Newfie,
What exactly are you tossing up for debate?
Is it the issue of aging? Aging at 140+ versus 130-? How to massage wet smokes into smokeability?
Just trying to get a little clarification so I can respond appropriately.
Wilkey
Just the fact that we here in North America agree that cigars should be stored roughly between 60-70% with a temperature of mid to high 60s (and I'm not disputing this fact) while in Cuba as an example, the humidity rarely drops below 70%, and the temperature is usually over 80.
Nobody will dispute the belief that aged ISOMs are better than fresh, and to get a couple of boxes from late last decade or early in this decade out of Cuba wuld be a dream. As a matter of fact, I had several Brothers tell me I should look out for boxes from 2000-2003 as they are available in some shops. So any boxes stored "on that island" would be aged at a higher humidity and temperature than we would recommend.
So, who's right?? Like I said, I'm not disagreeing with the 60-70 ranges, I'm just wondering if maybe below 70% isn't too low for proper aging!!
I don't think it's presumptuous to say that aged Habanos are not necessarily better than young Habanos. As I wrote on the HB forum, perceptions of quality and aesthetics are reflections of sociocultural values. Case in point, Cubans and Spaniards prefer, in general, the profile of young Habanos. This should not be construed to suggest that smokers from these cultures are any less "refined" than say, Hong Kong or British Habanophiles. "Better" has no absolute referrent in the realm of the aesthetic. A corollary to this point is that not all smokers should be expected to track the same trajectory in terms of the development of their tastes.
Among the cognoscenti, the issue of "proper aging" conditions is not hotly contested for the simple reason that those who have accepted the definitions of "better" have also accepted the parameters through which this is defined. Primarily,
unlimited aging timescales (at least until the expiration of the cigar) with the target characteristic being a harmonious, subtle character. By this standard, the environmental conditions are determined by the chemistry of aging and very little else. Is it coincidence that this type of aging condition is typically only associated with societies where a) the weather is cooler and/or drier than Cuba or b) there is a significant upper-middle to elite class with access to environmentally controlled storage?
I propose that the disparity between Cuban and European storage conditions is in fact a sociocultural artifact and not a consequence of differing conceptions of connoisseurship. Rather, the evolution of tastes insofar as cigar characteristics is a
result of the economic and environmental constraints on cigar storage. Keep in mind that the storage horizons for the two schools of thought are also quite different. When was the last time that you found 25-year old cigars in Havana? Now what about the UK? Hong Kong? Switzerland? Just as the concept of "better" is relative, so is "aged."
If what one wants is a cigar with a more blended, rounded character, I have little doubt that with a short term smoking window, higher temperatures and humidities will do the trick. This is nothing more than chemical kinetics at work and the two main parameters which drive chemical kinetics are temperature and concentration. This would be akin to the Cuban aging conditions you found.
However, if the objective is to achieve this with more subtlety and not at
1 year but at
20+ years, then chemical physical considerations dictate that the conditions
must be gentler (i.e. cooler, drier). This would be akin to the "cave" conditions found in European long term storage.
I still am not confident that I've addressed your points but I do appreciate your raising them so that we can revisit these ideas again.
Wilkey