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It's hard to know sticks to try. Everyone says the ones they smoke are the best. For a complete newbie like myself the choice is unbelievable. At the moment I feel like a 6 yr old in a sweetie shop with no one behind the counter
Robusto,
The only way to lay down stock sufficently to proved aged supply is treat the way you would a wine cellar, think of the amount of stock you would need to drink 2-3 bottles of vintage wine a week/month & with aging between 5-10yrs you'll end up with a similar scenario.
First workout how long you favourite smokes need to reach pefection, if your not sure, you could consult MRN; realising that unless you smoke them 25 in a row, you will have a box on the go for a yr or two, in my case several. Remember we are talking, as Monkey66 said of stock 250- 500+.
Then work out how many you smoke a yr (check back on your diary & add 20% for good measure). Don't forget to allow for sharing with friends if you are of such a generous dispositon.
List the boxes you'd like & if you can find one or two with a few yrs one them that will give you a head start.
Plan how many you think your finnances will allow you to buy a yr. I set a budget & over the last 7yrs have stuck to it pretty closely.
Then make an annual smoke plan (hopefully see attached don't not if I can add XL file?) go through & work out whether your likely to smoke 3, 6 or more of that particular box pa. The more you smoke of one particular vitola, the more boxes you'll have to lay down of it. I smoke a large variety & only the box I hold are listed on this form. Those listed at the bottom are the single I have brought/swapped/ gifted/ 'inherted'. These have waved my plan over the last two yrs, allowing me to let my boxes age more whilst I consume stock aged by others.
I know there are lots of you already thinking 'anorak' & I am fairly flexible about my actual smoking, it's not often I smoke the predicited amount but it has served a useful guide.
I know when you only have 50-100 stix you can't see this far ahead & it seems in a completely different league but it's easier than you think with planning & some cash slated away (the odd bonus & savings coming up helped me).
There are too many varibles to be accurate of course. The amount you smoke changes from yr to yr depending on enthusiam, weather & health. Your tastes change as you try new brands & of course there's a constant stream of new EL & RE's coming along to tempt you from the planned path.
But why spend so much on EL's that have tobbaco aged a couple of yrs when you can smoke your own 5-10 yr stix?
Any sensible questions can be PM'd & if the attachment doesn't work, I can email the spread sheet to anyone whose interested in starting something similar. I know there are programmes out there far more complicated than mine but it serves my purpose.
Senortoothless.gif simplesimon....your a thoughtful hombre and put up some interesting posts...
...but Jesus H. Crist, man - Fix your "enter" Key.smiley1848.gif
Just a few spaces between sentences every now and then would be nice....nice, indeed!
Perdon Senor TJ, I had comms problems last night & had tried to enter a corrected copy doesn't seem to have taken. Hopefully it's slight more readable now. Hope your feeling better now?
Simon Bolivar: Liberator of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Venezuela.
Mark, keep an eye on the for sale and box splits sections, i have used blind faith and made great purchases every time, i too have a plan buy 5, smoke 2, stock 3, its almost working,
Senor hoggrande is correct! But if you are trying to age a few sticks on a budget, I suggest you use the method suggested by the late, great don TJ, TJ Coro, and I quote:
"This can get quite expensive, as you can imagine. So another aging method I use is to save the last two cigars of each box, mark them with the factory code and date, and store them in a seperate box in my humidor. I currently have two boxes of pairs aging this way- the oldest with 7 years and the youngest with 2. "
Currently, the old bastard has over 3 boxes of two-fers going back to 2002, with a few singles from 1990!
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Walk away from don TJ's aging boxes BB, and think of England!
TJ - using your method of stashing 2/3 sticks from each box away to age. At what stage do you decide to give the "aged" sticks a firey send off?
TJ - using your method of stashing 2/3 sticks from each box away to age. At what stage do you decide to give the "aged" sticks a firey send off?
Umm. Good question,senor spirit.
I leave that decision up the spirit of the puro - the puro will let me know when it's time.
