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Noob questions, re: humidors, cigars etc, 1st mo of cigar smoking thou

R

rx2man

Banned
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
121
Was smoking a Graycliff Blue label Professional last night. 3rd one I have smoked, like it. Had a lot of difficulty keeping it lit and it was tunneling. After the 5-6 relight it finally went to crap. The 1st inch was really nice though. I had the same problem with the others although not as bad. Same issue with the 2 Rocky Patel 1990's but also loved the flavor them as well. Went to order some more Graycliff BLP's today and asked the seller if it was a cigar issue or me. Was told they are over humidified and I need to dry box them for 2-3 days. That the outside wrapper is too wet. Comments please.

I really liked the Gurkha Beautys I got. The 1st few I smoked were very smooth. The last couple I smoked were harsh. I lit up a Pinar Del Rio Classic last night and it was also harsh, smoked a 1/2 inch before I could not take it anymore and tossed it. moving on to the Graycliff.

All are in a Romeo y Julieta 8 drawer humidor at 67-68% humidity...ish using digital hygrometers and water pillows on one side and green foam humidifier with 50/50 solution. Live in dry Arizona

my likes so far

5 Vegas Golds, nice n smooth
CAO OSA
Man O War Virtue....almost too smooth
Gurkha Master select
Gurkha Blue Steel
La Perla Habana Classic Belicoso

really liked the RP 1990 and Graycliff Pro......but over humified??? affecting taste??? or are they as tasty as I think they are?

Did not like

Cohiba Red Dot was really harsh
Cohiba Puro Dominicano Robusto
Gurkha Widow Maker Maduro Churchill
Punch Pita felt like I got hit in the face after a 1/2 inch
Macanudo Cafe......only OK, not as smooth as I thought it would be

Do the punch/cohibas need time to age in the humidor or are they dog rockets with a "good" name? all comments appreciated.
 
I personally really like Punch. They are a great everyday smoke and I didn't age the ones I tried. The real dog rockets are the Gurkhas IMO... :sign:
 
aquiring93 said:
I personally really like Punch. They are a great everyday smoke and I didn't age the ones I tried. The real dog rockets are the Gurkhas IMO... :sign:
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thanks for the reply. I read "smoke what ya like and like what ya smoke" or something to that effect. It was a couple weeks ago that I smoked the punch and I went to work and told a cigar person about it and he said did you feel like you got punched in the face and I was like yeh. Made the inside of my mouth almost burn, or feel flush dont know how else to describe it. I know the Punch is supposed to be good so does that mean I just dont like its flavor or strength or is it a humidor issue?
 
So far one of my favorite cigars has been a Cohiba Puro Dominicana, excellent rounded off taste, smooth with a bit of spice. I've had a red dot as well which is not too far from the same scale of excellence. Your profile says you just started smoking cigars post Christmas which tells me that your palette is certainly still new to the distinct tastes and nuances that cigars can present. I've been smoking cigars for around 7 months and I still feel like I'm missing out on certain tastes when I smoke. I would have to say that maybe the cigars are too full bodied/full flavored for you to handle at the given time and that is why they come off as being "harsh". I know that when I started smoking cigars, for the first couple months any full bodied cigars seemed "harsh" to me but as time has passed, I have been able to smoke the same cigars, enjoy them, and taste what I could not before.
 
JDriver77 said:
So far one of my favorite cigars has been a Cohiba Puro Dominicana, excellent rounded off taste, smooth with a bit of spice. I've had a red dot as well which is not too far from the same scale of excellence. Your profile says you just started smoking cigars post Christmas which tells me that your palette is certainly still new to the distinct tastes and nuances that cigars can present. I've been smoking cigars for around 7 months and I still feel like I'm missing out on certain tastes when I smoke. I would have to say that maybe the cigars are too full bodied/full flavored for you to handle at the given time and that is why they come off as being "harsh". I know that when I started smoking cigars, for the first couple months any full bodied cigars seemed "harsh" to me but as time has passed, I have been able to smoke the same cigars, enjoy them, and taste what I could not before.
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I will not argue with that logic at all. I have only in the last week started to pick up on tastes and nuances that I have read about and as soon as I taste it or smell it, its gone. I assumed it would take some time to appreciate the fuller bodied smokes. I will let them sit and come back to them later.

Anyone have any input on the humidity and tunneling re the RP's and Graycliff Pros.
 
Smoke what you like, like what you smoke. Thinsg that I had found very true are one's likes would more than not change over time and the pleasure you derived from smoking a cigar was purely contingent on what you put into it.
 
You said you have a digital hygro, that's good. Is it calibrated?

Also, how big is your humidor? Plural on the water pillows plus foam full of 50/50 sounds like it may be overkill.

You also said you spoke with thhe seller, so I'm assuming you're buying them from a local shop. A lot of local shops, from my experience, keep their humidors a good deal higher than I like. Dry boxing, like suggested, might make a world of difference.
 
As I have read search is you friend. I found info here and elsewhere that humidity issues can cause tunneling. But as my other smokes were fine, like the Connecticut wrappers it did not seem to be a humidity issue, found this at cigar.com. Dry boxing is for cigars that are already at a nice and stable RH but have a super oily wrapper that doesn't like to burn well. I am at work and cant get on the site but that answers that. Glad I only messed up 3 of my Graycliffs.
 
Do you or have you ever smoked cigarettes? I find if you draw too hard that it may sometimes cause tunneling even on a well humidified cigar. Try slowing down your pace or the amount you are drawing. If you find yourself tunneling, touch up the sides and try again.
 
