In order to keep cigars at their best, serious collectors should have a good humidor on hand. Humidors allow your prized cigars to be kept in an environment that they can remain in tip top shape for as long as possible. But keeping them simply in a humidor is not all there is to it. You need to keep these following tips in mind when you do find yourself using a humidor for your cigar collection.

First of all, when you have a new humidor on hand, you should ensure that it has a tight seal. A well-made humidor is one that has an air-tight seal around it. This will be very important especially if you do have a number of cigars in your collection that you wish to keep for a longer period of time than usually. It is also wise that you try to keep cigars that you may have immediate use for in a separate box.

Before you place your cigars in your new humidor, you should make sure to keep the humidifying device inside the box working. Although it might sound a bit techie, the said device can be nothing more than a dampened sponge placed at the bottom interior of the humidor. Use a sponge dampened in distilled water and then placed inside the humidor. Close the humidor’s lid and let it stay that way for about a day to let the cedar wood lining the insides of the humidor to absorb the moisture. After this is done, you may now put your cigars inside the humidor.

Make sure that you put your well stocked humidor in a cool and dry place to prevent mold or fungus growth that may destroy your humidor as well as the cigars inside. Also remember not to place the humidor in a place where there are sudden changes in temperatures. Find an ideal environment in your home that enjoys steady temperature al throughout to make sure that your cigars are kept and stored well.

With your cigars now on your humidor, it is important that you try to keep the interior always have the ideal humidity for your prized cigars. Try to keep the interior environment of your humidor at about 70 percent humidity. You can use a circular type hygrometer to get the humidity readings. To keep the humidity levels ideal, you should also try to check that the sponge inside the humidor to see if it is still damp. Check it every two weeks and dampen it using only distilled water or an accepted poly-glycol solution on a regular basis. You may need to do this more often during the winter when the air is drier. This also applies for collectors in dry and desert regions in the world.

Posted in Cigar Humidors

Cigar humidors come in handy especially for serious cigar collectors. In the case of having quite a number of different cigars in your cabinet, you definitely would need a good cigar humidor. A cigar humidor the best place to store your cigars. This is especially useful if you have more cigars that you can possibly use for a long time. After all, that is what cigar collectors do.

In collecting cigars, one must be able to know how to keep the cigars and in good condition always. Cigars are known to dry up over time. The moisture in the cigars may evaporate in time and may lose some of their best characteristics. In collecting cigars, one must bear in mind that they require storing in a special kind of environment that will allow them to remain in their best condition for a long time.

In order to keep your cigars in its best condition, it must be stored in spaces that have the ideal humidity, which falls around 65 to 75 percent. A space that provides this constant humidity will help prevent your cigars from drying up. And cigar humidors may be able to provide just the right environment for your cigar collection. Cigar humidors can be a small wooden or acrylic glass boxes where you can store your most prized cigar possessions. Humidors can also be as big as walk-in spaces that may cover a whole floor to accommodate the storage of a vast collection of cigars. What they all have in common is that they provide a storage space for cigars with constant ideal temperature to always keep them in tip top condition.

Although different humidors are made from several wood varieties, the most common used today is that of Spanish cedar. They are usually crafted in the interiors of humidors as veneers and this comes with good reason. The many good characteristics of Spanish cedar make it ideal for keeping cigars in great condition. For one, Spanish cedar has excellent moisture absorption qualities that helps it maintain the humidity in an enclosed space such as a humidor. The Spanish cedar also gives off a pleasant aroma that can be absorbed by the cigars after they are stored long enough. And not only that, Spanish cedar can also help repel the dreaded tobacco beetles that have been known to ruin an entire cigar stock. They do their damage by not only eating the tobacco leaves but also lay their eggs in the cigars themselves that bring further infestation.

A good humidor will always help keep your cigar stocks in the best condition possible for long periods of time. But it is also up to the collector to help make their humidors maintained. In buying a new humidor, it is always advised that the new ones be seasoned before you start storing your cigars in them. New humidors can be pretty dry when you first buy them. One of the things that you can do to season them is by wiping its interiors with a moist cloth to remove any dust. After that, place a small container of water inside the humidor and leave it there for twelve hours at least with the lid closed. Once the water has been completely gone, the process is repeated for another 24 hours. When the water inside the humidor has stopped from evaporating by this time, you can now place your cigars inside it. You can also place a moist cloth or sponge inside the humidor to keep the wood as well as the cigars moist.

