Like some age on your smokes? How bout 600 years?

[lenguamor]

Originally Posted by shilala

Awhile back Joe (lenguamor) hooked me up with some of his ridiculously old cigars. I grabbed them based on one thing, really.
Who has ever smoked a 100 year old cigar?
I have a buddy that I only get to see a couple times a year when we go camping in the spring and fall. He loves cigars, but he doesn't really get any exposure to interesting smokes except those couple times a year.
I always load up my travel humi with some neat stuff so we can kick back in front of the fire and just shoot the bull and have a good old time.
When I saw Joe's cigars, I immediately thought that my friend and I could share an experience together that neither of us would ever forget.

In the pic below, the nine cigars on the left represent nearly 600 years of combined aging.
The Betsy Ross is from between 1910 and 1917.
The JB Back Cedarap Rex is circa 1960.
The Dutch Masters is circa 1965.
The Van Dyck are circa 1945.
The Flor Extra Fina is from between 1910-1917.

The last four cigars on the right are travelers. I had picked up the first 8 on the left from the WTS board at CS. Joe's incredible generosity got the best of him as it always does, and he loved me up with the four smokes on the right.
I know what the foil wrapped smoke is from his threads, but the other three are still a mystery to me as far as age is concerned and where they came from. They are a William Penn, El Producto and a Red Dot.
I asked Joe earlier today to let me know more about the mystery smokes. I'll pm him now and ask him to chime in with some more info on these old stogies. I need to know what RH to store them, as well, so I can continue to preserve them properly until they go up in smoke.

Joe, Thank You!!!
I've been playing with these cigars all day and they've kept me smiling the whole time. I've had a lot of fun imagining what they've been through all these years and what times might have been like when they were made. A good friend of mine stopped over today and we talked about them for a good piece. I can't begin to imagine how much fun it'll be to set fire to them with some buds.

That's a great picture! Look at the cellophane on the really old ones; it's as brown as it gets. You can really tell the old ones by the color of the cello. The Dutch Masters, being "only" 40+ years old, don't show half as much color.

As to the travelers: the Red Dots are from the 20's, I believe - someone tore the tax stamp right where it would show the series date.

The El Productos are from a vacuum-sealed can I just opened...actually, two of them. One is "It's a Boy," the other "It's a Girl." They are from the late 50's to early 60's and had remained in the vacuum can until I just opened them a few weeks ago. I'll probably give everyone an opportunity to sample some of these soon; maybe this week unless I put something else up instead.

The Wm. Penns are from the mid-to-late 60s, a sealed box I picked up. They obviously were cheap, cheap, cheap in their time. Although I don't hold a lot of promise for them, it will interesting to see if they have become at all...well, interesting.

I'll be interested to know what you think of each of these, Scott. Most of all - enjoy!