A Guide For Storing Your Cigars At Home

By Author: Ariel Brady
Total Articles: 248
Comment this article

This has been a plaguing question that we've been answering for years - and rightly so! Keeping your prized cigars fresh is a challenge. Heck it's even a challenge at most cigar shops and cigar bars nationwide! But here in Colorado and other arid states have it extra rough. It seems like we are always playing a tortuous game of catch-up.

SEASONING There are a few rules to keep in mind if you own a standard, home-based, cigar humidor. First, you have to season it. Not once, but regularly. What is seasoning you ask? Seasoning is the act of throughly wetting ALL of the interior wood of your humidor. Be generous! The easiest way is to use a clean spray bottle and spray the interior until there is a pool of water at the bottom. Then do it again for good measure! You can also use a very wet rag to wipe it down. Go nuts! When you are done, close the lid and wait just long enough so that the wood is no longer wet to the touch. Now you can put your cigars back in there. You need to do this because the Spanish cedar inside of your humidor is very soft and porous - and dry! It will battle your cigars for the humidity you introduce ...
... - and it will win! Essentially, the wood will soak up all of the humidity and leave your cigars dry as a bone. To combat this we "season" the wood and fully impregnate it with water so that it doesn't steal them from your cigars. Feel free to do this as often as you want. Or at least every couple of months. Every couple weeks would be ideal.
Boveda Packs
Boveda Packs

HUMIDIFIERS You don't have enough in there! Without even seeing your humidor I will safely bet that you don't have enough humidifiers/humidity in there - especially if you're in lovely Denver, Colorado. All humidors purchased at cigar shops come stock with one cheap little humidifier (usually the size of a small hockey puck). This is the manufacturer's way of providing the bare minimum. You need to upgrade. You can add one or two more of these in. Or you can do what we like to do which is to add 2-3 Boveda packs in there (we carry these in our cigar shop Stogies & Bogeys). They are paper packets filled with a slow release gel that emits the perfect amount of humidity. There is nothing to refill and nothing to monitor. You just put a few in your humidor and walk away. When they are close to expiration, they will start to turn stiff and crunchy. Time to replace! You will only have to replace them once every 4-6 months though!
Xikar digital hygrometer
Xikar digital hygrometer

ACCURATE GAUGING You probably have on the those analog humidity gauges on the outside of your humidor. Yes, that thing that looks like a pocket watch with only one arm. News flash - it sucks. You can keep it there because you and both think it looks pretty, but it sucks. They are sometimes off as much as 20-30%! I have no idea what the point of those even are - except to look pretty. Did I mention that they suck? Go get yourself a digital hygrometer. Yes we have those too. Digital hygrometers are accurate to within 2-3%.

THAT'S IT Keep up on these 2 points and we can guarantee that your cigars will stay fresh as long as you don't get too lazy!

cigar shop Denver
cigar bar Denver