Cigar storage

Cigars want to breathe and should acclimate before they are consumed

In the humidor room at the dealer, the cigars are usually in closed boxes, wrapped in bundles or both (bundles in outer cartons such as Quintero Brevas and Petit) and, apart from the habanos and a few exceptions, are also individually wrapped in cellophane. The days when cigars were only packaged and shipped in the country where they were produced are unfortunately over. Stock goods are tied up capital, and so they get into the humidors and climatic cabinets of the dealers quite fresh and sometimes still with excess moisture from production.

Now no dealer has the storage capacity and the capital to set up a maturing store, and in the relatively short time in which the packaged cigars are at the dealer's, they cannot ripen significantly, lose fermentation gases and ventilate. You have to do this in the smoker's humidor at home. It doesn't matter whether it is a beautifully crafted, noble box or a more minimalist solution, consisting of a large freezer from the discounter with a Boveda Freshpack. Just a day or two of rest in the humidor can make a big difference, a week, two weeks, months or years can even work wonders. "Stable smells", sharpness and often draft problems are lost.

The cigars should be taken out of the boxes and existing cellophane sleeves removed. If you have the capacity and want to store whole boxes, it is advisable to leave the box lid open as much as possible after removing the cellophane sleeves. In addition, the humidor should be opened once every few days so that the air can exchange.

Purists will of course want to store as pure as possible - Habanos only with Habanoss, Dominican cigars only with Dominicans, etc. - because they want to avoid the aromas typical of their origin influencing one another. This would, however, require the possession of several humidors or a large piece of furniture with separate compartments and / or room dividers. In the opinion of the author, strict separation is not necessary, at least if the cigars are left for a few months, as long as one does not want to accommodate any flavored varieties in the humidor.

You should always be aware that a cigar fresh from the humidor at the dealer often does not develop its full potential. So if the first smoked cigar from a box or bundle does not meet your expectations, give it another chance with a second or third, smoked after two days or a week. We have occasionally encountered cases in which customers returned cigars as spicy and unpleasant tasting, but which were then vented after the return trip to us and there was nothing wrong with our test smoking.

Cigars take time - and not just when enjoying.

The storage of the cigars

Electronics has established itself in almost all areas of life and thus also influences our attitude towards everyday things. ABS, GPS, airbags, Parktronic and other electronic control systems in our cars, program-controlled heating systems, washing machines, music and video systems ... so why shouldn't a cigar humidor ...?

A relative humidity of around 70% at a room temperature of around 18 degrees is considered ideal for the optimal storage of cigars. Cigars adjust their moisture content relatively quickly to the atmosphere around them. In the comfortably heated living room, improper storage will pay for itself within a few weeks. Cigars that are too dry can often be recognized by their "wrinkled" or coarsely veined wrappers. They glow faster and hotter, so their taste becomes aggressively pungent. But too much moisture has a disadvantageous effect on cigars. They are difficult to draw and often burn unevenly with black mottled ash, and they taste unbalanced.

With a little experience, you can easily check the optimal moisture content of a cigar by briefly pressing the end of the fire between your thumb and forefinger several times. If it springs back elastically to its original position, the cigar is properly moistened. If the cigar seems hard, if the tobacco crackles under pressure or if the wrapper is torn, it is too dry. If it does not spring back, but reacts slowly to the pressure or remains squashed, then it has been stored far too moist.

The use of cigar humidors

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