The more you smoke, the more you are fascinated by the charm and flavours that are hidden in the tobacco leaves of your cigar. You start to buy more and more cigars because you want to try different ones. Your collection starts to grow and you don’t want to waste it. Now the time has come to give your precious cigars the right space. Here it is the humidor guide for real classy gentlemen.
You start to search on the internet and you find humidors with hygrometers at a very convenient price. Wow, you think. They are really a bargain! The truth is, I wish it was.
In other words, forget to buy any of those and let me explain some basic concepts about humidors.
But above all, what exactly is a humidor?
A humidor is a box, usually made of wood, that contains cigars and preserves them from atmospheric agents, primarily temperature and humidity, which can change their organoleptic characteristics, such as smell and taste.
In these boxes the humidity is controlled thanks to humidifying agents of different types and is monitored through a hygrometer.
Because cigars are highly sensitive to the external environment, an humidor must be as good as possible.
Let’s see what are be the main features that a humidor for quality cigars must possess.
Surely three are the most important things when evaluating the purchase of the “home” of our beloved cigars:
- hygrometer
- material
- dimensions
Cigar humidor features
Hygrometer
The hygrometer is useful to monitor the relative humidity inside the humidor, which must be between 70 and 75%. It can be analogical or digital. We must say that many aficionados prefer to determine if the cigar has the right humidity touching it with their fingers. But to be able to do it, you need to be quite expert. So don’t think about it and choose a good quality hygrometer.
Material
About the material, a good humidor is usually made of Spanish cedar or American red cedar. Other good alternatives are mahogany and rosewood. But you need to be careful. In the case of cedar humidors, if it is not well seasoned, the wood releases resin and its characteristic smell unfortunately will ruin your beautiful cigar collection.
In fact, the best humidors are always made with well seasoned cedar wood. The Spanish cedar is perfect given its better conservative characteristics regarding tobacco.
In addition to wood, there are also other materials used for the creation of boxes to store cigars, such as plexiglass and glass, or in some cases we can find glass mixed with wood. Although they could have a pleasant look, if not well sheltered from light, the possible greenhouse effect would ruin our cigars. Therefore, to avoid any risk, it is always recommendable to opt for an humidor entirely made of wood.
Dimensions
Soon your collection of cigars will start to grow and therefore you would waste your money buying a small humidor.
There are several reasons to buy a bigger one. As aforesaid because sooner or later you won’t have enough space for all your cigars. Then it is very important that cigars don’t mix their flavors. If you have cigars of different origins, you don’t want to store them together. They could alter each other their original characteristics. And especially when you spend a lot of money on a particular cigar, that’s the last thing you want. That’s why, when choosing a humidor, it is also important that there are shelves and/or drawers for storing different cigars so that the fragrances remain as intact as possible.
Humidor
Last but not least, it is advisable to leave some empty space in your humidor in order to let your cigars have proper ventilation.
In conclusion, don’t underestimate the importance of a properly stored cigar. Its flavours and the overall smoking experience can vary greatly. Ideally, you should keep your cigars at 21°C (70°F) and 70% humidity. But that’s on average, different types of cigars require different temperature and humidity. Furthermore, you can experiment and then set the humidor according to your preferences.
For all these reasons don’t waste your money buying cheap and choose a good quality humidor!
If you liked the humidor guide, we would love to hear your gentle opinion in the comments. Keep it classy and remember to smoke less but smoke well. Happy puffing!
Final tip
Once you take a cigar from the humidor, unless you don’t smoke it shortly after, it is best to keep it in a sealed plastic bag.