Cubans that are good when smoked young?

[butternutsquashpie]

Fresh rolled cigars (Customs) generally you'd say smoke them within a month of being rolled after that, let them sit for a year.

If you're cigars have come from overseas a good rule of thumb is leave them a bare minimum of a month but preferably at least 3.

Shops will tend to keep stock at 70% which for me is too wet to smoke so I want them to get down to 65% which is about a month in the humi. If you like your cigars at 70% you're pretty much ready to go though.

Regular production now is generally excellent and doesn't really need ageing to be smokeable, it's up to personal preference. There is a bit of a trend that happens with ageing ie harsh notes soften up, cigars don't get hot and gritty in the second half/final third. Leather tends to turn to cream, sweetness if there initially usually increases.

Oh boy. This topic actually brought Capt. Quintero out of hiding.

[tippexx]

Regular production now is generally excellent and doesn't really need ageing to be smokeable, it's up to personal preference.

Then I would disagree with you Greg. Rather than excellent I would use the word 'acceptable', what has been improved is the smoking characteristic ie. less failures and plugs.

Is the notion of using 2 year aged tobacco new, I doubt it. I think it's more likely a return to something Cuba used to do before it got caught up in quotas and rush production. A fact spun as a benefit and no more. A bit like suggesting using a stack of two year old bricks will lend a patina of age to a new build.

Cuban cigars do need time to improve, and that's all of them including Behike. And Monk was right to mention the leaf. We know how the old leaf aged and cigars from back then are highly desirable. Early days yet with new leaf stuff, the danger being the unknown, and that years rather than bringing a stepped improvement will bring a gradual degrading in quality.

As Meatloaf would say. Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls. The moral being if you find something you like smoke it and enjoy it, don't worry if it's old or young and don't try to second guess or predict because the chances of getting it right or wrong are equal and life's far to short as it is.