Help! Was this cigar too humidified or too dry?

[Metallifan33]

You ever had a bad dream where you're trying to smoke a cigar and it's just falling apart in your hand? Well, I have, and today it came true.

So I got a 5 pack of LP T52s a couple of days ago. They came with a 69% Boveda pack and I put them in my 65% humidor for a couple of days.
I know you should let them sit for a couple of weeks at least but I decided to try one "ROTT" today just so I know what it would be like.
I read about dry boxing and decided to leave one out for 4 hours in a cedar rack before I smoked it.
Well, this happened. The wrapper cracked at every place possible; the head, the foot, the body, everywhere. The burn was horrible all around and it was easily the worst cigar smoking experience ever.
Anyway, my question is was the cigar too dry or too humidified? Is there a way to know?
I suspect it was just shocked. Too many changes in a short time but I don't know for sure. Can anyone help? Has this happened to any of you?

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[Rupe]

Looks too dry to me.

From my experience, if the wrapper leaf unravels and I get a lot of cracks (like in your photos) it usually indicates to me that it is too dry.

On the other hand, If the burn is uneven and it keeps going out (hard to keep lit) and/or it has little or no flavor it is usually too wet IMHO.

 

[navyvet]

i am with rupe. and it doesn't necessarily have to have been to dry or wet at the moment when it's smoked if there is anytime in the cigars life when it was stored haphazardly then you could have problems when you go to smoke it. people say you can bring them back if stored improperly i am not a beliver

 

[Hoshneer]

I have had a couple Ligas do this, my guess is too dry but you may have just been unlucky.

 

[Bruce T.]

Defiantly the wrapper was too dry.

I have often wondered about dry-boxing in a very dry environment like we have here when it is winter and the buildings are heated. Cigars take quite some time to respond to changes in a uniform way. In a dry box environment I would think that the wrapped would dry out excessively while the interior would not change much. I would think that would lead to a poor performing cigar. I'm just spitballing here. I'd love to hear other people's opinion.

 

[Metallifan33]

I live in AZ. The ambient humidity in my house is around 30 to 40%. I'm thinking that is just too much of a jump from 65% (but IDK, which is why I wanted to try it). But there's no way to know for sure how the cigars were handled before they go to me. I've read numerous threads about ROTT or no ROTT, and I see many different opinions. I'm glad I tried it, but I never expected to see what I did. Again, it may have been a dud (which I hope is not representative of the batch as I bought a 5 pack).
Also, yes the cigar did feel a little wet on the inside as I had to relight once and had to take more draws than I like to keep it lit.

 

[sofc]

I have had a couple Ligas do this, my guess is too dry but you may have just been unlucky.

i might have smoked a liga or two or thousand and I've rarely had this and I dry box most of them around two days.

 

[Hoshneer]

i might have smoked a liga or two or thousand and I've rarely had this and I dry box most of them around two days.

We all know you smoked all the good ones pre-2010. You don't have to rub it in!

 

[sofc]

We all know you smoked all the good ones pre-2010. You don't have to rub it in!

I still do. Is that rubbing it in?

 

[Rupe]

I still do. Is that rubbing it in?

Since you included a smiley face it's not considered "rubbing it in"


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[herfdog]

What were the conditions where you smoked? Sometimes the problem isn't the humidity in the humidor, but the humidity in the room.

 

[Metallifan33]

What were the conditions where you smoked? Sometimes the problem isn't the humidity in the humidor, but the humidity in the room.

Yeah.. I'm wondering about this too. I smoked it next to a pretty warm fire out in my back yard. Cool temps (40s), dry air, right next to a hot fire. I've noticed that I enjoy a cigar way more inside the B&M I go to every now and then. Now that I think about it, when I've smoked outside but not next to the fire, the experiences have been better.
Also when I dry boxed it, I put it in a cedar rack which probably sucked too much moisture out of the wrapper (with the inside still being wet).
Oh well, I'll need to find a solution as I can't smoke inside.

 

[sofc]

Yeah.. I'm wondering about this too. I smoked it next to a pretty warm fire out in my back yard. Cool temps (40s), dry air, right next to a hot fire. I've noticed that I enjoy a cigar way more inside the B&M I go to every now and then. Now that I think about it, when I've smoked outside but not next to the fire, the experiences have been better.
Also when I dry boxed it, I put it in a cedar rack which probably sucked too much moisture out of the wrapper (with the inside still being wet).
Oh well, I'll need to find a solution as I can't smoke inside.

What's a cedar rack. If it is just an open tray, it shouldn't effect it like that.

 

[Metallifan33]

I see. This is the rack (you're right, it's an open tray). When I was seasoning the humi, (and when I had 72% Boveda packs and then 70% beads), I could just put this in my New Air CC 100 humi (in the background) and could drop the RH 5 to 10% in a few minutes. I figure it's pretty spongy.

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[redneck_toy]

I'd say too dry also. I have this happen to a lot of cigars on the golf course. I live an hour north of Amarillo, which is pretty arid, 20-40% RH most of the time. It's also the windiest place in the us. A 10-15 mph wind is considered light. Most all cigars I smoke on the course end up looking like the one you posted.
That's the reason I smoke cheapies while playing.
I store my smokes in a wineador, 65/65, btw.
My guess is that the wind dries out the wrapper our significantly enough to cause this to happen to me. Give them a little more rest would be my recommendation

 

[Metallifan33]

Lol yeah... I've had my experience with Amarillo winds and can definitely vouch for them. Bummer about the golf as I plan on smoking during a few rounds later this year.
Yeah, definitely not as nice smoking outside vs. Inside.

I'd say too dry also. I have this happen to a lot of cigars on the golf course. I live an hour north of Amarillo, which is pretty arid, 20-40% RH most of the time. It's also the windiest place in the us. A 10-15 mph wind is considered light. Most all cigars I smoke on the course end up looking like the one you posted.
That's the reason I smoke cheapies while playing.
I store my smokes in a wineador, 65/65, btw.
My guess is that the wind dries out the wrapper our significantly enough to cause this to happen to me. Give them a little more rest would be my recommendation

 

[Metallifan33]

Well, I'm glad to say the T52 was a dud. I smoked a LP9 today that arrived in the same batch on Monday and it smoked just fine. Not that I'm happy about paying for a dud (but I figure there's a first time for everyone), I'm just glad it wasn't anything I am doing (or did) that caused it.

 

[Cigary43]

Was that cigar ok when it arrived? I've seen my cigars "bust open" like that as well and it can be from a few reasons notwithstanding that it was too wet/dry. Usually it doesn't fall apart like that...that's just a mess esp. from a brand like that. I've had a loose wrapper that will unravel or a burn that goes sideways but that cigar is an absolute mess...enough where I'd send those pics to the place I bought the cigar from...as those are not cheap cigars. Some cigars are just made imperfectly...the wrapper being too tight and rolled badly...it happens. I've smoked cigars for decades and maybe only 3 in my life looked like that.

 

[Nacho Daddy]

too dry environment ,wrapper gets dry,filler is still moist and expands while wrapper is shrinking.
Classic.
wetting the wrapper prior to smoking might have prevented this,ligas have pretty tough wrappers.........

 

[knw247]

I've had similar reaction when smoking in very high RH conditions ( like it is raining) the filler expands faster than the wrapper and poof. But here I'd bet your very dry cedar rack sucked the RH out of the wrapper and the filler was on the wet side. It's not in common for cigars to be warehoused at higher RH to withstand travel.

The lesson. ROTT is a gamble.