. Of course there are some that have bought boxes that are decades old, but I never have and these $20 sticks were a huge treat. Just goes to show the aging by the manufactures whether they use secret methods or various amounts of time, have a huge impact on the cigar. Some like Padron, just use the common method such as water and air, and they still come up with the some of the best cigars ever. Others use methods such as wrapping in burlap, leather, and even palm tree trunk bark.
     Many pick up a cigar see dark spots or white spots and think they have a bad cigar. The little white spots or white blotches are sometimes confused with mold. Mold being a fuzzy looking blue-greenish color is not good for aging, in fact, if you notice under the wrapper it is best to toss that cigar as it could be. If it is on the outside simply take a clean cloth and wipe it off. Then you may want to separate it from the rest of your humidor and examine your humidor for other signs of mold. Someday we will get more into the molds but for now let's stick to the positive aspect of aging without mold. If it is under the wrapper or in the foot of the cigar, throw the cigar away, it is not savable and can contain toxins that may be very unhealthy or even deadly. White spots or blotches are called plume or bloom. These are what we call the candy of cigars. The bloom comes from the marriage of tobacco leaves, when leaves are fermenting they shed oil and the oil mates the leaves into forming a union as one. So that is why we use the use of the word marriage when speaking of tobacco aging.
      What do I do to make my cigars bloom or plume? The right combination of air, temperature, and humidity make for the best aging results. Leaving a box sealed and never opening will yield no results. The cigar ages, but the cigar cannot breathe and get the air flow and humidity it needs to marry the leaves and ferment properly. Moisture and air at the right combination are invaluable when it comes to aging properly. First you want to keep air moving, but at a temperature around 70 degrees as close as possible. If you have froze your cigars and are quite content that their may not be any eggs to hatch you can raise the temperature. The highest you would want to go is about 75 degrees, and you might want to keep you humidity at 70% or below. Typically you would drop the humidity to 65% but that is a preference and really does not hurt the cigars too much as long as you do not go below 65%. That is probably the best to see bloom be created the fastest, about 75 degrees and 65% humidity. However, it is always good practice to check your cigars very often to make sure they are not drying out or cracking or anything. The best way to test is to put the cigar between two fingers and very lightly push and hold up to your ear so you can hear. It is okay to hear slight cracking but very slight. If it is heavy sound than they are too dry, if there is no sound means they are too wet. The best sound is very slight cracking sound and a soft second push gives no sound and a slight give. This is a art in itself and should be shown how to do before you get carried away and ruin all your cigars. You don't want to do this everyday to your cigars, or even often, just when you suspect they may be dry or need attention. Rule number 1 on cigar care, handle as least as possible. That is why you see photos of when they make them they carry them around in bundles often wrapped in newspaper or something, to keep from handling the wrappers with your own hands. So be careful handling, if I am going to handle the cigars a lot, like when I check them and move trays around, I use them surgical gloves we keep around the house for when I have to cook and handle meat and such. They are disposable so a new pair every time of course.

