How long will it take to bring a cigar's humidity down?

[SMOKE!]

Ok, I store some of my "extra" cigars at 70%. These are cigars that I dont plan on smoking right away. When I do want to smoke one, how long should I leave it in the 65% humi?

 

[Aureus]

1-2 weeks if I recall the advice given in the past correctly.

 

[lucasbuck]

6-8 weeks

 

[andrewhac]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question about the humidity level:

1) Why is it that cigar storing at 65% smoking better than 70% ?
2) Have you ever tried to smoke two cigars, one at 65%, one at 70%, what was your experience and opinion ?
3) If I dry-box a cigar that had been stored at 70% level for a while, how long is the period in the dry box for the cigar to reach the minimal acceptance humidity level to smoke it (I hope not 2 weeks plus because that is a mightly long time to wait...) ?

Thank you in advance for your input !

 

[theorangeman]

Regarding your first question, it's very subjective. However, most guys (including myself) will tell you that they burn much better at 65% and they like the way they smoke overall. I recall a thread a few weeks ago regarding this topic and a couple guys were even doing the experiment that addresses your second question. Do a search and you should be able to find it.

 

[Wurm]

6-8 weeks

Thats about how long its been taking me to get CI bundle cigars to a smokable rh lvl.

When they arrive they are always so moist you can squeeze them HARD and they don't crack.

It took my IT SF bundles close to 2 months to become smokable at 65%, before then, they tasted horrible and burnt like crap.

 

[emodx]

Ok, I store some of my "extra" cigars at 70%. These are cigars that I dont plan on smoking right away. When I do want to smoke one, how long should I leave it in the 65% humi?

This belongs in the humidor thread.
-E

 

[emodx]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question about the humidity level:

1) Why is it that cigar storing at 65% smoking better than 70% ?
2) Have you ever tried to smoke two cigars, one at 65%, one at 70%, what was your experience and opinion ?
3) If I dry-box a cigar that had been stored at 70% level for a while, how long is the period in the dry box for the cigar to reach the minimal acceptance humidity level to smoke it (I hope not 2 weeks plus because that is a mightly long time to wait...) ?

Thank you in advance for your input !

1) %70 isn't always better. For example, a wonderful light bodied cigar is the Taino. This cigar isn't packed very full, but smokes straight and produces tons of smoke. I like these at %70. Also, I prefer Hemingway's at %70 also. Mostly the thin wrapper cigars benefit the most.

%65 I prefer for almost all other cigars. Habano's and non's.

3) This depends on the ambient RH in your area. The average humidity level on the beach where I live is %50-55. Dry boxing would take me 4 weeks. So this is something you will have to experiment with. If you had to, you could dry out a cedar block in the oven and put it in your dry box. I do this with the fridgedor when the RH gets too high. For the size of my fridgedor, it takes 2 blocks 4 days to drop the RH %5. So I am thinking in a desktop humi it would take 2 blocks about 6 hours to drop %5. I would think %35-40 would be optimal for dry boxing.

-Emo

 

[Ginseng]

Dry boxing would take me 4 weeks. So this is something you will have to experiment with. If you had to, you could dry out a cedar block in the oven and put it in your dry box. I do this with the fridgedor when the RH gets too high. For the size of my fridgedor, it takes 2 blocks 4 days to drop the RH %5. So I am thinking in a desktop humi it would take 2 blocks about 6 hours to drop %5. I would think %35-40 would be optimal for dry boxing.

-Emo

Nice tip, Emo. Gonna have to keep that one in mind.

Wilkey

 

[jgohlke]

Good tip on the cedar blocks...I'll bet that works way better than propping a hair dryer to blow on your overly humidified beads and then going to watch some TV and when you come to check on them 20 minutes later the hot air has very effectively dried them which of course makes them much lighter and like an idiot I had the hair dryer on high so the wind blew them out of the container and of course I had the rig in the bedroom where it's carpeted so now I'm crawling around on my hands and knees picking $20 worth of beads out of the carpeting....Do'h!