My boyfriend enjoys a fine cigar every now and then, and so to surprise him my dad got him a box of, evidently, very fine ones for Christmas. They’re in a box (presumably wrapped in the box?), the box is wrapped in cellophane, and the whole shebang is wrapped in wrapping paper. It’s been under the tree at my parents’ for a few days, which evidently is okay, but now I’m not exactly sure of when my boyfriend is getting back from his parents and my folks have given me the box to give to him.
Should I be worried about them? I mean, I haven’t got a humidor, obviously. The BF does but I can’t get into his apartment, I don’t think, and I don’t know how big it is (obviously he’ll have to make these decisions for himself when I give him this thing, which really seems like a lot of cigars to me!) He might be home tonight or tomorrow, in which case the damage is done, but he made some mention of not coming back for a week (he has to get his brakes fixed down there) and I thought I’d better be ready to do something about these things by then!
No, no, no! Never, ever, put fine cigars in the fridge!
Your fridge is dry. As a general rule, cigars need to be kept at 70% relative humidity. This is why you need a humidor. And yes, tobacco loves to pick up odors from whatever it can (this is how they make flavored pipe tobaccos and cigars–just by leaving them next to a bowl of, say, vanilla), so unless you want dry, onion-and-cheese-flavored cigars, do not put them in the fridge.
(A few years ago, I did a lot of work for and with a high-end tobacconist whose primary business was fine, handrolled cigars and expensive pipes and pipe tobaccos. I don’t wish to say “my post is my cite,” but in this case, I think I have to.)
Now, with that said, let’s address the original question. Yes, they should be fine if they have not been in a humidor for a few days. However, they may not be in a prime smokeable state. If he wants to smoke one or two within the next month or so, I’d suggest taking one or two out of the box, removing all cellophane wrappers and tubes, and putting them naked in the humidor. They will be ready to smoke in a week or two. The rest of the box can be put whole in the humidor, assuming there is room for it in there. Those cigars in the box in the humidor will be ready in four to six weeks.
Define “a few days”? I’m not sure exactly how long they were under the tree - is there a point at which I break into his apartment and stick them in his humidor? (Or get him a bigger humidor as an early birthday present?)
Really? When I am cleaning out or priming my humidor I just take my cigars, put them in Ziplock bags and store them in the crispers for a period of 24 to 48 hours with no problem. I’ve never noticed them any worse for the wear. Am I really harming my cigars by doing this?
No, you needn’t break in, or get the bathroom all steamy. They are fine in their cellophaned box for now, although at two or three weeks out of a humidor, they should spend some time in there before he smokes one.
There really isn’t an emergency situation here that would require a break-in. Cigars that get dry can be “revived,” by placing them in a humidor, although the longer they are outside of one, the longer they will have to sit inside one. Worst case I ever saw was a cigar that was gifted at a corporate golf outing–the recipient left it naked in a desk drawer for a year, but we revived it to fairly good condition with eight weeks in a humidor. But no need to worry–unlike that “worst-case scenario” above, I imagine that in terms of outside time from the tobacconist’s humidor to your boyfriend’s, we’re looking at two or three weeks here, tops. And in a cellophaned box besides. No damage has been done, and he can put them in his humidor whenever he gets back.
For that amount of time, and in a Ziplock bag, probably not. For longer periods, definitely.
Sorry, BTW, to jump in my last post–you didn’t mention Ziplock bags or 24 to 48 hours storage. I did meet a few people who just put cigars naked in the fridge for weeks, then couldn’t figure out why they were dry and smelling of onions.
At any rate, while I’d probably concede that your method may be OK due to the brevity an the bag, I’d also have to add that as a rule, it’s not a good idea. We always recommended what we called “the 70/70 rule” for storage–that is, 70% relative humidity at 70 degrees F. That way, at the very least, your smokes are ready to smoke: you needn’t wait for them to warm up to room temp. If you try to smoke a cold cigar, you’re likely to crack it when the hot smoke travels down the cigar through the cold tobacco. Plus, repeated cold-warm-cold-warm cycles are not good for cigars.
As an aside, I will also concede that freezers do serve one purpose for cigars, and that is in getting rid of tobacco beetles. But that’s for another thread.
