During my last week of work (business closed), I would bring a cigar and leave it in the truck so I could have a "slower relaxing" ride on the way home after work. Only trouble is, spring is here and we had some sunny days. Well, with the truck sitting in the parking lot and the sun beating on it all day, a cigar I brought pretty much turned into dry as a cracker by quitting time. Pretty brittle, too. On the overcast days, I didn't have much to worry about, but I put the cigar back into the coolerdor to see if it can be resurrected or not. Gonna have to use all those ziplock bags from the 5 cigar purchases from here on out.
Cigars are pretty delicate and don't do well in extreme conditions. That cigar you dried out should be tossed immediately IMO because if by chance there are beetle eggs in it they will hatch due to the warmth of the truck cab all day, trust me you dont want a beetle infestation in your humi!! IF I have to store them in the car while Im doing things I'll go for the glove box or under the driver seat but if its going to be really warm out I might keep it on me in a cargo pocket or front shirt.
Depending on the manufacturer fairly often. Alot of high end cigar manufacturers will actually deep freeze their cigars before shipment to kill off any eggs. I know alot of buddies who will not put cigars they have rec'd VIA trades and such into their humi without freezing them first. Look up tobacco beetles, they are some nasty little bastuuuuurds.
Cigar beetles need two conditions to hatch, moisture and warmth. That is the reason you keep a humidor at or below 70% humidity and 70° in temperature. Higher than those two sets of environments will allow the eggs to hatch. Here's the kicker, every cigar has cigar beetles already. The eggs are laid on the leaves during air curing. The only way to kill them is in the freezer. Some manufacturers may do that, but most don't. I try to keep my humidor at 65-68% humidity for that reason. Low humidity prevents the hatch even if the temps go up.
The cigar has been removed! Also, the first thing I do with every order is put it into the freezer for 3 days. Then, into the coolerdor. Thanks
I think most ofthem freeze the Tabaco first nowadays.... I've kept my humidor at 90% and 85 degree's for months in the past, and have not had a beetle problem. The reason the temp was so high it was stored in my loft (high up in ceiling...) which got very hot in summer, and our humidity (I'm on the water) is very high.... I've since moved it to a lower location .... but
From what I understand you need a very cold freezer otherwise you're wasting your time. Heres a great article on freezing http://www.tomscigars.com/2009/04/22/tobacco-beetles-a-guide-to-prevention/
Just read your post regarding the freezer temp; the article's author says his freezer is -15f. I don't think my freezer goes that low-checking it right now though. It is an upright by kenmore with the dial set on 3 and bottomed out at 14.6f. I have turned up the dial to the coldest setting (7) and will check again later as to how much that lowers (hopefully) the temp. Ya know, I could've just left them outside for a few days, not that long ago... The cigars in the pics sure looked shot!
Man, must be a good freezer! It's only been 10 minutes and it is already down to 6.5F! Probably still has R-12! Edit: After about 1 1/2 hours, I read zero to 2.6 below. I think thats it. It's gonna have to kill beetlejuice at that temp cuz I'm not getting another freezer.
Lemee see if I have this right. These were ordered over a month ago. Had one then and didn't care for it so I thought I would age it. Been about 70% for a month and opened on up today only to find the wrapper cracked. With that level of humidification, did the filler expand too fast for the wrapper, thus the cracking? Yeah, it was better, also.
My go to cigar is Arturo Fuente Robusto, natural wrapper. I picked up a box on the way home from work today and grabbed two NUB connecticut. It was a pretty nice smoke.
Some cheap wrappers are just not aged or fermented properly before getting rolled and crack no matter what you do with them. Actually, that will occur to expensive brands from time to time as well. Regarding aging them, I've never really had any luck changing the taste of a cigar from aging. I know there is a lot of info on that on this inner-net thingy, but.... and I have had some for years that didn't seem to change a bit.
That's a little shorty! How is that NUB? Never tried those and see them all the time. I came home late from work today, grabbed a big ole Churchill and went for a walk down the block. Was awesome, until it started poring out!
The aging must really be starting to work! Had one of these the end of last week (not the one with a wrapper problem) and it was fantastic! Unbelievable how it has improved in about a month. Now, order out some more and start the process all over. I hope that one cigar wasn't a fluke...
Just posted this in another thread, and realized it would g ogood here.... I'v been trying some Tabak Especial Dolce coffee infused Belicoso's made by Drew Estate I was give as a gift recently. Wow, they are awesome! I'm working on getting a few boxes of those made for me with no labels on them so I can put my own labels on them (boat name...) to give out to guests... If you like coffee, these are really nice! I don't like the weird flowery-insense-oily tastes of the Acid cigars, and most other flavored... but I do smoke some Bourbon cigars once in a while like the Makers Mark cigars which aren't bad. But these are REALLY good, give one a shot at your local smoke shop! http://www.famous-smoke.com/tabak+especial+belicoso+dulce+cigars/item+35524 .
