‘Dried out’ Cigars

[JR Kipling]

Recently I came across a couple of Tupperware containers that had cigars and Boveda packs inside. These somehow missed my regular inspection. One container had about a dozen NCs (65RH Boveda) and the other about a dozen CCs (62RH Boveda). The Bovedas were hard as a rock ?

I cursed myself for letting this happen. I have no idea how long the containers have been like this. I went ahead and smoked cigars from both containers and was very pleasantly surprised. Especially with the CCs. Flavor was delicious. Draw was wonderful, none of the problems that I often find with CCs. 

I’m not going to start storing my cigars with bone dry Bovedas, but this has definitely got me thinking about storing a few cigars at lower RH than I had considered before. Your thoughts regarding this please?  Thanks 

[Smokecigareveryday]

I believe cigars are not as fragile as we tend to believe.  I once packed a dozen CCs and NCs in boveda begs and forgot to throw in boveda packs for a week long trip to Atlanta.  To my  surprise they all smoked beautifully. 

[PigFish]

I store dryer than most people for reasons of taste. Cigars don’t need a lot of water in them, and typically taste better without a lot of it. I have been preaching this philosophy long before it became a popular topic.

Much of what cigar smokers believe is little more than myth. 

[SansSin]

i am still experimenting with my rh to find my ideal range but i have found the closer to the lower 60's the better for me. i keep mine at 65 currently but have recently separated my cubans and non cubans between different wineadors and have been considering changing my cuban bovedas to 62%

[JR Kipling]

10 hours ago, PigFish said:

I store dryer than most people for reasons of taste. Cigars don’t need a lot of water in them, and typically taste better without a lot of it. I have been preaching this philosophy long before it became a popular topic.

Much of what cigar smokers believe is little more than myth. 

I’ve read some of your past posts on this topic and admit to thinking ‘That’s blasphemy !’  ?

After this experience, I no longer think that.

[PigFish]

11 hours ago, JR Kipling said:

I’ve read some of your past posts on this topic and admit to thinking ‘That’s blasphemy !’  ?

After this experience, I no longer think that.

The topic for me was decided long ago. However my opinion offers little in the realm of right and wrong, tastes being what they are. I have mentored many here, certainly with a degree of consternation from those concerned about the topic... I have yet to come across one who has legitimately tried some simple experiments with dryer cigars, and not come to the same conclusion.

I will wear the blasphemy badge which honor... Done it all my life!!! -LOL

Cheers- Piggy

[Hammer Smokin']

I can't imagine getting below 50 (PF may have better experience), but I'd be hard pressed to find a problem with taste, or other, on a cigar stored at 52-56rh. Sure you don't want to age at that low humidity, but for smoking I'd rather have a cigar kept between 50-60rh than between 65-70rh.

[PigFish]

24 minutes ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

I can't imagine getting below 50 (PF may have better experience), but I'd be hard pressed to find a problem with taste, or other, on a cigar stored at 52-56rh. Sure you don't want to age at that low humidity, but for smoking I'd rather have a cigar kept between 50-60rh than between 65-70rh.

Agreed. Depending on the temp, below 60rH at temps higher than 70 and you risk fines. As I have achieved better and better control over the years, I have actually moved my rH a tad higher. I run about 61.5rH at 71.3 in my G-13 humidor today. I round my numbers for posting here typically.

Cheers! -Piggy

[CaptainQuintero]

  It's certainly a kind of sliding scale where you balance structural integrity v taste and improved draw/burn

  I tested a few years ago going all the way down to the low 50's rh and the smoking experience only ever improved. But around 53ish wrappers started to become fragile. 

  

[Hani]

  It's certainly a kind of sliding scale where you balance structural integrity v taste and improved draw/burn
  I tested a few years ago going all the way down to the low 50's rh and the smoking experience only ever improved. But around 53ish wrappers started to become fragile. 
  