While there is a chance it could be the cigars, your hit/miss ratio seems a bit high for it to just be construction issues. More than likely I'm thinking humidity that is too high. It seems the most logical, as overhumidified cigars lead to a bitter taste and burn issues. Definitely try dryboxing the cigar from anywhere up to 72 hours and see what kind of difference there is. Also, you have to keep the ambient humidity in mind - meaning if you are just going to leave your cigar out and the humidity outside your humi is higher than inside...dryboxing won't work for you. You'd probably have to get a box and put a little damp-rid in a small dish in it to help dry your cigar out.

Also...there really is not such thing as a bad cigar, as long as you like what you are smoking. Plain and simple. Everyone has their favorites and biases...including myself...but what I like shouldn't influence what you smoke, unless of course it happens to be a cigar you like as well.
 
thechenman said:
While there is a chance it could be the cigars, your hit/miss ratio seems a bit high for it to just be construction issues. More than likely I'm thinking humidity that is too high. It seems the most logical, as overhumidified cigars lead to a bitter taste and burn issues. Definitely try dryboxing the cigar from anywhere up to 72 hours and see what kind of difference there is. Also, you have to keep the ambient humidity in mind - meaning if you are just going to leave your cigar out and the humidity outside your humi is higher than inside...dryboxing won't work for you. You'd probably have to get a box and put a little damp-rid in a small dish in it to help dry your cigar out.

Also...there really is not such thing as a bad cigar, as long as you like what you are smoking. Plain and simple. Everyone has their favorites and biases...including myself...but what I like shouldn't influence what you smoke, unless of course it happens to be a cigar you like as well.
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Thank you for taking the time to reply. It is all humidity issues, smoked a Perdomo 10th ann champagne last night was harsh as well. I dry boxed a Gurkha Beauty this am for 6 hours. While it seemed maybe a little too humid still there was not bitter/harshness and it tasted pretty good. I am in AZ so humidity is not an issue. I have a 5 Vegas Gold for tonight that will have been sitting dry for 16 hours. Cant wait to see how it smokes. I think its funny now as I have read reviews of bad cigars on some of the venders sites where the buyer complains about burn issues and the cigar is probably over humidified and not a prob with the cigar. I now will check out the fuller smokes that I did not like and see how they taste at a correct humidity. Really like these forums and the help. I did not think I would have to worry about over humidifying a cigar in AZ and was wondering why my smokes had all gone to crap. 6-8 cigars trashed, glad I figured it out sooner than later.
 
Tom asked this earlier, but have you verified that your digital hygro is properly calibrated? If it hasn't been properly calibrated, then the 67-685RH that you are seeing isn't what your humi is really running at.

Based on the fact that you are saying your sticks are over humidified, I would venture to guess that your hygro isn't calibrated correctly. IMHO 67-68%RH isn't over humidified for cigars (my humi is pretty consistent at 65-68%), maybe you are running closer to the 75% range, thus causing the over humidification?

If you did calibrate the hygro, maybe you should look into replacing the battery and re-calibrating using the salt test (http://www.cigarpass.com/index.php/salt-test-calibrate-hygrometer.html) method.
 
2K6TBSS said:
Tom asked this earlier, but have you verified that your digital hygro is properly calibrated? If it hasn't been properly calibrated, then the 67-685RH that you are seeing isn't what your humi is really running at. Based on the fact that you are saying your sticks are over humidified, I would venture to guess that your hygro isn't calibrated correctly. IMHO 67-68%RH isn't over humidified for cigars (my humi is pretty consistent at 65-68%), maybe you are running closer to the 75% range, thus causing the over humidification? If you did calibrate the hygro, maybe you should look into replacing the battery and re-calibrating using the salt test (http://www.cigarpass.com/index.php/salt-test-calibrate-hygrometer.html) method.
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All have been in a large 300 ct Romeo Y Julieta, 1 side the green foam deal with 50/50 the other side humi pillows. I thought the 50/50 would run 70% and the humi pillows 67-68. I calibrated 2 digital hygrometers and I thought they were accurate at about 68%. The 50/50 glycol not good to use?
 
tomthirtysix said:
You said you have a digital hygro, that's good. Is it calibrated?

Also, how big is your humidor? Plural on the water pillows plus foam full of 50/50 sounds like it may be overkill.

You also said you spoke with thhe seller, so I'm assuming you're buying them from a local shop. A lot of local shops, from my experience, keep their humidors a good deal higher than I like. Dry boxing, like suggested, might make a world of difference.
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re-reading the replys still trying to figure out what to do. The Romeo Y Julieta has 2 sides, I assumed they are separate, will double check. Yes plural on the pillows 3 or 4. I will drop it down to 2 and see how that works. Maybe I overfilled the green humidifier as well, thought i would have issues with the cigars drying out not being too wet
 
thechenman said:
rx2man said:
kann said:
Heartfelt beads.

Problem solved.
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I have box of the 65% heading to me.
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You can't go wrong with beads...and as long as you don't over wet them, you can never have too many beads either.
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I was home this AM and able to search the net and found part of my problem. When adding the PG 50/50 solution it will spike to 75% before it stabalizes at 70%. I added a water pillow to see if it will help absorb excess humidity. I am at work now and this is the only forum I can get to, the others are censored for some reason. Google searches wont come up when I am searching for something. Total PIA. I have 4 humidors going now with another showing up in the next couple days. My glass top will get the 65% so I can hopeully use it for my daily smokes and not have to dry box. The other 4 will be for longer term aging and storage. With the different types of cigars separated along strength and wrapper lines. I dry boxed a ASO gold for 24 hours or so and smoked it this AM.......was really nice. Thanks again for a the NOOB help.
 
Sounds like hes going to be needing a cooler soon. Welcome to the endless upgrade habit.

Word to the wise after seeing my budy buy tons of Graycliffs and other smokes like that. He now hates them and still has a ton left even a year later. Your tastes can change alot early on.
 
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