Wetting Your Cigars

[AlohaStyle]

There was a thread about wetting down your cigars here a couple years ago which I remembered and found, as well as some detailed threads about this on a few other forums from a few years back and I forgot all about this until I was reading through Nino's recent blog posts about his visit with Min Ron Nee in Hong Kong. Nino was hosted by Min Ron Nee for a few days and smoked some good cigars including a vintage Montecristo Dunhill. Nino said that before smoking the cigar, MRN used the "put them under water" method to wet the wrapper.

You can google this or look it up on a couple CC focused forums, but basically you take a cigar and run it under your tap water faucet for a few seconds, then wipe in and off any excess water drops. You then clip the head and light/smoke as usual after a couple minutes. I won't go into all the details and theories behind this, but it's said to take away the acidic taste of young cigars as well as give moisture to cigars that might be drier than you like for smoking, or for outside in temps when cracking might occur. The cigars tend to smoke more smoothly as well...

Have any of you tried this method? Most discussion is for CC's btw. I totally forgot about this until Nino brought it up again and I'm very interested in trying this out with a few cigars. I figure if MRN and some other respected BOTLs do this for some cigars, it's at least worth finding out for myself!

 

[SurpriseMVP]

I wet my wrapper on anything older than 1996. I use the same spray bottle that I use for my HF beads. I wet it down with some distilled water, wipe off excess, then smoke. It doesn't effect the burn and honestly couldn't tell you if it changes the taste because I have never not done it. The benefits are the burn stays even and the wrapper doesn't fall apart.

 

[Alwayslit]

I've heard that it cools the smoke. Sound interesting.

 

[Tobacco Giant]

I wet my wrapper on anything older than 1996. I use the same spray bottle that I use for my HF beads. I wet it down with some distilled water, wipe off excess, then smoke. It doesn't effect the burn and honestly couldn't tell you if it changes the taste because I have never not done it. The benefits are the burn stays even and the wrapper doesn't fall apart.

Just out of curiosity, why anything older than 1996?

 

[SurpriseMVP]

I wet my wrapper on anything older than 1996. I use the same spray bottle that I use for my HF beads. I wet it down with some distilled water, wipe off excess, then smoke. It doesn't effect the burn and honestly couldn't tell you if it changes the taste because I have never not done it. The benefits are the burn stays even and the wrapper doesn't fall apart.

Just out of curiosity, why anything older than 1996?

You could do it on newer production but never see the need. The cigars in my collection from early 80's to 96 are old and more fragile. Wetting the wrapper keeps the wrapper intact and a even burn. I don't have anything 97-98 so don't know. The cigars I have 99 - current still have a solid wrapper and I don't see the need to wet them

 

[Tobacco Giant]

I wet my wrapper on anything older than 1996. I use the same spray bottle that I use for my HF beads. I wet it down with some distilled water, wipe off excess, then smoke. It doesn't effect the burn and honestly couldn't tell you if it changes the taste because I have never not done it. The benefits are the burn stays even and the wrapper doesn't fall apart.

Just out of curiosity, why anything older than 1996?

You could do it on newer production but never see the need. The cigars in my collection from early 80's to 96 are old and more fragile. Wetting the wrapper keeps the wrapper intact and a even burn. I don't have anything 97-98 so don't know. The cigars I have 99 - current still have a solid wrapper and I don't see the need to wet them

Interesting, thanks for the explanation.

 

[Cigary43]

This is a practice that goes back into the mid 80's when I first heard of it and thought the idea was nutts. Fortunately for me it was a practice that was done by gentlemen who knew more about cigars than most others. Wetting can be done on any cigar....regardless of age. As is being said the practice helps keep the wrapper intact and the burn much straighter and I've done this with almost every cigar I've ever smoked...and in 50 years that is a lot of different cigars. I have waited on the process after wetting for 5 hours, 12 hours, a day and up to 2 days. 24 hours is something I choose because I've had better luck and experience with how well the cigar smokes after. Is it worth the effort...I think it is because of how well the cigar burns and smokes.

 

[Craig Mac]

I have heard this discussed while working in the shop before, if it works for you then so be it. Personally I have never done it, nor would I recommend it to a customer, and my cigars smoke and burn just fine.

 

[CigarGavin]

The oldest cigar ive smoked is from late 96' and the wrapper was solid IMHO, but if I ever get (2) more I would be willing to try it with one.

 

[Cigary43]

The oldest cigar ive smoked is from late 96' and the wrapper was solid IMHO, but if I ever get (2) more I would be willing to try it with one.

When I did my first few cigars I actually chose cigars I knew like the back of my hand....so I knew going in what my tastes were. I wanted to ensure that the procedure held value for me so I did my own experiment and chose cigars I could tell if there would be a difference by wetting them. As I said I found out that for me....it was worth the effort so my advice is to try this with something you know very well...try the experiment and you'll get an idea of the worthiness of trying it on other cigars if it works for you.