Freeze your CC's

[Zedman05]

While in Cuba in June, I had the ability to open boxes before I bought. I had found some '13, '14 and '15 boxes that I wanted opened. Beetles. All over. Bad. 5 boxes. At the LCDH. Now I don't know how long they had been at the stores, hence the storage conditions to that point, either way, I have now put everything through the freezer that is CC.
I was always on the fence about freezing, but now I will be doing it with everything.
I have heard people say that exported stuff gets frozen before leaving. I don't know if this is true, but I am not willing to chance it. I don't believe that they do have freezers, and even less that they work (even if they do have them).

I wanted to let you all know. It would be a shame to put cigars down for a few years only to open up and find beetles everywhere.

 

[ChuckMejia]

No pics bro? We love beetle holes!

 

[RacFocus]

Good thing I don't buy CCs

 

[Jfire]

It's documented in some of the most recognized books. (MRN and the Great Book of the Habano) That indeed HSA freezes before export. I don't freeze unless it's muled customs. But I keep my boxes at 67deg F or less. No bettle holes in 9 years.


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[JZBdano]

They supposedly flash freeze everything before it goes to the distributors for export. Stuff sold on the island is not froze. I believe they do because otherwise we would see beetles more often. I have only seen it in one box out of a couple hundred boxes but all most all boxes are inspected prior to shipment. There are a lot of 2-4 year old boxes in those distributor/vendor warehouses, if they had major beetle out breaks they would push back on the source to fix the costly problem.

 

[Bloodwood87]

I freeze all cigars when ever I buy something. I would hate to lose my cigar stash because of them.

 

[Zedman05]

You may have heard from one source that they do, but in all the times I have been down to the island, I have never run across anyone who has seen that freezing set up. There is a person who has a few pics online, and it looks promissing, but still no one has seen any of this process.
With so many people buying from distributors, and not hearing beetle issues, makes me think they must be freezing. Kind of an educated guess you might say. But stuff on the island, with 5 of 5 boxes with age on them, makes me definitely question it. If I had opened 5 of the same boxes, I might think a strain of tobacco was more prone to it, but I opened 3 different brands of cigar boxes.
This was just a "psa" of sorts to those that are on the fence, like I was. Why chance it.

 

[JR Kipling]

I freeze CC boxes. It's an easy process and we have a stand-up freezer that gets very cold. Actually, cold enough to kill any beetles in their various life stages after an hour. I leave them in there for at least 24 hours. - - I have noticed zero downsides in the quality of the cigars after doing this.
Years ago, I noticed beetle holes in some NCs during a particular warm spell. So no matter what the producers say, 'stuff' happens. It may be overkill (pardon the pun) but I figure after investing this much money - - why not ?


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[Ratbert]

Never thought about cigars still on the island being infested, especially at a LCDH. Man, that would suck!
I went through a spell where I froze them, but stopped when I read that Habanos S.A. was freezing them before shipping. Didn't cross my mind that non-exports would still be prone to beetles.

 

[D Quintero]

i don't freeze - seen zero cc beetle holes in past 9 years also