Do cigars properly age in an air tight tupperdor?


nikesupremedunk

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I've always wondered this. My current storage is a large tupperdor and a pound of 65% beads filled with boxes to the brim. The container itself is air tight, and rh is always around 64-66%. If the container is never opened, do the cigars still age? I ask, because I'm thinking of getting a second tupperdor just to store my boxes I want to age for the next few years. At the same time, I wouldn't open it as much as I do now to get to my rotation sticks. Just like the experiment someone did to vac seal their boxes for aging, would storing the cigars in an airtight environment have the same effect as vac seal?

Thanks in advance.

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once your cigars have passed the early outgassing phase where they're blowing off ammonia, I would restrict their exposure to lots of air. In my opinion it just evaporates oils and flavors. Others would disagree.

Your rH stability is good, make sure your temperature stability is also. Changes in temperature dramatically change rH, and faster than your beads can keep up.

I'm experimenting with the same thing here. Other members, like Nino, have very long experience with this method and you might want to ask him for his thoughts.

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I documented a power outage during the summer of 2011 and this is what happened. Data doesn't lie wink.png

As the temperature spiked the RH beads handled the RH nicely, IMHO.

I've had this set up for over 3 years and the sticks are doing very well. These airtight containers reside in a temperature controlled, upright freezer in my garage.

post-6250-0-02560800-1395140905_thumb.pn

post-6250-0-47948700-1395140930_thumb.jp

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Yea, I have been using this method for over a year now with no ill effects and the sticks smoke pretty well. I read somewhere that you should "air out" maybe once a week or twice a month.

Very interesting graph as well...I can't control the temp in my room but again, everything was ok even in the summer with higher ambient temps than winter.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm interested to hear the no air / air out information. I burp my coolidor once a week just to get some air movement. There are boxes in there that I'm. Not going to touch for quite some time so maybe I should move them to different storage?

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I've been using my coolidor for 6 years and would never go back to a wood one. I love the low maintenance and the quality of humidity control. Because of the consistency, I think the cigars might be aging better.

Hate to admit it. As nice as a wood humi looks, a basic cooler does a much better job at maintaining a stable RH.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been using my coolidor for 6 years and would never go back to a wood one. I love the low maintenance and the quality of humidity control. Because of the consistency, I think the cigars might be aging better.

I feel the same. My old wooden humi, that I bought when I first got into cigars, has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for years. I have debated selling it to buy more cigars as I do not think I will ever go back to wooden humidors.

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I have had a difficult time parting with wood. It is a traditional aspect of cigars. It is also the crutch as well as the weak spot in humidors. Wood is easy to work, natural and is hygroscopic like the cigars themselves. It is inexpensive, or it used to be!

Surrounding your cigars with hygroscopic materials is a double edged sword. They will protect your cigars during short duration dry spells, like the box they come in does, but they can be a plague when they become a sink or a source for water themselves.

If for example you have a spell of hot humid weather and your enclosure (humidor) does not naturally dehydrate, your boxes and wood products can attain enough water to become water sources that may plague you through the whole summer.

Most humidor administrators, you and I, if we don't have the necessary and/or the highest resolution equipment, might not find this out until it affects the smoking experience. Then, unfortunately it is too late. Not for the cigars, not forever, but until we find a means to force the water back out of them to meet our tastes.

I used to advocate wood in humidors, even controlled ones as a means of a buffer and protection. This is the reflection of that crutch of the humidor maker if viewed objectively. I do tend to shun wood now. I want my systems driven by my science and control products, not by products of other interior non necessities. I want my cigars driven (as a conditioning term) by my conditioning products and active controls. As I shun passive systems and slow inaccurate and unpredictable drivers, I am forced to largely shun wood usage based on the very premise that has made it popular.

I love wood! But I don't want wood controlling my cigars' percentage moister content. I want to do that. And while I can drive the wood just as I do my humidors and my cigars, I no longer have a need for it. It takes up valuable humidor space and it costs money, money that I can spend on the cigars themselves or on technology that does a superior job at what I want.

I have settled insofar that I will accept wood as shelving and boxes native to my cigars. I no longer line or take the time to add other wood products to my humidors. it is a waste of space and money and no benefit to the performance of a consummate controlled humidor!

Sorry that this has nothing to do with the cigar aging question. I don't believe in aging theories… I do believe that the more stable you keep a cigar, the better it is for the cigar and the smoking experience. That is my core belief. If that adds to or detracts from an 'aging' perspective, it is for another who likes to wildly speculate about such matters to answer it.

Cheers -Piggy

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