CAO Brazilia Gol! Revisited

[Jordan23]

Very nice right up, Don. This is one of my favorite cigars period. When I take my time with one it always feels like a treat. I never considered aging them though. They never make it over 36 months with me usually.

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[Herf N Turf]

Very nice right up, Don. This is one of my favorite cigars period. When I take my time with one it always feels like a treat. I never considered aging them though. They never make it over 36 months with me usually.

Yeah, that's been me a lot, too. Smoke'm up quickly, since they come nice'n ripe already.

I must say, this certainly isn't my first foray into an aged Braz'. I've had and smoked the things in just about every conceivable condition and vintage at this point. This one just did that "thing" for me on this occasion. :smoke:

[allusred]

Very nice right up, Don. This is one of my favorite cigars period. When I take my time with one it always feels like a treat. I never considered aging them though. They never make it over 36 months with me usually.

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Thanks for getting me smiling tonight.
Tho I do really appreciate getting cigars with some age on them, think that five years would be the most age of any I've ever smoked. And only a very few months of that would ever have been after I'd gotten my paws on the cigars.
Resting cigars means a couple of weeks to at the most a few months for me.
Right now I've one cigar with several years on it...and only a few days left before it's put to the flame.
Tho I can't identify, or rather can't name all the flavour changes when smoking, I'm aware of them,
and appreciate those I do get.
Cigasr that really changed a great deal after several years of aging were the Vegas Cubanas.
And really why should aging improve Cubans and only Cubans?

[Herf N Turf]

Thanks for getting me smiling tonight.
Tho I do really appreciate getting cigars with some age on them, think that five years would be the most age of any I've ever smoked. And only a very few months of that would ever have been after I'd gotten my paws on the cigars.
Resting cigars means a couple of weeks to at the most a few months for me.
Right now I've one cigar with several years on it...and only a few days left before it's put to the flame.
Tho I can't identify, or rather can't name all the flavour changes when smoking, I'm aware of them,
and appreciate those I do get.
Cigasr that really changed a great deal after several years of aging were the Vegas Cubanas.
And really why should aging improve Cubans and only Cubans?

Thanks for the great post, Bob. You touch on an extremely common dilemma, so I'll take this (or any) opportunity to talk about it.

For years, every time I'd go off about age v rest and especially ammonia release, new-ish members would bewilderedly ask, "then what am I supposed to smoke while I'm waiting for all this magical time to expire?!?"

The answer is, Fresh. In my humble opinion, virtually all non-Cuban cigars are at their absolute best the instant they walk off the rolling table. After that moment, you have between two weeks, to two months before the nastiness sets in. The obvious reason is, we're dealing with tobaccos which are already so ridiculously aged that the only further maturation they're going to do is minimal, at best. But, that freshly rolled cigar, with those amazing, right-off-the-barn-ceiling tasting flavor bombs are something really special. So, go into your B&M and buy two sticks. Smoke one immediately and rest/age the other. Best of all possible worlds really.

As far as, "why Cubans and only Cubans...?" Well, for that we have to go back a few years, prior to HSA aging stock prior to release. "Back in the day", Cubans were rolled with extremely immature tobaccos, to the point, in many cases, still being green. During the time it took to compile a load and ship (on an actual ship), the cigars would quickly mature during the warm voyage; even warmer in the depths of a cargo hold. In the late 1800's, it was Alfred Dunhill who began aging them in a more organized and precise manner, but that's another story. The simple reason we've always aged Cubans is just that; they were immature by design.

In the case of non-Cubans, virtually all rolling houses and blenders utilize tobaccos that are already extensively aged. It's common to see numbers on cigars ranging from 5 to 25, referring to years the wrappers have been aged. Once this is done, there is still a period of tertiary fermentation, which occurs due to the moisture added during the rolling process. This moisture interacts with the remaining sugars in the tobacco to cause this process, which takes anywhere from a couple months to a couple years to completion. This is where the nasty ammoniac notes from, particularly in maduros. Smoked fresh, you get none of this, since this fermentation has not yet begun. In the case of Cubans, very, very little of the overall fermentation process has occurred, so it's down to us to allow for this process' time.

In most cases, Cubans wouldn't even begin to get good until the 5 year mark, then continue to improve for another couple of years. Beyond the 7 year mark, the effects are far less dramatic, but render tremendous nuance. At 25 years, you have an extremely delicate flavor profile and a very mild cigar, with relatively little nicotine, which has been long-since lost through the extensive cellular breakdown.

Now, to current times. Several years ago, HSA declared their intention to age already rolled cigars for 2 years before shipping them off. This, coupled with utilizing more tobaccos already aged prior to rolling, is finally rendering cigars that are ready to go virtually out of the box. While they still benefit tremendously from more age, it's not as absolutely essential as it once was.

Hope this helps