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Cigar storage 101

CigSid

CigSid

Love this place...
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
6,243
There is a site “down under” that some of you know about... there is a thread that really got to me “Minimum humidity before cigar damage”… As some of you know, there is a concerted effort to “store” long term at 58 to 60 percent. I have gone around and around with old timers that say this is the “new” way to do it. I have purchased many boxes from these “early adopters” of this method, and the cigars were ruined... I felt it absolutely necessary to explain this to the newbies...
I want to share this comment that I made:

“‘This will be my last post on this matter...

I have 70 year old boxes that are in perfect condition because of the old “tried and true” method of preserving these precious cigars. For all this time 70/70 was drilled into our grandfathers, our fathers and then to us. Why? Because it worked. Sure, I changed it just a bit to 68/68, because it was close enough (margin for error) and for 20 plus years it has worked perfectly. You have seen near 100 point scores in reviews “here” with this method... Then all of a sudden there’s a “new” way to do it... lower humidity is now better, the old (tried and true) method is now “hogwash”... and... it works for me so it MUST be the right way to do it. That is until 15 to 20 years from now, maybe it turns out that it isn’t... Is lower better? Nobody really knows for sure... has the old way worked for decades? Hell yes! Just like this information was passed down to my dad, then passed down to me, I am passing it down to you.

What you do with this information is entirely up to you.”’

If you feel like you want to support your “family member” that is up to you ? I could certainly use it over there in enemy territory ?
 
You’re up late... lol
I agree 68 is the way to go.

I’m not on that site much. I don’t think I have a password anymore.

Good luck
Paul
 
Unless you have a humidor with a perfect seal and seldom open it the humidity can run 3% to 4% below the setting. Larger humidors can have fluctuations between the shelves unless you circulate the air. Boveda recommends selecting a humidity pack slightly above your ideal humidity to allow for losses. I keep my Aristocrat at 68% and 68°F on the recommendation of my dad and BOTL here. I have never had a problem. I keep a 65% Boveda Pak in my Elie Bleu for dry boxing.

I've read the threads advocating lower humidity in the 58% to 60% range. IMHO I think they will regret that decision for long term storage and would never buy from them.
 
duglynukem said:
Unless you have a humidor with a perfect seal and seldom open it the humidity can run 3% to 4% below the setting. Larger humidors can have fluctuations between the shelves unless you circulate the air. Boveda recommends selecting a humidity pack slightly above your ideal humidity to allow for losses. I keep my Aristocrat at 68% and 68°F on the recommendation of my dad and BOTL here. I have never had a problem. I keep a 65% Boveda Pak in my Elie Bleu for dry boxing.

I've read the threads advocating lower humidity in the 58% to 60% range. IMHO I think they will regret that decision for long term storage and would never buy from them.
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Spot on! Whatever you set it at you will have a loss. I keep a pound of 70% beads at each level in my cabinet. It fluctuates between 66-69 depending what season it is. See my Seasonal Mood Disorder post. This is the case of higher is better for long term storage.
 
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But MRN said.... :rolleyes:

Completely agree. I try to keep everything around 67% on average. I tried low 60's once in a desktop humidor (by accident) and the cigars went to crap and didn't smoke well at all. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
 
Tough room there, Bill....:(

Back on topic, my storage is 65% / 68F and I dry box smokes from the island for a few days at 60-62% just prior to smoking. Depending on the weather and how much the forced air heat / AC runs, it sometimes drifts up to 68+%

I wouldn't store long term below 65% on a dare.

One man's opinion.....B.B.S.
 
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CigSid said:
Agree with you guys 100 percent... @jfields will attest to 60 to 100 plus year old cigars that are in pretty damn good shape, because they followed these guidelines for a hell of a long time...
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I can attest to that! I can also attest to buying cigars from someone in Spain who stores his cigars at 60 - 62%. Both vintage boxes I got from him were “ok”, but that’s it. Wasn’t hard to tell the flavors were off.
 
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As long as everyone remembers that the % moisture is RELATIVE to the temperature...

I keep my house at 72 in the warmer months (9+ months), so to keep the absolute moisture of my sticks in a comparable range, I run my humidor around 65% rh.
 
Scap said:
As long as everyone remembers that the % moisture is RELATIVE to the temperature...

I keep my house at 72 in the warmer months (9+ months), so to keep the absolute moisture of my sticks in a comparable range, I run my humidor around 65% rh.
Click to expand...

Remember... warmer temps, higher humidiy, colder temps, lower humidity... for example Min Ron Née keeps his humidity around 55 percent, and his temperature is 54 degrees.
 
CigSid said:
Remember... warmer temps, higher humidiy, colder temps, lower humidity... for example Min Ron Née keeps his humidity around 55 percent, and his temperature is 54 degrees.
Click to expand...


If we look at the chart that pigfish posted over there, MRN is about 11% absolute moisture.
72/65 puts me a tick over 12%.
70/70 works out to about 14%.
5957d622dd511_PercentMoisturecontentoftobacco.thumb.png.e7cac12c1e18204ef79006a5e7ffeae0.png
 
The pigs chart is a bit misleading... here is a easier to understand chart:

hygro_therm.jpg

As the temperature rises, the humidity falls, it needs to be compensated for...

By having a hygrometer, it measures Relative humidity. So it will always compensate for the temperature...
 
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