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Dried out Cigar myth or fact

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buck

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I keep hearing people on cigar forums saying that once your cigar is fully dried out it will no longer smoke the same or have the same flavor as before. They say this is due to the loss of natural oils from the leaf and no good even if slowly brought back to case. I'm sure most of these people would throw out their cigars if they accidentally left one in a drawer for a few months.

Before I started growing and reading up on processing tobacco leaves I believed that but now that I see how dry the leaves get and how dry they are stored I'm doubting this is true. If the leaves are very dry then brought to case, cigar rolled .. does it really make them less enjoyable to smoke if they dry out after they are rolled ?? If you rehydrate them slowly without splitting the wrapper/binder then they should smoke and taste very similar to one that never dried out.

I'm I missing something ?
 

Gdaddy

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I feel the same way but don't want to argue with them. Many myths floating around on other subjects as well.
 

DGBAMA

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I had a heck of a time getting a friend to beleive there were no "stale" cigarettes, only dry ones. He would not smoke from a pack that had been open more than a day. He commonly tossed the last couple smokes in a pack.
 

FmGrowit

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To suggest that at some point in the life of a leaf, it does not dry to a point under 70% RH (I have no idea what that translates into for actual moisture content), is pure sillyness.

Of course, there is a world of difference in the smoke if it is hydrated properly opposed to bone dry.
 

BarG

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I had a heck of a time getting a friend to beleive there were no "stale" cigarettes, only dry ones. He would not smoke from a pack that had been open more than a day. He commonly tossed the last couple smokes in a pack.

Heh heh, stale cigs aren't a myth. They taste like @#@#, Usually found on the floorboard of your truck weeks after a hard weekend with all kinds of wierd stains on them.
:cool:
Haven't smoked a single stale cig. since growing my own and never ending supply.
 

FmGrowit

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Cigarettes are actually a different matter. While the tobacco itself does not go bad, it is the casings that have a self life. Sealed or not, traditional, highly cased cigarette tobacco has a life of about 6 months.
 

Gdaddy

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Cigarettes are actually a different matter. While the tobacco itself does not go bad, it is the casings that have a self life. Sealed or not, traditional, highly cased cigarette tobacco has a life of about 6 months.

On that same subject... what is the shelf life of the tobacco leaf we get from you, provided we keep it in the vapor bag it came in? What RH is it when we first receive it from you?
 

ArizonaDave

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I agree. Oils crystalize, they don't as my daughter said when she was young "Mystappear". It's not a mystery, and they don't disappear.

A wrapper/binder can be easily be repaired, or re-wrapped.

If you're going to throw away money, find a good charity!

Yes, there's a lot of cigar experts who have never touched a real leaf, but there's also a lot of good people out there who get confused by the experts. This is why I like WLT and FTT so much. They dispel all the expert "myths", and you're left with better tobacco.
Most of the so called "flavors" on Cigars are sprayed on chemicals, where as True tobacco has true flavors. I'd rather have the "real" thing!

Well, if the leaf crumbles, you can still bind/wrap and smoke!
 

webmost

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About four five months ago, a brother from cigar.com sent me a couple of ancient cigars which if I recall correctly he found in a humidor at an estate sale or some such. They were so dried out they had cracked and split. I wrapped them both up with some of Don's habano.

rerolls.jpg


Then I aged both in the humidor a month or two, to bring them slowly back to life. Both smoked well enough, but very bland. I suppose I should not say without having fresh versions of the same cigars to smoke at the same time and compare. But it sure appeared as though they had lost their oils. Tasted bland.
 

BarG

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I agree. Oils crystalize, they don't as my daughter said when she was young "Mystappear". It's not a mystery, and they don't disappear.

A wrapper/binder can be easily be repaired, or re-wrapped.

Well, if the leaf crumbles, you can still bind/wrap and smoke!
.
![/QUOTE]


Thats the spirit. I like the new word. It should be added to Websters
 

FmGrowit

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On that same subject... what is the shelf life of the tobacco leaf we get from you, provided we keep it in the vapor bag it came in? What RH is it when we first receive it from you?

RH is a relative term and changes with the ambient temperature. Moisture content is a lot more important for preserving or aging leaf.

The leaf I sell will literally last 100 years. The hardest thing in saving any leaf tobacco is keeping it from being broken into little pieces. If leaf is allowed to completely dry out it will crumble.

As long as you keep the bugs out and don't allow it to become over hydrated, tobacco will last indefinitely.
 

FmGrowit

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About four five months ago, a brother from cigar.com sent me a couple of ancient cigars which if I recall correctly he found in a humidor at an estate sale or some such. They were so dried out they had cracked and split. I wrapped them both up with some of Don's habano.

Then I aged both in the humidor a month or two, to bring them slowly back to life. Both smoked well enough, but very bland. I suppose I should not say without having fresh versions of the same cigars to smoke at the same time and compare. But it sure appeared as though they had lost their oils. Tasted bland.

Vintage Habanos are the most expensive sticks on the market.

The highest end commercial sticks are made with tobacco that has been allowed to age 4 years then allowed to rest in a 70/70 warehouse for four years....that's why they're $20+ a stick.
 

deluxestogie

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Over the past few years, I've smoked 1987 Henry Clay Brevas, 2002 El Rey del Mundo Obsequios, 2000 Hoyo de Monterrey Estelo Aniversarios, 2002 Flor de A. Allones Especiales No. 5, and a few others that I can't remember right now.

The 23 year old Henry Clays were as rough as new ones--not a cigar for the timid, with pretty much the same flavors--maybe a smidge lower nicotine. Both the Rey del Mundos and the Hoyos (12 and 14 years old) had become less flavorful and less distinctive of their brands. The Flor de Allones, at 12 years are (I still have some) smoother and slightly more subdued than the 2011 and 2012 versions of the same cigar. All of these were purchased from JR, so I know they were properly stored (in the largest cigar humidor in the world).

My conclusion is that properly stored cigars do slowly lose some of their zing. But it seems to be measured in decades, rather than years. Certainly not in months or weeks.

As to totally desiccated cigars that are subsequently restored, I experienced three different batches: a box of pre-embargo Flor de Farrach habanos, smoked ~35 years after the start of the embargo, a box of Herencia double coronas that were so awful that I ignored them for about 15 years, and a box of Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey coronas purchased by a friend in Canada, and transported in a hot car during the remaining month of his road trip. The Flor de Farrach were nice cigars, but didn't particularly taste like a Havana--nothing newer to compare them to. The Herencia cigars eventually smoothed out, and absorbed a lot of cedar from their box. The Cuban Hoyos, once restored, were just plain wonderful.

Again, they do change, slowly, measured in decades. Having said that, there is no question that cigars (and whole leaf tobacco) change a lot during their first 1 to 2 years after curing, and seem to settle down after about 3 or 4 years. So when you buy most cigars and most whole leaf, it has already undergone its early changes, and will be fairly stable for the next decade, at least. Cycling in and out of case is mostly a risk to the delicate wrapper of a cigar, since the filler at the foot rehydrates before the body and head.

Bob
 
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