The Cigar Ageing Process Explained
Cigar afficionado’s swear that like a fine wine, a quality cigar gets better if it has been aged using a process that is simple, providing you start with the right ingredients. People pay lots of money for a quality aged cigar, but you don’t have to fork out lots of cash in order to have a semblence of what they enjoy. As long as you start with a good quality cigar and a good cigar humidor, you too can age your cigars from your own home.
Start with a quality cigar if you are going to age them yourself. If you use a cheap cigar, you will probably be disappointed with the end result and the time will have been wasted. It takes about a year for the ageing process to complete. This is probably the minimum time you should allow. A rule of thumb when choosing is to find one that you find too strong or odourous, and this will probably be a good candidate.
You will be ageing your cigar for about a year, but in order to do so, you need to buy a good quality cigar humidor. The humidor is needed so that you can store the cigar(s) in a suitable and stable environment. Storing the cigars using the 70-70 rule is best. That is at a constant humidity of 70% and a temperature of 70 degrees fahrenheit.
Buy a good quality cigar humidor that will keep your ageing cigars in a stable environment. If you don’t and the cigar humidor doesn’t maintain temperature and humidity, it can cause the contents to dry out or become moldy, thus destroying it. Either way you will lose the contents over time and be very disappointed.
When choosing the best cigar humidor, try to find one made with cedar wood lining. Cedar wood is very aromatic and the oils in the wood mix and blend with the oils of the tobacco over time. Ascertain how many cigars you will need to hold and ensure the cigar humidor has about twice the volume of space internally. Obtaining a mix that is right will help you achieve the final result. You can enjoy a well aged cigar, and it will not have cost you hundreds of dollars.