Ammonia

[planenut]

MY CIGARS ARE SICK!


For those of us without the patience of the Hong Kong collector, we can learn some lessons about aging and taste:

• Give cigars with the smell of ammonia either a long time to age in a large humidor or lots of ventilation to eliminate the odor.

• If possible, try to age mild cigars for about a year and give stronger cigars perhaps a couple of years to get past the sick period and enjoy some additional fermentation in the box.

So, If I have some cigars going through the sick period, Do they need to stay in the box with the concentrated ammonia smell to finish aging quicker or would it be better to take them out and place them in a large humidor, seperate from the other cigars so they can breathe and get rid of the ammonia smell.

I'm still trying to figure out if the ammonia smell helps in any way or is just a sign of fermentation going on.

For those of us with coolerdor's, most people say to open it at least once a week to allow some fresh air inside. Is this related?