I would like to test lower humidity but what temperature are you at 70? And how long before you smoke it say you bring it from 65RH to 60RH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[unclepauly25]

On 5/10/2020 at 12:56 PM, davidv said:

i am still experimenting with my rh to find my ideal range but i have found the closer to the lower 60's the better for me. i keep mine at 65 currently but have recently separated my cubans and non cubans between different wineadors and have been considering changing my cuban bovedas to 62%

I’ve tried the same thing, I switched to 62%bovedas but ended up going back to 65% for some reason they seem to last longer, also during winter months in Chicago, two days of dry boxing is perfect for me.  I have a desk top humidor that has a bad seal so I use 69% Bovedas in it and it holds steady at 65% humidity 

[CaptainQuintero]

13 hours ago, Hani said:

I would like to test lower humidity but what temperature are you at 70? And how long before you smoke it say you bring it from 65RH to 60RH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  I can't honestly remember the last time I ran anything at 70rh, I seem to remember hitting the fabled 70/70 reasonably consistently in the early years before I shifted to 65. I did this experiment back before I shifted my cigars to the cooler garage though.

  I simply set up a desktop humidor with no beads etc and let it slowly dry out naturally over the course of a summer. Desktops pretty much all leak, and mine was a cheap model so certainly did, so the effect was slow, from 65ish to 54/53 over maybe two months. It depends what you're local climate is, I'd suspect you couldn't do it how I did it if you try in Florida during the summer etc

[MigsG]

Interesting. I kept some cigars for some months at 62 which probably was in the high 50s due to a faulty tupperdor.  Maybe I kept them for too long, the oils disappeared and smell disappeared too.  I want the oils back!

[Guybrush]

Do the oils really disappear as the humidity gets lower? Are oils and aroma connected to humidity?

[La_Tigre]

Has anyone else experienced that “smoldering” effect at higher rh of 67 and above. Had a robusto that was in the newest stock coming down to 65 and it looked like burning wet leaves with all the same flavor appeal. 

[Cairo]

I have had senior moments and left cigars in old jacket pockets for years--the taste was always fine but more delicate cigars had construction issues.

I live in New England (USA) though, so we rarely have really low humidity--would not want to try that in Arizona.

[Homer]

On 5/12/2020 at 12:02 AM, PigFish said:

Agreed. Depending on the temp, below 60rH at temps higher than 70 and you risk fines. As I have achieved better and better control over the years, I have actually moved my rH a tad higher. I run about 61.5rH at 71.3 in my G-13 humidor today. I round my numbers for posting here typically.

Cheers! -Piggy

71.3F is aprox 21,8celsius?

My humidors 62-64rH and 21-22 celsius seems ok. 65% bovedas do the work.

[Drguano]

I typically avoid conversations on the topic of r/h and temperature for storage but last night I was part of an international zoom with over 50 people with a vast amount of experience  and whom I respect and this topic came up. Some of you were part of that zoom and please correct my memory (alcohol was involved) if I mis-speak. Various pinions were expressed about the correct temp and r/h for short and long term storage and the general thought was to experiment and do what you find works best for you. The two things to avoid are combinations that cause mold and more important, avoid large swings in temp and humidity. A cigar stored with high temp and r/h or low temp and r/h or dried out completely will taste better than a cigar that is over humidified and then dried out and then humidified and dried again etc.I have a funky tower with 6 shelves that I bought on eBay and have 6 twenty dollar hygrometers calibrated with the Boveda 75% kit. They all show different levels of r/h even when on the same shelf. Do I care? Not really. I average them out and as long as they stay relatively stable I let them be. But that is me. You do what amuses you as long as you are enjoying it. There. Now I hope to avoid r/h temp discussions again for a long time. But, as Clombo would say, there is one more thing that I heard. On the topic of cigars that are already dried out. Some of you have heard this, I have not tried it. Hold the cigar foot down in cold running tap water and then 'squeegee' it off with your hand, light it and it is said to smoke much better than it would have if left dry. 

[mprach024]

Every time I’ve let a cigar get too dry, (extended periods of dryness), no matter how long I let it rehumidify after finding said cigar, they are just never the same.  Zero scientific or empirical data to support my opinion.  Just my experience.  Can make them smokeable but never as good as they were.