This article is the fruit of 6 months of heavy research about cigar aging and vintage cigars.
I’m a cigar enthusiast who has caught the cigar bug, and I’m looking for the best cigars. Just like wine, fine cigars require fine aging to reach their peak. Generally, the longer the better. All things considered, Cuban cigars shouldn’t be consumed before they have at least a year beyond their boxing date, which is written on the box.
This is due to many factors, but the first one is that ammonia takes time to escape from the tobacco leaves. Ammonia does not taste good; it tastes strong. Some people tolerate that and do not want to wait, while most prefer the other flavors present in a cigar. If you want to discern those flavors (and most people want their cigar to taste awesome), you need to let the ammonia escape before your palate can enjoy the rest.
This is why aged cigars come into the picture. First of all, the ammonia is gone, and the cigars can be enjoyed to their maximum potential. Then another process occurs, called micro-fermentation. Tobacco is a living product; it continues to evolve even after being cut — it’s alive. This is why humidity and temperature come into play. In order for a cigar to mature, it needs to be stored with enough moisture, so it doesn’t dry out and lose its flavor. You don’t want the oil glands to dry up.
You also don’t want those chemical reactions to happen too quickly. That’s where temperature comes in. As you learned in high school, temperature sometimes acts as a catalyst for chemical reactions. Food spoils faster at room temperature than it does in the fridge. The same goes for cigars; you want those changes to happen, but you also want to allow time for them, so you have to regulate the temperature.
So here are the specifications: the best conditions for storing cigars to age them are around 60–65% humidity and 14°C to 16°C. That’s it — you have it. In those conditions, your cigars can continually improve for at least 10–15 years. For the most exceptional cigars out there, this improvement over time can be achieved over 30–50 years, at least! They could even last up to 100 years if the fermentation is slowed down enough ; we just don’t know at this point.
Now those are the conditions that are best for aging cigars for many, many years. You are free to experiment or disregard them, but after countless hours of research, this seems to be the ideal scenario. You can try to speed up the process by increasing temperature or humidity, but doing so puts your cigars at risk of tobacco beetles, mold, or decay.
Now that this is said, those are NOT the best parameters for smoking cigars. If you smoke a cigar at 60% humidity, you will miss out on 80% of its flavors. The cigar needs more moisture inside to fully experience its range of flavors. You need to raise both the temperature and the humidity BEFORE lighting it up. Water plays a significant role in the amount of smoke and flavor released by a cigar.
If you want to enjoy your cigar at its best, you probably want to smoke it at around 65–69% actual humidity. This will provide more smoke and more flavor. The process of increasing the humidity from 60–65% to 65–69% takes time. It usually takes about 2–4 weeks. After 2 weeks, you’ll be “getting there,” and after 4 weeks, you’ll be fully there. It’s up to you to figure out if you prefer your cigars at 69% or 72% — it’s a matter of personal taste.
No one will tell you that cigars smoke better at 60%; they don’t, but they age better. They don’t permanently lose any flavor unless the humidity drops below 55%, so you’re fine as long as you stay above that level. For those interested: why don’t we go as low as 55% humidity if it doesn’t ruin the cigars? Because it slows down micro-fermentation so much that your cigars wouldn’t reach their peak during a typical human lifespan.
So that’s it, folks. You now know almost everything there is to know about aging cigars. I’m sharing this information because I grew tired of buying Cubans from a store and receiving cigars that were boxed just 3 months prior. They simply don’t taste as they should, and now you know why.
