What is your preferred rh to smoke a CC?


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I typically keep my sticks at 65 rh. I have a dry box with a few NC at the ready for guests that don’t smoke much and will often throw a CC stick in there for a day or so before I smoke them. 
 

A buddy asked for a few sticks a few weeks ago and I thought we would meet and smoke them quickly so I put them in the dry box, which tends to be around 52-56 rh in the summer. 
 

fast forward to last night. I wanted a JL2 and knew that I had one upstairs in that bunch I had pulled for my mate, but we had yet to meet. I fired it up and frankly it was a struggle. It was, unlike every other stick from that box particularly harsh and bitter for the first half. It was a humid night. I struggled w that cigar and had a few good draws at the end but pitched it at about halfway. 
 

Tonight I picked up an EPI 1 that was also picked out for my buddy that had also been dry boxed for a few weeks, next to the JL 1. It also started quite bitter but settled down a tad. It was also somewhat harsh through the first half but remained smokable. Both cigars had an NC smoke smell if that makes sense. Others from that box that I smoked out of the coolidor or my upstairs humidor (both regulated by heartfelt 65 beads) were more enjoyable as well
 

I am thinking that perhaps it was long dryboxing as opposed to the odds of two stinkers back to back. 
 

while I will revert to pulling from my conditioned upstairs humidor next, it made me wonder what rh most find their sticks to be most enjoyable. A few weeks in the dry box has been too much for me.

So, what’s your preferred rh for smoking?

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13 hours ago, rcarlson said:

60-62.  

This. Although 60-65 is normally fine for me. 

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62 - 63. and yes that's also fine for aging. I have 2000+ cigars and many are 8 + years old now. sampling them from year to year as mostly been an improvement on them. 

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Is there a qualitative difference to smoking at lower than 65%? I have seen countless people recommend it, but what sorts of effects does a lower rh tend to have? Flavor, burn, both? I understand it's also a preferential difference, but for someone rather new to cigars what sorts of benefits do you tend to see?

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16 minutes ago, Kerberos said:

Is there a qualitative difference to smoking at lower than 65%? I have seen countless people recommend it, but what sorts of effects does a lower rh tend to have? Flavor, burn, both? I understand it's also a preferential difference, but for someone rather new to cigars what sorts of benefits do you tend to see?

For me burn is better at lower RH. From my experience 59% is too low for me, and I don't like what it does to the flavours, but burn is great. Similarly 66% is starting to get too high in humidity, and I don't like that either. I find there's more smoke at higher RH, which I like, but then burn can be uneven or wrapper goes out and I hate touch ups too, so it's all a trade off between various things.

I'm storing my cigars at 64% between 67F and 71F (varies between cooler, tupperware, and desktop in another room).

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So as an addendum, I pulled a JL2 from the same box from my coolidor to smoke tonight. The Coolidor is a rock solid 65rh at 70 F. 
 

smoke was a much better experience for sure. Cigar now just tastes maybe 3-6 months too young. Still nice, but a touch of mongrel. 
 

no more long term dryboxing for me. Maybe a few hours in the fridge for a really tight wet cigar or a day in the box. More fine tuning for sure but the leave em in the dry box and forget em is dead to me. 

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2 hours ago, Kerberos said:

Is there a qualitative difference to smoking at lower than 65%? I have seen countless people recommend it, but what sorts of effects does a lower rh tend to have? Flavor, burn, both? I understand it's also a preferential difference, but for someone rather new to cigars what sorts of benefits do you tend to see?

Better and more consistent burn. It's that simple. They're made to burn. If they burn right, everything else flows from there.

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6 hours ago, cfc1016 said:

I store everything with 62% bovedas. I don't mess with 'this rh for long term'/'this rh for smoking stock' etc. Just 62. 99% of sticks smoke just fine. The ones that don't, it's not because they were stored at 62%...

With 62 Bovedas I was getting 58% RH in most of my stores so I had to up them to 65s to get about 60%RH and 72s to get about 65%RH. What do your 62s report on the Hygrometer? Cheers

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On 9/2/2020 at 12:21 AM, DeskSmkr said:

Still figuring it out, and trying to learn by feel/appearance as well.
Testing 58rh at 67F

Ambient smoking conditions outdoor, between 55rh/70F and 20rh/105F, depending on time of day.

Testing how?

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I feel proper storage Rh is somewhat dependent on the Rh of when and where you’re gonna smoke, but I have very little evidence of that.  For example, smoking in the fall and winter in NY requires little to no dry boxing to get good burns and flavors, whereas summer it’s a crap shoot.

Then again, back when I first started smoking I once had an Arturo Fuente Between the Lines in a (very full) cheap wooden humidor (kinda leaky) which I didn’t realize was pressed against the floral-foam humidifier on the lid for minimum a week or two.  It felt wet and kind of squishy.  I said screw it, smoked it anyway, and it was one of the best cigars I had ever smoked.  Great burn, lots of flavor, different kinds of nuts.  Completely enjoyable, I still don’t understand how.

I have been using 65% Boveda at 67F in my Cuban Coolidors, but I’m considering 62%.  The reason being that I recently received an aged (nov 16) box from my locker here that had been in transit for nearly a month, and I smoked one ROTT.  It was AMAZING (great burn, great flavors), but two I smoked from the same box a week later (where it had been in my cooler) were meh.  Perhaps they needed more time to acclimate?  The middle humidity ground was no good?  Or was it the lower humidity from being in transit so long was better?

