Often, casual smokers look down upon proper cigar aging in much the same fashion as the casual drinker looks down upon aging wine – “what’s the difference?” they will exclaim. Well, for the discerning connoisseur, or even just for those trying to refine their palettes, there’s quite a big difference, as anyone whom has ever had a nicely aged fine cigar right after a store bought, new one, can attest to.
There are couple of basic things you’ll need, however, to properly age your cigars (it doesn’t matter whether they’re cheap, expensive or somewhere in the middle, a aged cigar will always taste better, though they will not necessarily smell better, especially the cheap ones!). Namely, a humidor; for those that are unfamiliar with humidors, they’re essentially little storage boxes that are sealed against the elements (though there are larger sizes as well, not all humidors are small).
When packaging your cigars for storage, make such to put them in bare, remove any plastic, cardboard or packaging that came with them as this may, given the proper amount of time, mar the flavor. The next thing to note is that optimal storage time in a humidor is generally considered to be around a year, but a little under this time will not hurt either. However, cigars can usually (and this is especially true of higher quality cigars) be aged for up to 10 years with a continual improvement in flavor. However, after this period of time, the cigar will not gain anything from storage.
Yet it’s still recommended to keep your cigars in a humidor (or similar sealed container) as this will keep them in good condition and maintain their integrity as well as protect them from moisture, air, rats, bugs and a whole host of other problems.