But Ziplock bags are a cigar smoker’s best friends. When you clean your humidor, I’d suggest using the Ziplock bags for your smokes, but not putting your bagged smokes in the fridge. Even if they are out for a day or two, as long as you keep the bags sealed for 24 to 48 hours at room temp, your cigars should still be fine.
You make it sound much easier than it is. Dried out cigars are notoriously hard to revive, and often it’s impossible to do so. I don’t think the situation in the OP is near that end of the spectrum, but I think you’re overgeneratlizing here.
The OP needs to get them into a humidor as soon as possible, but they should be OK in the box for awhile (if tightly sealed with plastic)-- she might want to wrap them even more securely in ziplock bags, or perhaps find some kind soul you will allow the cigars to rest in his humidor until the boyfriend gets back.
Nope, that’s wrong–or at least an overstatement. As cigars dry out, they don’t lose just water. They lose the oils that give them their flavor. A cigar that can be “rejuvenated” is one that still has enough of these oils remaining to still be smokable. But even then, it’s not as good as it would have been had it not dried out at all. And beyond a certain point, the cigar is “unrevivable”–dry and terrible. You might as well be smoking shredded newspaper.
I’m a fanatic about it. I get my cigars in my humidors as soon as I get them, but you should be okay. I’d probably put 'em in a ziplock with a damp sponge (use distilled water, not tap water; don’t let the cigars actually touch the sponge).
An overstatement perhaps, and you’re correct about the rejuvenenation. But the OP and her boyfriend’s cigars are a long, long way from this point. Perhaps I should have said, “after drying out totally and losing its oils over a period of months in a dry environment, it will never be perfect again, but after three months in a humidor it will be smokeable by the person who smokes a cigar once a year and thus won’t notice and likely doesn’t care.” That statement summed up our customer. I apologize for not giving the full backstory.
Now, about the damp sponge–if we realy wanted to be perfectionists about it, we’d be recommending a 50-50 mix of propylene glycol and distilled water, which produces, as such a solution does, a 70% RH. But if a sponge, loaded with PG/water solution or just water is somehow impractical, then there’'s no sense worrying about it. Leave them in a humidor for a few weeks; they will be fine.
I’m a fanatic too–I look after my humidors with all the care you probably do–but I’m also a realist. I know that not everybody has a properly-seasoned humidor or PG or distilled water or a hygrometer. The OP has some legitimate questions, and all we’re trying to do is to get her over the next few days with no long-lasting damage to her boyfriend’s cigars. A Ziplock bag is a good idea, but my experience has shown that a few days or even a few weeks won’t do any damage to a cellophaned box that can’t be fixed by a few weeks in a humidor.
Why the distilled water? My humidor instructions specify it, but I’ve been using tap water. It’s just a portable humidor, not much larger than a cigar box. The gage usually indicates about 70% humidity, although temperature as ambient varies. I don’t maintain a collection, and basically purchase what I’ll smoke within a couple of weeks, so that probably allows quite a bit of slopiness in my method. Given that, should I really be a stickler for distilled water at this point?
It seems somebody should really do an Ask the Cigar Guy thread! Oh, all of this was for nothing, he got his brakes fixed and he’s on his way back tonight. But I’ll look really smart when I give them to him! Thanks all.
Tap water typically has impurities in it that can flavor a cigar. And it gets absorbed in the walls of your humidor, so it hangs around for a while even if you stop doing it. Distilled water adds nothing in the way of flavor, only moisture.
If you don’t taste anything wrong with tap water, then for your purposes, no problem. But given how little a gallon of distilled water costs, why not?
The propylene glycol mix Spoons points out is best of all–that’s what I use. A bit pricier though.
No apology necessary, and I knew exactly what you meant. I just thought someone else might read your words to mean that a cigar could stay outside a humidor indefinitely and get rejuvenated–which I know you didn’t intend to convey. It brought a tear to my eye, the thought that this could lead to someone ruining a good smoke.
I’m just a “better safe than sorry” guy when it comes to good cigars. A few weeks would make me very nervous. Could be fine, but depending upon conditions, it could definitely affect the character of the cigar for the bad, even if it’s still smokable. I realize that’s not the OP’s situation (happy to see the cigars are getting rescued :)).
