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Humidor Why???

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Ben Brand

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Rolled a few the other day, using a mold, 2 were a bit tight, didn't have a nice draw. So I unwrapped them and just left them to sit outside the humidor, with the understanding that they will relax a bit, without the wrapper, to see if the draw will improve.
They stayed outside for about a week in our almost no humidity air, wrapped one last night, and it differently improved the draw.
Now the question!!
That cigar was dry, no humidity for a week, and it was a nice smoke.
Why do we keep our cigars in a humidor? A lot of cheap cigars and cigarettes are not kept in humidors. Is it necessary to keep the cigars in humidors?
The ones that are not kept in humidors, with a little cellophane pouch (that I`m sure don't keep humidity in) are they much different ( tobaccos etc) from the ones kept in humidors?
I know the humidor is supposed to keep the oils etc moist and prevent them from drying out.
Just a thought!!!
 

Smokin Harley

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the cellophane I think I used more to keep the wrapper from being damaged. when in history the humidor was first used I have no clue...
 

Birage

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A humidor, or better described as a climate controlled area, is necessary to keep the optimal moisture level in the cigar. When I first started off with cigars I wasn't keeping the humidor moist enough and when I reached for certain cigars I would hear the wrapper crack and then subsequently fall apart on me. Put too much moisture in your humidor and you will find mold on the cigars, neither is desirable. I don't want my cigars tasting like mold, but I sure don't want the wrapper cracking and unraveling either. It takes a bit of trial and error, but with a humidity gauge (can't think of what they're called right now, I will as soon as I'm done posting this, LOL) you will get the hang of where you need to be to keep the cigars cased properly.
 

Gdaddy

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You should have an accurate hygrometer to measure the conditions. Birage is right about a "climate controlled area". It depends on where you live. In Arizona the humidor is needed to supply moisture up since it's so dry there. In Florida the opposite is true and I'm always working to keep the humidity down.

When I finish rolling the cigar it's left out on the table to dry for 4 or 5 days @54% rh. Then move them into my wineador (wine cooler with cedar drawers) that controls both temperature and RH. 66 degrees @63% rh.
 

webmost

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A week is just a week. A fresh rolled can stand to dry out for a week anyways. So your experience with a fresh rolled stick laid out for a week is not an apt example of what humidors were designed for. If you want to know "why a humidor?", go buy an expensive stick and let it set naked on the book case until Christmas. Then fire it up.

When I first started burning cigars, I would just go to the local cigar store, walk into their big humidor room, buy a half dozen in a baggie, and let them sit in an old wood jug made in Haiti, bought at a junk store. Set that jug in the bathroom where a bit of shower steam would get at it once a day. Never a prob. Didn't need a humi. Last for a month or more that way. But once I started buying by the boxes, I scored a cheap humidor from cheaphumidors, and away we went. Once I started rolling batches, to where I wanted to age a blend six months or so, then I put a pair of old ice chests to work.

Machine-mades are intended to keep on the shelf several months -- but each is in a cellophane sleeve, in a box inside sealed cellophane, and often there are five-pack boxes also sealed in cellophane inside the cello-sealed box. So even cheap machine mades with paper binders and such, they try to keep them sealed up. A humi is better than this, cause they can still breathe, and yet be protected from dry.

One more thing a good humi does: It imparts a touch of that good cedar aroma to the product. You get to lift the lid and snerf a snootful of yummy from time to time.
 

Raodwarior

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Also understand the cello on a cigar is gas permeable as is the cello around the box, only the cheap plastic wrapped might stay sealed. Because of that, even a cello'ed a cigar will dry out without proper humidification.
 

ArizonaDave

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You should have an accurate hygrometer to measure the conditions. Birage is right about a "climate controlled area". It depends on where you live. In Arizona the humidor is needed to supply moisture up since it's so dry there. In Florida the opposite is true and I'm always working to keep the humidity down.

When I finish rolling the cigar it's left out on the table to dry for 4 or 5 days @54% rh. Then move them into my wineador (wine cooler with cedar drawers) that controls both temperature and RH. 66 degrees @63% rh.

Very true! Arizona is a different monster. Luckily, we're getting a cool front right now, and hasn't hit the triple digits yet this year.
 

deluxestogie

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German and Dutch cigars (Villager, Schemmelpenninck, etc.) are intended to be stored dry, and smoked dry. If you humidify them, they often do not draw. Their blending assumes that they will be smoked dry.

Caribbean-style cigars are intended to be smoked when slightly humidified. If they have dried out completely when smoked (even if the wrapper does not split), they burn hotter, the draw is too loose, and the blending is off. It can mean the difference between a nasty smoke and a nice one.

Although I'm sure that some little fraction of aroma and taste are lost during drying, they can be rehabilitated by gradual re-humidification.

The problem with re-humidifying a dried Caribbean-style cigar is that the open foot rehydrates more rapidly than the closed head. And depending on the filler varieties, the filler may rehydrate more rapidly than the binder and wrapper. When the latter occurs, the foot splits. Heavier wrapper varieties seem less prone to splitting.

For precious cigars that have somehow become fully dried, I place them in a dry, wood cigar box, then place that inside my humidor. The resulting slow rehydration (a couple of months) allows all of the cigar to come back up to proper moisture slowly enough to usually avoid splitting. I once received a full box of Hoyo de Monterrey Havana cigars as a gift from a friend who traveled by car to Canada. The box had remained sealed, but sat in his car for the remaining three summer weeks of his vacation. I placed the closed box into my humidor (after the heartbreak of smoking one immediately), and checked back periodically. They were perfect--and wonderful--after about two months inside their wood box in the humidor.

On the rare occasions that I elect to dry a freshly rolled cigar (rather than smoking it immediately), I leave it out in the open, subject to ambient humidity, for several days. In my conditions, and given the low case of my filler content, that works out well. If I place a freshly rolled cigar into my humidor, it may require weeks to dry significantly.

Bob
 

ackebooa

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Ive always been under the impression that keeping the tobacco moist locks in the aromas and if it dries out it looses them? Been reading alot about it but many different answers :)
Cured and kilned tobacco ive stored dry gives more of a tobacco scent than the tobacco ive stored moist. Maybe it shows that the aromas are leaving the leaf, and there for smell more? But will taste less?
I would like to know what humidity they store the leafs in bales at the factories..
 
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