Does heat actually hurt your cigars ?

[Jrfoxx]

People usually keep them at a lower rh than non cc usually in between 63 to 65 is what I have heard most keep them and temp wise is relative to climate thermoelectric units arent too efficient in cooling. But you are looking for as clost to constant you can get so keeping them at 60° is kinda foolish if you ask me. 68° or 65° seems more conducive just a couple degrees cause most houses are climate controlled makes it easier.

Cool.
I keep everything at 65% and 68deg plus or minus a couple degrees, so sounds like I am right in the range.

Thinking of aging my box of aristocrats as the 2016's I had somewhat recently were just so much better than young ones.

Everything else is fair game for smoking now though as it all tastes just fine as is to me

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[navyvet]

Cool.
I keep everything at 65% and 68deg plus or minus a couple degrees, so sounds like I am right in the range.

Thinking of aging my box of aristocrats as the 2016's I had somewhat recently were just so much better than young ones.

Everything else is fair game for smoking now though as it all tastes just fine as is to me

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Yeah 70°+ is where troubles can start to occur.

 

[Jrfoxx]

Yeah 70°+ is where troubles can start to occur.

That's what I have gathered.

Fortunately I have good climate control here, so temperature and room rh are pretty stable and under 70deg and 50% rh.

In my 74qt container for boxes the temp and rh only varies by plus or minus 2, so it has a slight variation compared to my tupperdoors which stay pretty right on 68deg and 65% rh all the time


Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[navyvet]

That's what I have gathered.

Fortunately I have good climate control here, so temperature and room rh are pretty stable and under 70deg and 50% rh.

In my 74qt container for boxes the temp and rh only varies by plus or minus 2, so it has a slight variation compared to my tupperdoors which stay pretty right on 68deg and 65% rh all the time

@navyvet

Any other tips or suggestions for aging a box? I have never intentionally aged anything before. Things only get a little age sitting around waiting to be smoked is all, so about 2 years is the most I have ever unintentionally aged anything.

Would obviously like to get the best results possible.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I just get the pet food containers from walmart throw in a hand full of bovedas or the large one and store it on the floor. I have dreams of one day converting a closet in the house to a humidor one day

 

[Jrfoxx]

I just get the pet food containers from walmart throw in a hand full of bovedas or the large one and store it on the floor. I have dreams of one day converting a closet in the house to a humidor one day

I understand that about converting a closet.

When I was renting a 3 bedroom house while working for Halliburton, I always dreamed of making the spare room into a giant walk In humidor and adding lots of Spanish cedar shelving.

Never did it unfortunately since i have no idea how to control rh in a space that large, and couldn't add anything for air exchange since it was a rental and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me cutting holes in their house for a fan or 2,lol

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Bruce T.]

You can find charts on this such as the one I put on here.

I've seen these charts on cigar sites many times. It can be confusing for people. Just to be clear on what this chart is showing, if you have a closed environment and there is no way to add or remove moisture from the air, then the RH will change as the temperature changes because the RH is "relative" to the temperature. In our humidors we use methods that add and remove moisture from the air as needed regardless of the temperature. So if the temperature rises to 75 the RH will still be 70% (or whatever you have it set at). It won't change to 59% as noted on the chart. It will change if there is a sudden temp change and the Boveda or whatever has not had time to catch up, but it will catchup and correct the RH.

 

[Jrfoxx]

I've seen these charts on cigar sites many times. It can be confusing for people. Just to be clear on what this chart is showing, if you have a closed environment and there is no way to add or remove moisture from the air, then the RH will change as the temperature changes because the RH is "relative" to the temperature. In our humidors we use methods that add and remove moisture from the air as needed regardless of the temperature. So if the temperature rises to 75 the RH will still be 70% (or whatever you have it set at). It won't change to 59% as noted on the chart. It will change if there is a sudden temp change and the Boveda or whatever has not had time to catch up, but it will catchup and correct the RH.

I have a Govee bluetooth hygrometer in my 74qt boxes container and it graphs temperature and rh, and I can see the rh change slightly when the temperature changes slightly.

I have the Heartfelt beads and 7, 60gr bovedas in it, and the beads definitely seem to react slower to changes and I'm light on the bovedas for the size of the container and number of Cigars in it.

We're only talking about a 2deg and 2% fluctuation though, but the graph self adjusts the scale, so its very noticeable even with a small change.

Pretty neat feature.

Planning to add 2, 320gr bovedas at Christmas as they react quicker than the beads, and between the 2 methods, I should be in pretty good shape

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[lioncrypto1991]

high temperature will ruin the flavor of your cigars. they become stale. I live in a very hot area, the cigars I keep out my coolidor taste awful after couple days/weeks. I keep my house around 78-85 Fahrenheit.