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Buying a humidor would be the best thing when cigar storage comes to mind. Cigar humidors are perfect since they were specifically designed for cigar storage purposes in the first place, that and the fact that they do come in really fancy varieties or styles.

But purchasing a humidor is only half the battle of keeping your cigars fresh. The purpose of humidors is to keep the temperature and humidity levels controlled in such a way that the cigars will remain fresh. The idea is to maintain an environment where temperature and humidity is close to the natural tropical climate where the tobacco leaves originally came from. The ideal temperature would then be around seventy degrees Fahrenheit.

Aside from the temperature, humidity levels should also be put into check. A measurement of 70% humidity range inside the humidor would be the ideal level of moisture content. Keeping the cigars in theses conditions is a good way of saving money as well since you can buy better quality cigar and not worry about dumping them due to poor storage facilities.

Now, the ideal temperature/humidity combinations is, therefore, 70° temperature / 70% humidity. However, since these are merely “ideal” measurements, most of the time you won’t be able to achieve such perfect results. In reality, however, you might be able to get to as close as  65°F and 65% humidity, which is good.

According to some experts, cigars seem to be better off stored in temperature ranges of 62 to 70 degrees. However, once temperatures surge to about 75 degrees F in your humidor think of buying a better one or better yet purchase an electric cabinet type of humidor with those automatic and electronic kinds which maintains an ideal environment at all times.

Meanwhile, relative humidity should be maintained at  levels ranging from 65% to 75%. While others claim that 80% humidity level is still fine, why risk it?

The logic is, the lower the temperature, the higher the humidity and thus the more need to control the environment inside the humidor. This makes it a good habit to always, always keep your humidors with all the cigars in it in a relatively cool place.

The dangers of having too little humidity inside the storage box will lead to the cigars drying up and becoming flavorless. Maintaining a stable environment keeps them fresh and also prevents the dormant tobacco beetle-eggs in the leaves to hatch. The last thing you want is to see wriggling larvae destroying your precious cigars.

Cigars are highly sensitive to light, temperature, humidity, and friction. So keep your cigars and cigar box from direct sunlight and damp places. Just keep them in a cool, dry place.

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The proper calibration of hygrometers is important since it could be showing a correct relatively humidity range while in fact it is not resulting to drying your precious cigars.

Although, hygrometers should be pre-calibrated when they came of the manufacturing plants, normal shocks resulting from packing, transporting or shipping can cause the unit to be off by a few percentage points.

First thing you need to do after you bought  your hygrometer is to determine if it is calibrated or not. You could do the table salt test to see if the hygrometer is showing off the right readings.

Get a teaspoon of salt and place it in a bottle cap. Moisten the salt a bit but don’t dissolve it. Use distilled water and not tap water. Tap water may contain residues that can affect the relative humidity in the sealed environment.

Place the cap of salt and the hygrometer in a sealed plastic container. Some air might be trapped inside once  you seal the plastic, don’t remove the air. Wait until the environment inside the plastic stabilizes. After a few hours or so, the hygrometer needle should be pointing exactly at 75%. If it is not, then the hygrometer needs calibrating. Take not of the actual reading.

The reason lies on the salt. When water is added to salt and placed in a sealed environment, it will maintain exactly 75% humidity. Calibration is therefore necessary if the reading falls below or above the 75% mark.

To calibrate an ordinary hygrometer, you just need to turn the screw located at the back. After taking note of the actual measurement you can adjust the hygrometer accordingly. If the hygrometer after the salt test measures 70%, all you need to do is turn the screw 5 points higher until the needle reaches the 75% mark. If the actual humidity measurement is 85%, you need to turn the screw until the needle falls back 10% points back to 75%.

Aside from the table salt test, one could still tell if you hygrometer is a little off with its readings. Get your hygrometer and get a piece of cloth. Moisten the cloth and wrap it around the hygrometer. The hygrometer after an hour should be at 96% relative humidity. Adjust the screw accordingly.

If, however, you have a non-adjustable hygrometer, the best way to get the correct measurement every time is to get the difference in the measured percentage points. If for example the salt test revealed a 78% reading, knowing that the reading should be 75% gives you the chance to note down how many points the hygrometer is off. You then add the percentage points difference to get the right relative humidity.

