Aging in a vacuum environment?

[jgros001]

So I have gotten some that question aging in a vacuum environment and would like to bring this question to the forefront. Have not seen a definitive answer - but reading MRN would lead me to believe this is the best way to age long term, and I am talking 10 plus years here. He uses the tubo and mason jar example and stresses not to open boxes for the best long term aging.

So my question is what do you all think about aging in a sealed environment. Let me first state that while I say vacuum I do not mean sucking all the air out of the bag until the cigars are crushed or explode (don't know which will happen). Sort of like a ziplock environment where no air is getting in/out but it is not all squeezed from the bag.

A quote from Eichen (hope you don't mind) which touches on some good points.

I'm not a science guy but here goes. The idea is to significantly slow down the release of highly volatile oils/aromas that ordinarily fade away in a hurry under normal conditions. The result, apparently (I've never had one stored this way), is a cigar with huge, complex flavor after years and years of storage. My guess is that if you smoked a cigar stored uncello'd against one sealed in a box and then vacuum sealed, you'd have two almost completely different cigars. The island smokers would probably know more about this. They sometimes dabble in this sort of thing. You also may want to check out Min Ron Nee's book. That's the book that really got this kind of discussion on unusual storage methods rolling a few years ago. He stands behind ageing cigars in a low-oxygen (not a total vacuum, from what I can tell) environment in things like tubes. He offers support to the cello-on crowd when he mentions that 10 y.o. cigars wrapped in cello in the box still taste vibrant while the same uncello'd cigar is much faded from its former glory. The idea is to create a sort of "wine in the bottle (eg tubes)" effect or "wine in a cask" (eg SLBs) effect. I heard somewhere that he (maybe it was someone else tho) wraps his boxes for long term ageing in aluminium foil, then bags them in plastic and sucks the air out (don't know if this is with a machine or not). I understand he prefers to age at lower temps in lower humidity. Anyway, the idea is to maintain as much of the volatile stuff that gives a cigar some serious multi-layered complex flavor after resting for years, possibly decades.

 

[SeanGAR]

Problem with vacuum theory is that if volatile oils are involved, their boiling point under vacuum is lower than at atmospheric pressure, and should therefore be lost at a higher relative rate under vacuum.

Lower amounts of oxygen and lower temperature should lower rates of oxidation.. but does this directly relate to lower rates of "ageing"?.

Cellophane is a pretty good barrier for oxygen .... would this slow ageing? You would have to assume that the rate of oxygen uptake inside the cigar via oxidative processes is higher than the rate of oxygen transfer across the cello. You also have to assume there are no pinholes or other places for oxygen to enter the cello. If the seal was good and the oxygen uptake by the cigar was substantially greater than oxygen transfer across the cello, I would expect the cello package to get tighter with time as the oxygen inside is used up and not replaced (kinda makes a bit of a vacuum inside as oxygen gas is removed and converted to peroxide solids). Has anybody seen this?

 

[Da Klugs]

Interesting. Have some 20+ year old cigars that the cello is very yellow. Not uniform though. Something, (Volatile oils?) is escaping and congealing on the cello?

Does the cello turn yellow without exposure to light on it's own?

Generally if you follow MRN's logic that "flavors escape" in relative amounts based upon packaging methods (dress box, cabs, unvarnished, varnished, tubed, and ceramic or glass jars), sealing a cigar in a virtually airtight something seems the ultimate goal in that line of thinking.

But if that is the case why wouldn’t true aficionados put all their cigars in ceramic jars? This hobby is sooo confusing.

 

[SeanGAR]

Does the cello turn yellow without exposure to light on it's own?

Yes it does. Most packaging films degrade with age, via oxidative processes mainly, and this is stimulated by light, but will also occur in the dark.

 

[NCatron]

Problem with vacuum theory is that if volatile oils are involved, their boiling point under vacuum is lower than at atmospheric pressure, and should therefore be lost at a higher relative rate under vacuum.

Sean is exactly right about this. Guess how we dry stuff out in the lab? To get something REALLY dry, you stick it in a vacuum or vacuum-oven for a few hours. Don't think you'd want to subject your cigars to that. Of course, the vacu-sealers don't have anywhere near as much power as what we use in the lab, but same principle.