How to Store Cigars at Home: Humidity, Temperature and the Humidor

A cigar is fermented and aged tobacco, and it keeps trading moisture with the air until the day you light it. Too dry and it cracks and burns hot. Too wet and it draws tight and grows mold. Getting it right takes two numbers and a few minutes a month.

The two numbers that matter

Humidity, 65 to 70 percent. The lower end suits full, oily blends; the higher end suits thin cigars and delicate wrappers.

Temperature, 65 to 70°F. Above about 75°F the eggs of the tobacco beetle can hatch, and a warm, humid box is exactly what they want.

Steady beats exact: 67 percent every day is better than a box that swings between 60 and 75.

Where to keep them

A humidor is a box lined with Spanish cedar that holds moisture, releases it slowly and resists mold. A sealed food container with a humidity pack, a tupperdor, does the same job on a budget. Keep either in a dark room, away from windows, vents and outside walls, and never in the refrigerator: it is cold, dry and full of smells.

Season a new humidor

1. Wipe the cedar

   Use a clean cloth barely damp with distilled water. Never soak the wood, never use tap water.

2. Close it with moisture inside

   Add a humidity pack, or a small dish with a sponge and distilled water.

3. Wait for two steady days

   Check the hygrometer daily. When it holds your number two days in a row, it is ready.

Check your hygrometer: the salt test

1. Make a damp salt paste

   A capful of table salt and a few drops of water.

2. Seal it with the hygrometer

   Both in a plastic bag, for 8 to 12 hours.

3. Read the difference

   The bag settles at 75 percent. However far your reading is from 75 is how far off your hygrometer is.

A few habits

• Leave room for air: never fill the box to the lid.
• Rotate the cigars once a month, top to bottom.
• Keep infused cigars in a box of their own.
• Write the purchase date on each box: many cigars improve with a few months of rest.

When something goes wrong

Too dry: the wrapper looks dull and crackles when pressed. Bring it back slowly, a week at about 62 percent, then into the humidor.

Too wet: spongy, tight draw, hard to keep lit. Rest it a few days at a lower humidity.

Tiny holes: tobacco beetles. Freeze the cigars, sealed, for three days, thaw them a day in the refrigerator, and clean the humidor.

Store them right, and the cigar you light in six months will be the one you chose today, or better.