Remember, though, that before making any measurements with your hygrometer, please wait for at least two hours. The two-hour wait is often enough time for any hygrometer to adjust to its present environment and measure the correct relative humidity.

Also, we recommend calibrating your hygrometer once or twice every year.

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There are a lot of people who love to smoke cigars. They consider it to be a time-honored tradition that requires a lot of distinction to the point that cigar connoisseurs do their best to preserve the taste of the different cigars that they have in possession. One of the best ways to achieve the preservation of the taste and the different aromas of one’s cigar collection by using a humidor. Here are just a couple of types of individuals that you will meet if you happen to be a cigar smoker.

The Social Smoker

This is the person who has a humidor which he probably got a few years back when they hype about humidors was at its highest. This individual would probably one of the people who would have a smoke or two over the weekend with some cigar-loving friends. This type of person would most probably have a cigar humidor that could probably house somewhere between 75 to 150 cigars, depending on the size of the humidor he owns. It is most likely that he has a lot of collection of sampler packs that he keeps as his personal stash of cigars. He does not really care about getting the big name brands or the vintage classics of cigars but he makes do with what he has as of the moment. This is one of the few friends that you’d like to have when you’re trying out different shapes and tastes of cigars. If you’re also a social cigar smoker, you’ll be able to probably swap a few unique cigars with the same type of friends as you get more involved in this cigar hobby.

The Enthusiast

This is a person that likes to smoke cigars and tries out different types of cigars whenever he has the chance. This individual definitely has a bigger collection of cigars and may be even more discriminate when trying out different brands. He probably has a humidor that can house double the amount of cigars that a social smoker has. Maybe a humidor that can house 300 cigars. This is a person who likes to smoke with an open mind in the sense that he is not that limited when it comes to smoking different brands of cigars. He may also have separate cases or small cabinets that may be filled with various random cigars of different brands and then have another humidor that houses his favorite brands and sizes. This is so the enthusiast can enjoy his favorite cigars and enjoy the familiar taste of his prized cigars and then try something new when he feels it by going into his stash of random cigars.

Cigar smoking can be a very interesting hobby to get into especially if you’re a big fan of cigars and the different tastes that you get. It would be very good if you find good cigar-smoking friends in order for you to be able to cultivate and enhance the experience of smoking cigars.

Posted in Cigar Humidors

A cigar needs enough humidity in order for it to become usable and retain its flavor and texture. It should be in a tropical climate type of environment in order for it to be humid enough. If the conditions are not right, then cigars are in danger of drying up. This need to preserve the distinct taste of cigars has brought the presence of “locker-type” casings or rooms which cigar aficionados call humidors. A humidor is used to store cigars in order for them to keep track and maintain the humidity levels that is necessary to preserve cigars. They can be as small as a small box or as big as a room. This encasing holds constant humidity and utilizes hygrometers in order to literally take note and track the humidity. So, how does one choose the right humidor? Here are a few tips on how to be able to choose the right humidor for one’s needs as a cigar smoker.

There are lots of humidors that can be purchased and utilized if you are a cigar smoker. One of the smaller humidors might be a very good idea if the person wants to try out several brands in order to finally get a grip on what type of taste, texture and cigar he would like to age and store. Since it is one of the smaller types of humidors, you could probably use this if you are the type of cigar smoker who has more than one favorite brand of cigar but doesn’t want to hoard any of it. The type of person who likes to try out a few cigar brands every now and then while switching it up would probably be better off with a smaller 100-cigar box that would benefit him in the long run. This particular type of humidor will just be enough for the varying brands that the person will be trying every now and then.

One of the reasons to upgrade to maybe a 400-cigar reserve is if you are a person who likes to try more cigars every now and then. This particular cigar smoker has already something in mind when it comes to cigar brands but this particular person smokes with an open mind as he continuously leaves enough space for other brands that might pique his interest.

Finally, if you are a connoisseur of cigars, you would probably be better off if you utilized a full-sized cabinet of a humidor which will house around 1,000 cigars. This is what people use when they have collected several brands of cigars over time. It will be quite a while for someone to identify the different brands that may be housed in this type of humidor as this encasing as well as the hundreds of cigars that it houses are definitely quite a sight to behold.

These are the different cigar humidors that you will be able to find and utilize. May you find that one perfect humidor that will ensure and preserve the quality of your cigars in the years to come.

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