I have to report on my first aging experiment. I bought a couple of boxes of my favorite La Glorias a few years ago and vowed to not smoke them until they aged a good while. After a year, I pretty much forgot they were there.
4 years later, I decided to go for it. I pulled them out to see glorious plume decorating many of them. I took one off the top, brushed off the plume, cut it, and lit it. The first puffs shocked me. The next puffs made me just giggle with joy.
They were much smoother that the non-aged ones, but they did not sacrifice flavor at all. If anything, the flavors were more complex than I have ever experienced. It was so good that I decided to crack open another bottle of Hine Cigar Reserve Cognac (if you can find any you would be lucky to get it - awesome cognac, I can't find anymore).
I had a few snifters of cognac, and went for it by lighting another cigar after the first one went out and I could not find a roach clip to relight it.
Next thing I know, after completing the second cigar and about the fifth snifter, I was thinking about what I was going to have for dinner. I must have passed out after that (I love that cognac) and just woke up on the deck in my favorite chair as the air started to cool off.
I think I am in love with Ernesto. I need to buy more and more cigars for long-term storage. I may need to invest in building a walk-in humidor soon.
God bless those wonderful leaves!