Do your cigars improve with age (NC)?

[Cigary43]

Originally Posted by Briandg

I've had almost 100% in regard to improving with age.

do not believe that they don't ferment any more; storing any organic product that is packed with environmental pathogens at 70/70 will still allow bacterial/fungal/etc. action on that product. Milk sours even when refrigerated; the things in tobacco continue to be worked on by other microbes.

Even at that, the chemicals in tobacco still break down even on their own, as they age in oxygen, just like a banana on a counter, or newspaper in your recycle bin. They evaporate, as well.

Lots of chemical changes are taking place. they may not necessarily get better, as some good things will disappear but you know, that eventually, anything that sucks is also going to disappear.

I look at them as getting milder, less harsh, more focused, and more flavorful most of the time. Some of them, notably shade grown, tend to turn grassier and leafier, and not necessarily better.

There must be at least a dozen different things that act upon an aging cigar. Microbes, evaporation, chemical breakdown, oxidation, Cedar and other compound infiltration, etc, etc, etc... It is impossible to believe that none of this would bring about overall improvement in many cases. In the much longer term, most of these processes would also eventually reach zenith, and the improvement will reverse into decline. The trick is to catch it when the characteristics that you prize are present, before they start to go downhill,

AND SMOKE THEM ALL RIGHT THEN.

Exactly. For those of us who have been smoking a lot of years we know my experience what we like and know when it tastes best at certain resting periods. The trick as was said is that once you hit that "time period" you need to get your 'smoke on'....