What happens to a cigar with age?

[Spanishcedar]

So here's a thought, if you purge your humi with pure oxygen, would that catalyze the aging process?

I feel an experiment coming on...

 

[Spanishcedar]

So here's a thought, if you purge your humi with pure oxygen, would that catalyze the aging process?

I know it would be dry air; but, once purged with O[sub]2[/sub] you wouldn't have to keep purging it, provided the humidor is properly sealed and you could maintain a proper RH.

I feel an experiment coming on...

whoops, sorry about the double post.

 

[RoguePuffer]

So here's a thought, if you purge your humi with pure oxygen, would that catalyze the aging process?

I feel an experiment coming on...

So when any organic material ages it offgasses certian compounds CO2 Nitrogen etc. In a reciprical way those gasses and compounds cause different reactions in the organic material .

If you keep cigars in a sealed box in a basment that is perfectly 70% it will age a certian way based on the gasses and compounds recirculating in the box naturaly. If you put cigars into a storage humidor in a house and let them age naturaly they will age differantly than the sealed basement cigars simply because you will be opening that humidor every so often to recharge the humidity system what ever kind you have. When you open the door, all the gasses and compounds in the humidor will be released and mixed with they exterior air.

If you chose to charge that humidor with oxygen I belive that the oxygen would cause a serious catatylisation in the organic materials because it will do what oxygen does with most things, oxidize. with steel it rusts, but with tobacco, I dont know, is it the oxygen in the air that causes the aging process or if it is the gasses and compounds that are released from the cigar itself that causes the cigar to continue to age.

If I was going to test this theory, I would use two methods to do so.
1. I would take one large bundle of cigars say 100 and place 1/3 in a small humidor that I would charge with oxygen every day and recharge the humidification once a month,
2. The next third I would place in a humidor that I would charge with oxygen say every month and recharge the humidification system at that time as well.
3. The last third I would put in a humidor that would be the control no oxygen and recharge the humidification once a month


I would make this experiment at least 1 year long. to get some realy strong results you might want to go two years but sample some at six months and one year to compare. You should get some definitive results... so who has that kind of time and dedication? who knows you could make a reviloutionary breakthrough in the aged cigar world