I've always imagined it would be a nice, sunny summer day and nary a cloud in the sky, with my favorite books and perro at my side....perhaps one or two of Catalina Joy's amigas...
But if forced to speculate, I would say a good time to spark up would be around 10 years, but no earlier than that!
sigpicVaya con Dios, Amigos! - don TJ and the Coros
I have only started to buy boxes very recently, and I have no real aged stock to speak of yet. Unfortunately all the cubans I have bought in the past got gobbled up quickly as I just cant resist.
I am working on the ageing thing however.....
My cuban stock consists of -
2 boxes of P SD4s ( one of which is nearly a year old )
1 box of JL2s dated Jul 2010 and 10 singles of various dates
I have only started to buy boxes very recently, and I have no real aged stock to speak of yet. Unfortunately all the cubans I have bought in the past got gobbled up quickly as I just cant resist.
I am working on the ageing thing however.....
My cuban stock consists of -
2 boxes of P SD4s ( one of which is nearly a year old )
1 box of JL2s dated Jul 2010 and 10 singles of various dates
30 HDM PRs (15 of which are now 16 months old).
Your on the way
Originally posted by Simon Bolivar
Little medical correction there Steve, you will surely die...but not from smoking these
I leave that decision up the spirit of the puro - the puro will let me know when it's time.
I've always imagined it would be a nice, sunny summer day and nary a cloud in the sky, with my favorite books and perro at my side....perhaps one or two of Catalina Joy's amigas...
But if forced to speculate, I would say a good time to spark up would be around 10 years, but no earlier than that!
The only problem I can forsee in my case is that the longer I age them, the harder it will be to bring myself to smoke them. I am a sentimental bugger like that.
I leave that decision up the spirit of the puro - the puro will let me know when it's time.
I've always imagined it would be a nice, sunny summer day and nary a cloud in the sky, with my favorite books and perro at my side....perhaps one or two of Catalina Joy's amigas...
But if forced to speculate, I would say a good time to spark up would be around 10 years, but no earlier than that!
That fabled sunny day eh... looking forward to a few of those this summer so that I can sit outside and smoke a few of the small stock that I'm building up. I guess at this stage in things for me, it's planning what sticks to smoke this summer is the main thing...
The only problem I can forsee in my case is that the longer I age them, the harder it will be to bring myself to smoke them. I am a sentimental bugger like that.
My goal is to have a rolling stock of 5-10 year aged sticks at which point I should only need to buy 50 or so sticks per year that I smoke to top up. This means a ageing stock of 250-500 sticks.
Such is the theory
As the saying goes: "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions"
I've also been collecting with ageing in mind but it's hard to keep my hands off those tasty beauties.
The original rule was: "Leave to rest for 2 years minimum."
Sure, except for the ones you smoked before you got the box home, the ones you sampled "just to be sure" during the two years... etc. etc. etc
With a 50 cigar limit on Duty Free imports, I have only so many boxes coming in during the year. My "Wish List" for shopping trips to Cuba always has all the boxes that I'm running low on but with so much to choose from, I often buy boxes of something else.
Result: while I have almost 150 boxes in my humidor, many boxes are 1/2 full or less.
Not that I can complain too loudly-I've been enjoying many smokes in my collection that have 8-10 years on them and whenever possible, I buy boxes that already have some age. The ones that are sadly missed are those cigars from 1995-2000 that were smoked up while my stock was building.
The advice to "buy two" of everything is good as far as it goes but unless you have a big budget and are importing (illegally, yes, but everyone seems to be doing it) dozens of boxes every year, it will take willpower and buying a lot of singles at local B&Ms to preserve your treasures while building up the ageing stock.
Hey BB! I think I'm gonna' be sick....smiley3911.gif
don TJ and the 
Coros
Senor hoggrande is correct! But if you are trying to age a few sticks on a budget, I suggest you use the method suggested by the late, great don 
TJ, TJ Coro, and I quote: 
But if forced to speculate, I would say a good time to spark up would be around 10 years, but no earlier than that! 
As the saying goes: "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions"
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