Opinions wanted on recent production cigars

I read this on another board and am interested in what others opinions may be. I have some experience, though I would not call my self well versed in this area of cigars, but that is changing recently.

"Mid 2003- present: starting in mid 2003 Cuba started doing something to their tobacco to make the cigars more enjoyable when fresh. Prior to this EVERY box of Cuban cigars went through a "sick period" where the cigars reeked of ammonia. This was the natural curing process resulting from the moisture used to roll the cigars resulting in an accelerated fermentation and an ammonia smell. This sick period generally arose sometime within the first year of production and lasted anywhere from 6 months to a year.
Starting in mid 2003, cigars have no longer gone through this sick period (they sometimes go flat for a short period but I have not had a single box of Cuban cigars have this ammonia smell since August of 2003 and I have bought thousands of boxes since then). Some people believe that Cuba now "cooks" their tobacco to make it more enjoyable when young or Right of the Truck (ROTT). Whatever they did the cigars have become much better when young. There is concern, however, that what is being done has effected the ability of these cigars to improve with age. Many collectors from the Far east believe that the post July2003 cigars will not age as well as their predecessors.
My experience confirms this belief. Many cigars I have smoked from 2004-2005 have become flat.

Recent prduction cigars are rolled better and smoke great young. We will see how they age." (from a post on OLH by mcgoospot - I think you'll have to join the board to follow this linky)

Previous to 2003 Cuba did not age their tobacco - they literally rolled it and sold it. I know sometime around 2003 in a move to compete in a market that was being taken over by other countries producing wonderful cigars they implemented more stringent manufacturing and QC measures to improve their cigars. One was to use equipment to determine how tightly the cigars were being rolled (there were a whole lot of issues with plugged cigars) and also to start aging tobacco before the rolling process (not unlike most of the non-Cuban cigar manufacturing world).

I have smelled the ammonia and tasted "sick" cigars - and I'd oftened wondered why Cuban cigars were made that way. I think there's some pretty good evidence of the changes in using aged tobacco in some of the newer creations coming out of Cuba - such as the Cohiba Behike - is yielding incredible results. I have also noticed a consistency in their cigars that has been unlike anything I'd experienced 10 years ago.

I don't think Cuban cigars are going 'flat', but I do think any cigar heavily depends on the growing conditions during a given year. I was fortunate to have sampled quite a few 98 vintage Cuban cigars. I can't imagine there will ever be a year like that ever again.

I will preface this by admitting I am a super newb with cc's. I have read about the "sick" period they go through, but I have yet to have one that was sick. I have had some aged and some very fresh and they have all been good outside of a few really tight draws. It may just be that the aged ones I have had are already through it, and the fresh ones I just don't give them a chance. I've mostly bought 5ers as I've just been sampling/exploring, and it doesn't take me long to take down 5 cigars.

Hey Jamie, Got your message for a comment but I've been away for a while. Here are my thoughts.

I have never really experienced the sick period that everyone talks about, but keep in mind that I didn't start smoking CCs until about 2007 or so. I have read that, as George stated, in or around 2003 they started aging and drying their tobacco before rolling it, and they also installed draw testers on the rollers bench that measure the flow of air going through a cigar. Each cigar is individually tested and if the draw is not within a certain range the cigar is rejected.

I have had individual CCs made before 2003, and I noticed that they were much less consistent than more recent offerings. Draw was a crap shoot and two cigars from the same box would smoke very differently. The draw before 2003 seemed to me to be much tighter.

I think given the QC changes that were made in 2003 the sick period that everyone spoke of is probably a non issue. Cigars made before then have probably gone through it and cigars since then are not as susceptible. On the subject of aging, I do notice a pronounced difference between a cigar OTT and one that has been aged for 5-6 years. Also, dry boxing, in my opinion, is a must with CCs.

One other factor. My source has a policy of opening and inspecting every box of cigars as he received them. If anything is sub par in his opinion he sends it back. Since I used this one source exclusively, others may have experienced issues that I just haven't been exposed to.

Hope this is useful. If anyone else has comments on what I've posted I'd be interested in seeing them.

"This sick period generally arose sometime within the first year of production"

Why only the first year? New crop every year, new cigars made from the new tobacco?

Wrapper was never fermented (only cured) before the early 2000's. That the wrapper was not being fermented is documented - the introduction of the Maduro5 proves that fermentation of wrapper was introduced at some point. I don't know if 2003 is the date, but that sounds reasonable.

All cigars go through a period where they don't smoke as well as they do before or after. The period starts a few weeks after rolling and lasts for up to a year after that. This is brought on by the wetting of the tobacco to make it more pliable for rolling. The additional moisture starts a reaction. This isn't the traditional definition of 'sick' period, but people use the term. You generally don't experience this as the time from rolling to release is controlled, e.g., Opus X one year after rolling; Hemingways six months.

The traditional 'sick' periods start well after a year. The first period is roughly between 3 and 5 years and the second is between 7 to 10 years, but there is a huge amount of variance in time, and the periods may not happen at all. When sick, the cigars do smoke flat and are annoyingly disappointing, but they gradually recover - at least in my experience with the first period. There are supposed to be a third and fourth period, but I haven't experienced those.