Telling RH of cigars without a hygrometer

[Kento]

WARNING: OBVIOUS INFORMATION AND OVER-DRAMATIZATION OF BORING FACTS TO FOLLOW (MAYBE NOT TOO OBVIOUS TO OTHER NOOBS)


When I just started smoking cigars and keeping them in a humidor with distilled water credos and half working analog hygros, I would come across a plugged cigar here and there, which no amount of jabbing with skewers, paperclips, etc would cure. Some of those were ISOM's, cohiba, JyR, etc. My old man and I would scratch/shake our heads, wondering how crappy those ISOM rollers must be to sell so many plugged cigars. Some of those would actually smoke OK, but the taste seemed bitter, and acidic. Once again my old man and I figured that's what the ISOM taste was, and tried to act like it tasted good (after all, they WERE ISOMs). Secretly we felt that ISOMs were the biggest rip off, overrated thing since Dodge brought back the HEMI engine.

Since that time, as my tastes grew, I started getting more into cigars as a hobby, and with the help of this site, figured out how to make PG solution, calibrate hygrometers, make coolerdors, and generally keep my cigars happy.

Skip ahead to today. I just sat down to smoke a nice looking NC Hoyo Sumatra. Grabbing it from my 70 RH (67 usually, but it's been raining a lot recently) desktop humi, I clipped and started to smoke it. I immediately noticed that it had a hard draw, with low smoke volume. I gave it another 5 minutes, and tossed it since it didn't get any better, and the taste was bitter and acidic......just like those crappy ISOM Cohibas....."Eureka" I screamed! Could it be that my hygrometer was a piece of crap and my cigars too wet? I ran to my wine-coolerdor to grab another Sumatra, clipped it, and wouldn't you know, it has a nice draw, nice flavor, nice finish. I crushed the first stick in my fingers and could feel the filler was damp. Also, when I rolled it in my fingers the wrapper would crack.

So it finally dawned on me that all those ISOMs we had smoked earlier were improperly stored, and each "plugged" one was actually too wet, and me and my old man were too ignorant to know any better. But now I know. I guess recently with my improved cigar keeping I should have known better, but I guess it was too obvious. I should get some beads soon to insure the sticks stay happy-happy at 65, and now know how to figure out if the cigars are too dry before clipping/lighting/tossing. Hooray for me!! :sign:

 

[CoventryCat86]

You got it Kento :thumbs:

I used 65%RH beads in both of my large storage containers and most times, the RH is closer to 60 than it is to 65 and I find my cigars smoke darn near perfect at this RH.

I smoked wet, soggy cigars for quite a while there (mostly right off the truck from JR's who is notorious for storing and shipping their cigars WET) and wondered why my experiences were mostly bad.

Of course now that I'm the snob that I am, I pretty much only smoke the high end cigars and Havanas :0 :thumbs:

 

[Mephiston]

YOU SNOB . I smoke yard gars and black and milds only.

I almost always leave my cigar to sit out for a few.Seems to bring out the flavor better and in this case may have saved some good smokes. By the way the digital hygrometers are the way to go. I have one that is the size of a cigar and fits right in anywhere.

 

[SFG75]

Just in case you're interested-I've heard that good way to test your cigar without a hygrometer is to do the "pinch" test. When you do this, the cigar should "give" a little, though bounce right back. If it's hard and has little "give" then your rph is low. Likewise if it acts like a sponge, then you probably have it a little too wet. I've gotten to be pretty good at this and can predict a burn issues on a "wet" cigar by doing the test before lighting up.