Your New Cigars Are Sick. Rest Will Cure Them.

Why does the same cigar taste harsh in January and glorious in June? Because a cigar is not finished when it leaves the roller's table. Rolling moist leaves together kicks off a fresh round of fermentation inside the stick, and the byproduct is ammonia.

The trade calls this phase the sick period, and it can run from three months to a year. A cigar smoked in the middle of it is sharp, acrid, and genuinely unpleasant, no matter how fine the tobacco. The blend is in there; it simply is not ready to talk yet.

There is a second reason the rest matters. A cigar is a marriage of leaves from different primings, farms, and harvest years. Like any marriage, it needs time to settle. Oils migrate between the leaves, moisture equalizes throughout the bunch, and sharp edges gradually round off.

For the cigars you buy at retail, the factory has usually done most of the waiting for you, but shipping undoes some of that good work. Give new arrivals at least 30 days in your humidor to shed travel shock and acclimate to their new environment. Boxes you intend to cellar will keep improving for months beyond that. Patience is the only ingredient in this hobby that costs nothing and improves everything.