     There is always the cellophane controversy. Should I leave them in cellophane or remove them? Well for me I have discovered it really does not matter. They bloom either way. I have seen within a year or better a Fuente Anejos that was in storage open to air and was in cellophane and had awesome bloom. It was in cellophane and wrapped in cedar. I also saw a Punch with about the same amount of time maybe a little less bloom just as well, no cellophane and no cedar. The main thing is stability of the environment; I repeat myself often about this, moisture content, air, and temperature. That is all that really matters. Cellophane is useful in ways. I keep my cigars in trays so they can breath. If you have cigars that are all different it is best they are in cellophane so when they are lying next to one another you don't have a Maduro lying against a Natural and so forth. Also they may help with bug infestation so I have heard; they help keep the wrapper form getting damaged. I do both some cigars in cellophane some are not, but I prefer they are unwrapped, just a personal preference. No harm has done either way unless you damage the wrapper that is or leave a Natural against a Maduro too long.
      Now for what I understand as layman's terms in relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air at a given temperature given in a percentage as compared to the maximum amount of water vapor that air can hold at the same temperature to the point of saturation. The best that we know of for cigar storage is 70% humidity and 70 degree temperature. This is known as 70% relative humidity. When air temperature rises, its ability to hold moisture increases. With a specific amount of moisture in the air say 70%, the relative humidity will decrease as temperature rises, and vice versa, relative humidity will increase as temperature decreases. Say you have 70% humidity and 70 degree temperature, temperature increases by 2 degrees and the amount of water in the air stays the same but relative humidity is now 68%. This is what I understand, and the way my humidor reacts concludes this. I have a thermoelectric igloo that has been outfitted with a CMT Habitat Monitor and Humidification system. Normally it is 70% humidity and 70 degrees temperature. When the temperature raises by a degree or two the relative humidity drops a degree or two. Then the monitor will react to the adjustment and add more moisture, in turn the temperature adjusts. Personally that is way too much for my simplistic non scientific mind, but it is somewhat of an understanding and may not be a prefect conclusion. But at least I think I understand it. So if you want to or need more explanation you should probably study up on understanding the relationship between air temperature and humidity in controlled climate environments.*
       So here is my conclusion and what I have found with personal aging. I have personally found that if you raise the temperature a degree or two and lower the humidity the same amount of degrees, your cigars seem to ferment a little quicker than raising humidity and lowering temperature. Also you want to be careful not to raise the temperature to much and start hatching larva of cigar beetles.
       Let's talk about that a little. Many of cigars are ruined because of these pesky bugs. Remember storage is key, as these bugs also like dog food, pantries, and many other forms of food.. Also humidors are usually lined with Spanish cedar not because of the aroma, these pesky bugs hate aromatic wood. And you cannot use real cedar as it is a soft wood, Spanish cedar types are a hardwood and react better with humidity than soft wood. Some cigar manufacturers do not take great precaution necessary to keep the eggs form hatching in tobacco. The best method that I have found is to freeze all my cigars when I get them, I have placed singles in my humidor and paid the ultimate price for not freezing EVERY cigar I place in my humidor or igloodor as some call it. The method I find best is to place the cigars in a freezer Ziploc bag and use a straw to suck all the air out and vacuum seal. You have to close the zip right up to the straw at the very end of the zipper and suck out the air and pull the straw out quickly and seal. Then you place just this one small bag with other small ones in a larger freezer Ziploc and vacuum the air out of that one. Then you carefully place this bag into a paper bag, actually I use two so the cigars never actually touch anything in the freezer and damage the cigar. I make sure I put cardboard below the bag and nothing sits on top. This way no metal or plastic that is frozen touches the bags. Care is key in cigar storage. Leave them in the freezer for 4 days, and then remove to the fridge at 40 degrees for 24 hours, then to the wine cooler at 60 degrees for another 24 hours. This way the cigars do not get temperature shock and the wrappers crack or peel. Also being vacuum sealed there is very little if any moisture removed form the cigar. When moved back to the humidor there needs to be great care in making sure they are handled very carefully and the humidity and temperature are monitored very closely for at least 24 hours and kept from drastic changes.
      So back to aging, warmth seems to help bloom. Too much humidity means mold. So 70/70 rule helps both the bloom effort and reducing mold. Aged cigars have what some may call a harsh or stronger taste. I tend to refer to this as a mature taste; it can be smoked slower and enjoyed more. If a good cigar is smoked to quick it is going to get harsh and hot anyway. A well aged cigar can be subtly enjoyed over a longer time and the taste is far superior to a fresher cigar. Great care is not only taken in the care and storage of cigars but is taken in smoking and enjoying the cigar. A good cigar is never rushed. Now that we have discussed that some you may be just as confused as when you started, that is okay, just work on it and stick to the basics and don't try anything that sounds crazy, because it probably is, nothing helps age cigars better than plain old water, temperature, and time.

*Notes used from instructions given to me by CMT Inc., manufacturer of the Habitat Monitor.

Marc Cote