Hello Everyone,

This is my first post here so please bear with me. I've recently began smoking cigars and I'm really enjoying trying out all the different blends, etc. Now, this might sound like a dumb question, but when i read different reviews, i sometimes see things like "Cohiba-Dominican Republic-1999, or Macanudo-2001.

How is a novice like myself able to tell the year of the cigar? Is it printed on the box?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Kevin

As far as I know only Cuban cigars come with a date code.

Domestic (Non-Cuban) cigars from The DR, Honduras, Nicaragua, Canary Islands, Phillipines etc. do not have a code, but when you buy some that you plan on aging you may want to date them either on the box or with a label on the cellophane.

I know Camacho corojo boxes come with a date on the box and an insert that gives you information about the production and harvest.

Tatuaje also have a date code and CAO MX2 come with a quality inspection sheet inside the box with the produciton date. A few others do as well but I can't remember offhand -- I usually just do what Doc suggests and note the date of purchase on the bottom of my box for aging purposes.

An important point - just because a cigar has a year as part of its name ("Macanudo Vintage 1999", for example) does not mean that it was actually made during that year. Most of the time, "vintage" cigars like these feature a wrapper or some small amount of filler from that year but the rest if younger and the cigars were usually recently produced.