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Today’s Smoke 2018

Bolivar Bosphorus- this would have been an upper 90’s cigar if the person I received it from had stored it properly...

So many collectors are following the European trend of “storing” between 60 to 65 percent humidity, because “it taste so much better at the lower humidity!” After a few years like this, a great cigar now becomes just good due to the dissipation of the oils… After about ten years, you get toasted cardboard with a hint of leather.

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CigSid said:
So many collectors are following the European trend of “storing” between 60 to 65 percent humidity, because “it taste so much better at the lower humidity!” After a few years like this, a great cigar now becomes just good due to the dissipation of the oils… After about ten years, you get toasted cardboard with a hint of leather.
Click to expand...

What temp are they keeping the 60-65% Rh?

What's your recommendation? Since you have such an awesome collection of rare items, I would love to hear how you keep yours. Someday, I want to be able to light up a stick, with some serious age on it, and have more than cardboard and leather.
 
Scap said:
What temp are they keeping the 60-65% Rh?

What's your recommendation? Since you have such an awesome collection of rare items, I would love to hear how you keep yours. Someday, I want to be able to light up a stick, with some serious age on it, and have more than cardboard and leather.
Click to expand...

A cigar stored at 65 degrees with a RH of 70% will age differently than a cigar stored at 70 degrees with a RH of 70%.

In my opinion, RH is not all that matters… You are after a percent of moisture content, meaning a combination of energy (temperature) and saturation level (RH) to find the conditions that are best for your cigars. As temperature drops, the cigars' affinity for water grows. Water vapor makes bonds with tobacco as it does with itself, and the lower the temperature, the less energy water has, the stronger the bond with tobacco. Therefore, the lower the temperature the more saturated the cigar is, the biological changes for proper aging are altered. The opposite is much worse… lower humidity and higher temperature will rob your cigars of the precious moisture your cigars need, and the oils will dissipate, ruining your cigars…

Remember the 70/70 rule? Throughout the last decade this has changed dramatically. People are smarter, more educated, so let’s fix it, right? In Europe, the standard is 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. In a sense, what they are doing is using their humidors as a dry box. (Storing your cigars at 70/70, then dry boxing your cigar to 60-62 is a breakthrough in my opinion. I have had many more 100-point cigars since I have been using this technique.) The Europeans realized this and that is why they started storing their cigars at 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. They are now starting to realize that this was a very big mistake. I certainly realized it after purchasing many boxes and ending up with horrible cigars.

It is very difficult to maintain exact temp and RH, so my humidors fluctuate between 68 to 70 degrees, and 68 to 70 RH.
 
CigSid said:
A cigar stored at 65 degrees with a RH of 70% will age differently than a cigar stored at 70 degrees with a RH of 70%.

In my opinion, RH is not all that matters… You are after a percent of moisture content, meaning a combination of energy (temperature) and saturation level (RH) to find the conditions that are best for your cigars. As temperature drops, the cigars' affinity for water grows. Water vapor makes bonds with tobacco as it does with itself, and the lower the temperature, the less energy water has, the stronger the bond with tobacco. Therefore, the lower the temperature the more saturated the cigar is, the biological changes for proper aging are altered. The opposite is much worse… lower humidity and higher temperature will rob your cigars of the precious moisture your cigars need, and the oils will dissipate, ruining your cigars…

Remember the 70/70 rule? Throughout the last decade this has changed dramatically. People are smarter, more educated, so let’s fix it, right? In Europe, the standard is 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. In a sense, what they are doing is using their humidors as a dry box. (Storing your cigars at 70/70, then dry boxing your cigar to 60-62 is a breakthrough in my opinion. I have had many more 100-point cigars since I have been using this technique.) The Europeans realized this and that is why they started storing their cigars at 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. They are now starting to realize that this was a very big mistake. I certainly realized it after purchasing many boxes and ending up with horrible cigars.

It is very difficult to maintain exact temp and RH, so my humidors fluctuate between 68 to 70 degrees, and 68 to 70 RH.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the indepth explanation. Looks like I'll have to bust out the psychrometric chart and see what my humidor's absolute moisture is when compared to the absolute moisture of 68/68 to 70/70.
 
CigSid said:
A cigar stored at 65 degrees with a RH of 70% will age differently than a cigar stored at 70 degrees with a RH of 70%.

In my opinion, RH is not all that matters… You are after a percent of moisture content, meaning a combination of energy (temperature) and saturation level (RH) to find the conditions that are best for your cigars. As temperature drops, the cigars' affinity for water grows. Water vapor makes bonds with tobacco as it does with itself, and the lower the temperature, the less energy water has, the stronger the bond with tobacco. Therefore, the lower the temperature the more saturated the cigar is, the biological changes for proper aging are altered. The opposite is much worse… lower humidity and higher temperature will rob your cigars of the precious moisture your cigars need, and the oils will dissipate, ruining your cigars…

Remember the 70/70 rule? Throughout the last decade this has changed dramatically. People are smarter, more educated, so let’s fix it, right? In Europe, the standard is 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. In a sense, what they are doing is using their humidors as a dry box. (Storing your cigars at 70/70, then dry boxing your cigar to 60-62 is a breakthrough in my opinion. I have had many more 100-point cigars since I have been using this technique.) The Europeans realized this and that is why they started storing their cigars at 70 degrees and 60 to 65% RH. They are now starting to realize that this was a very big mistake. I certainly realized it after purchasing many boxes and ending up with horrible cigars.

It is very difficult to maintain exact temp and RH, so my humidors fluctuate between 68 to 70 degrees, and 68 to 70 RH.
Click to expand...


Who knew a guy with a Math degree, could be so scientifical :)
 
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