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To freeze or not to freeze?

strife

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No need to IMO. Frozen veggies never taste the same as fresh, freezing causes cell damage in plants. Does it change the flavor of a cigar? Don't know and don't want to risk it.
 
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Yes, I've done a few. Honestly I don't think it affected the cigars taste. I keep my house air conditioned in the summer. I really haven't felt the need to freeze.
 

javajunkie

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No need to IMO. Frozen veggies never taste the same as fresh, freezing causes cell damage in plants. Does it change the flavor of a cigar? Don't know and don't want to risk it.
think this works IF you have an industrial blast freezer. qiucker the freeze, smaller the ice crystals, and therefore less cellular damage.

alton brown, kids. mr. wizard for fat kids!
 

twenty5

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I dont freeze them.

Although, myself and a few others invented a Freezing chamber that is 100% guarenteed to get rid of those pesky beetles.
 

USCG Cigar Newb

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Nope I am not and as others had said I just dont know enough about how it might affect the cigar, but I see why theoretically people do, I hope I never have an outbreak of beetle and make me wish I had.
 
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I've had to freeze sticks before after being gifted sticks with possible beetle signs. (Some gift right? The gift givers were not cigar smokers, I couldn't get mad at them for a hole or "dust" they might not have known better about.)

I can't say whether or not the flavor was affected definitively, but, for my palette, it did seem somewhat muted. I WILL say though I wouldn't even bother with the recovery process for any Connie Shade wrapped sticks, they almost all fell victim to some kind of cracking after the freeze at some point, even if it was all the way past the 1/2 way point of smoking the stick, the frustration of losing some of the more delicate sticks anyways was annoying.

I do though, freeze all sticks given to me as a gift where I either do not trust the giver as a fellow cigar enthusiast, or the sticks did not come from a trusted cigar retailer or have not ever laid eyes on the conditions of the humidors of retailer they were purchased from. Even without any signs of infestation, they are frozen, properly thawed, rehumidified and quarantined into their own Tupperdor with Humipaks until they are consumed.

Only sticks bought from the B&M's I know, love and trust that have been inspected by yours truly are the only ones that go straight from the B&M into the collection. Not to say I don't love cigars as gifts and appreciate them, but there is a certain amount of investment into my collection, as I'm sure all of yours too, and certain steps should be taken to protect that investment as a precaution.
 

strife

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I do though, freeze all sticks given to me as a gift where I either do not trust the giver as a fellow cigar enthusiast, or the sticks did not come from a trusted cigar retailer or have not ever laid eyes on the conditions of the humidors of retailer they were purchased from. Even without any signs of infestation, they are frozen, properly thawed, rehumidified and quarantined into their own Tupperdor with Humipaks until they are consumed.
Why not just skip a few steps and quarantine suspected cigars until consumed or they show any signs of infestation if you're that concerned? Just curious.
 
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Why not just skip a few steps and quarantine suspected cigars until consumed or they show any signs of infestation if you're that concerned? Just curious.
The reason I don't do this is because when I caught the problem last time the sticks were from somebody with a great almost impeccable reputation. I lost about $200.00 worth. Not huge, but my collection is much bigger now.
 
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I do not freeze. But my house never gets above 75 degree's F
What about the UPS, FedEx or similar truck. The warehouse they were transferred in, and so on. If the temp + humidity factors are right it only takes one to hatch. Then it is on. I will take the extra few days to do it right so I will never be concerned with it again.
 
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I freeze everything that comes in. Found 1 beetle hole and I was a convert. Opened a tubo the other day and found a couple of holes, probably from before the freeze as I just froze them in the tube.
 

strife

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The reason I don't do this is because when I caught the problem last time the sticks were from somebody with a great almost impeccable reputation. I lost about $200.00 worth. Not huge, but my collection is much bigger now.
Not to be argumentative but he said that after he freezes them he still keeps them quarantined from his collection. I was just wondering why bother freezing them in the first place then since contamination would be impossible unless one of the cigars knocked out the isolation wing guard, shimmied up the tassel of his humidor key and quietly squeezed its way under the tightly sealed lid. All of which is highly unlikely considering the quality of craftsmanship of today's humidors.

Seriously though, if freezing your smokes gives you a little piece of mind then go for it. Pretty sure it can't hurt.
 
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I recently put this to the test by splitting a bomb of a eight cigars into two test group (4 & 4) and comparing. The four that I froze seemed to have a muted flavor profile along with a slightly "stale" note. I made sure to follow all of the recommended procedures in moving the cigars slowly from warmer to colder temperatures and then back again- even going a little further to split the fours into further test groups (cello on and of; 2 & 2) and triple wrap the gars in plastic baggies. My overall impression is that cigars are better having not been frozen.
I have also heard that a lot of companies will "pre-treat" their cigars during production in order to avoid beetle infestation. My understanding is that they don't "freeze" them- more just reduce the temperature for an extended period of time. I can see how people would feel more comfortable having frozen all their sticks, especially when receiving them from a source who's cigar knowledge is limited, but I, for one, don't feel the need to. I'm relatively confident that my sticks are stored properly enough to avoid any problems that aren't already contained within the cigars from before I got them. My best advice is that if you're worried about beetles, but your not sure whether you should freeze, just grab a couple sticks and do a quick test to see what you think. Then go from there.
 
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