I keep my NC at 69% at 67F, but I don’t think that’s doing them any favors.  Maybe I should put them lower as well?  I don’t smoke as often as I’d like, so a lot of unintentional aging is occurring haha.  Not sure if that matters.

Maybe I’ll take some small tupperware containers and put a couple of the same sticks in each with different Bovedas.

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7 hours ago, Kerberos said:

Is there a qualitative difference to smoking at lower than 65%? I have seen countless people recommend it, but what sorts of effects does a lower rh tend to have? Flavor, burn, both? I understand it's also a preferential difference, but for someone rather new to cigars what sorts of benefits do you tend to see?

Personal experiences: high humidity causes muted flavors and inconsistent burn. Lower humidity improves both aspects. Too low, however, will cause overheating and harshness. 

I also think ambient smoking humidity plays a part. It's generally very humid where I live (70-90+ at times) so I have to keep my cigars drier, and they will absorb moisture while I am smoking. 

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I agree with others in that an over humidified cigar can have muddled flavor and poor burn, and that a very dry cigar can be on the harsh side with relatively poor flavor. But for me one of the main reasons / issues is construction (read draw). I find a well constructed cigar with a great draw can stand a little more humidity and maintain flavor (even be slightly enhanced) and burn.

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It really comes down to preference. Not really sure there is a magic number. I keep my RH 66%-68% since for 6 months out of the year I battle with keeping my cigars temp below 71-72F . Being in the Socal desert Temps have been brutal. This weekend is gonna be °107-°115.
Cigars are really and art. A trial of what works best for your pallet.
That same cigar from the same box at the same temp + RH probably will taste different than it did 2 days ago. Depending on countless factors. What you ate or drank that day. All the way to maybe I heated the head up when I lit it. Am I smoking to fast, Hitting it like I am smoking a joint in 1976. I could of used more cream in my coffee and so on.
Is it science? I would say so. Storing RH+Temp is only 1 variable. Change 1 variable and you may change the flavors you experienced yesterday.
It really depends on a bunch of variables.
Cigars are meant as a means of relaxation not worrying about variables that we can control and the variables we can't control.
As long as a cigar doesn't feel like it is on Viagra and has a little spring light it up and enjoy the moment as we our blessed to be able to enjoy some of the best leaf in the world.


Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

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5 hours ago, DBNInc said:

I have been using 65% Boveda at 67F in my Cuban Coolidors, but I’m considering 62%.  The reason being that I recently received an aged (nov 16) box from my locker here that had been in transit for nearly a month, and I smoked one ROTT.  It was AMAZING (great burn, great flavors), but two I smoked from the same box a week later (where it had been in my cooler) were meh.  Perhaps they needed more time to acclimate?  The middle humidity ground was no good?  Or was it the lower humidity from being in transit so long was better?

I find ROTT is OK, and acclimated for a while is good. But in between the problem is that you are changing the humidity of the cigar and I don't think it happens evenly over time and takes a while to reach steady state.

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8 hours ago, GavLew79 said:

With 62 Bovedas I was getting 58% RH in most of my stores so I had to up them to 65s to get about 60%RH and 72s to get about 65%RH. What do your 62s report on the Hygrometer? Cheers

My hygrometer battery died a long time ago and I haven't bothered to replace it. I keep my stock in an 'iris' brand 72qt airtight tupperware (and a couple of pelican/otterbox type traveldors). Rh never fluctuated more than +-1%. I don't worry about it. I just crack open a new boveda if I see that any of the existing ones are dry. .

I'm a big fan of the ron popiel philosophy - 'set it and forget it'. The only time I want to think about my cigars is when I'm smoking them. After 20+ years, I've already done all the hyper analysis stuff. I don't enjoy it anymore. I find it a lot easier to just use airtight storage, and not think about all that stuff.

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45 minutes ago, cfc1016 said:

My hygrometer battery died a long time ago and I haven't bothered to replace it. I keep my stock in an 'iris' brand 72qt airtight tupperware (and a couple of pelican/otterbox type traveldors). Rh never fluctuated more than +-1%. I don't worry about it. I just crack open a new boveda if I see that any of the existing ones are dry. .

I'm a big fan of the ron popiel philosophy - 'set it and forget it'. The only time I want to think about my cigars is when I'm smoking them. After 20+ years, I've already done all the hyper analysis stuff. I don't enjoy it anymore. I find it a lot easier to just use airtight storage, and not think about all that stuff.

Set it and forget it is a great philosophy. This. 
 

I have mine in coolidors with intact boxes in cracked ziploc freezer bags. Coolidors are loaded with 62 boveda and butlers in each one. I’ve been running rock solid 66 to 65 down a year. I find the cigars we buy come in wetter than I prefer and the bovedas are slowly dropping them over a long time. The first one we finally sorted, catalogued and filled has had the same boxes in it for 6 months and is slowly coming down to 64 with fluctuation for temp range of 62-67. At this point we’re feeling really good about the data from the butlers.

My smoking stock is in a half size coolidor with half baked 62 bovedas. We really like having the regular rotation of partial boxes away from the intact boxes. I take a few out of it and put them in the rotation in a 20 year old CoLa box on the book shelf. It also has a half baked 62 boveda in it. Any thing that clips with a poor draw stays in there for a week or more. We had a MDO4 in there for a month that was stiff as a board. Recently fired it up after the draw opened and it was as good (almost) as any of the others I’ve had.

To the question, 60-62. 

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