 

[Alwayslit]

Only if you light the wrong end

 

[Old Smokey]

I wonder what temp they store cigars in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua? I know most of the cigars they export aren't fresh rolls. So, what do ya think? Have they lost their taste? Are they kept in a climate controlled environment for as 1-3 years before they ship them out? It seems AC is not common in these countries? Maybe, I really don't know. Something to consider.

Mine fluctuate from 67-72f depending on summer or winter. But that change occurs over a few months time. I keep RH 62-65.

 

[Old Smokey]

I wonder what temp they store cigars in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua? I know most of the cigars they export aren't fresh rolls. So, what do ya think? Have they lost their taste? Are they kept in a climate controlled environment for as 1-3 years before they ship them out? It seems AC is not common in these countries? Maybe, I really don't know. Something to consider.

Mine fluctuate from 67-72f depending on summer or winter. But that change occurs over a few months time. I keep RH 62-65.

I thought this would get some discussion. Anybody? Not only are these countries very warm, their humidity is also notoriously high.

Do we overthink the storage of our precious cigars? I'm perfectly happy to continue doing what I've been doing and don't think what we do is wrong. I think we do it for the optimum smoking experience. Cigars are not a cheap hobby.

 

[Boudie]

My first question to you Mr. @Old Smokey is storage before shipping or storage at the end user. Unfortunately I've never been to the island so I can't tell you how the shops store their cigars for retail. I would think most cigars are rolled wet and they will continue fermenting after they have been rolled so maybe the higher heat is an advantage. Ammonia generated during this sick period may also have an effect on preventing mold. Once the manufacturer says they are ready for sale I think storage conditions become more important to keep the cigars at blender's intent. So higher heat and ammonia? generated by fermentation prevents mold, then they prepare/freeze for shipping and environmental conditions become more important.


Just a theory, I really don't know.

 

[Old Smokey]

My first question to you Mr. @Old Smokey is storage before shipping or storage at the end user. Unfortunately I've never been to the island so I can't tell you how the shops store their cigars for retail. I would think most cigars are rolled wet and they will continue fermenting after they have been rolled so maybe the higher heat is an advantage. Ammonia generated during this sick period may also have an effect on preventing mold. Once the manufacturer says they are ready for sale I think storage conditions become more important to keep the cigars at blender's intent. So higher heat and ammonia? generated by fermentation prevents mold, then they prepare/freeze for shipping and environmental conditions become more important.


Just a theory, I really don't know.

Thanks Boudie, I appreciate your thoughts. I have never been to a cigar producing country either to know the process before cigars are shipped. I have read that cigars go through 4 fermentation periods which takes several years. But I don't know if that is factual or not. But since deveoping a love for the leaf and learning about how we should keep our cigars, I always wondered about the climate where the cigars are made and how different we keep them when they are sent for retail establishment and eventually into our humidors. It's 2 completely different worlds!

 

[Bruce T.]

Let's remember that the climate in most cigar producing countries is exactly what we are trying to replicate in our humidors. It is warm and humid. Of course the weather in those countries is often too warm and too humid.
I've been to Cuba several times. All cigar shops I have seen keep their cigars in climate controled display cases. I have no doubt that the manufacturers store all their stock in climate controled area. While Cuba may use horses to plow the tobacco fileds, it doesn't mean their production methods are poor. The reason they produce such spectacular cigars is because thay have highly sophisticated production and quality control sytems in place. The country may be poor but the cigar industry there is well funded and an important part of there ecomnomy and reputation.

 

[Old Smokey]

Let's remember that the climate in most cigar producing countries is exactly what we are trying to replicate in our humidors. It is warm and humid. Of course the weather in those countries is often too warm and too humid.
I've been to Cuba several times. All cigar shops I have seen keep their cigars in climate controled display cases. I have no doubt that the manufacturers store all their stock in climate controled area. While Cuba may use horses to plow the tobacco fileds, it doesn't mean their production. methods are poor. The reason they produce such spectacular cigars is because thay have highly sophisticated production and quality control sytems in place. The country may be poor but the cigar industry there is well funded and an important part of there ecomnomy and reputation.

Thanks Bruce for sharing your experience in Cuba and answering some questions I had about their cigar storage. I always thought their temps in Cuba hovered in the 80's-90's and being surrounded by water had a very high humidity. And it only make sense that even though the cigar countries are incredibly poor by our standards, some access to A/C is possible but not widely available.

Do you know if the Cuban Gov't owns the Cuban cigar companies?

 

[Bruce T.]

Do you know if the Cuban Gov't owns the Cuban cigar companies?

Yes. They are all owed by the government.
All their cigars are distributed around the world by Habanos S.A. Ownership of Habanos S.A. is split equally between state-owned Cubatabaco and privately held Spanish-based tobacco giant Altadis.

 

[BoneYard]

Temp and rh are 2 of several conditions that will effect the ‘moisture content’ of your cigars. Moisture content of the tobacco is what you are tasting and should be most concerned with. Other things like barometric pressure and elevation will also effect moisture content, but these things are hard or impossible to control.