As you know, a cigar collection requires a certain level of care, and knowing how to properly store your cigars is crucial for your smoking experience. Many factors go into cigar care, and today our experts here at Black Cat Cigar Company are going to share their top tips and tricks on how to properly store and maintain your cigars.
The Ideal Storage
The best way to store your cigars is with a humidor. A humidor is a humidity-controlled storage unit, usually with an interior of untreated Spanish cedar or Mahogany wood. Most cigars are tropical products and need to be treated with conditions mimicking the tropical weather—high temperatures and high humidity.
Seasoning a Humidor
Relegate the 70/70 Rule
You can forget this age-old humidor rule! The 70/70 rule consists of keeping your humidor at a consistent 70% humidity and 70 degrees. While this sounds easy enough, if you live in an area that experiences seasonal changes, this is next to impossible. Instead, look at keeping your relative humidity anywhere from 64-72%. As for temperature, try keeping it between 65-70 degrees. It’s also best to keep your humidor in a room that has a consistent temperature and doesn’t receive direct sunlight. A dark environment that’s not damp works best.
Cigar Upkeep
You’ve seasoned your humidor, calibrated your hygrometer and successfully regulated the humidity and temperature. All set, right? Not quite! To ensure your cigars stay fresh, make sure you follow a few maintenance tips:
- Rotate your cigars every 4 to 6 months. Remove all cigars from your humidor and move the cigars that occupied the top row to the bottom and vice versa. This ensures balanced humidity throughout.
- Stack your cigars properly. The best way to store them in your humidor is to stack them by offsetting each row. Place a cigar in the space created between each cigar in the row underneath to establish proper airflow.
- Your humidor should be filled with cigars to at least 50% capacity to help keep the humidity consistent. If you have less than 50%, your humidor is working too hard to keep your cigars fresh. Consider a smaller humidor or purchasing more cigars.
- Check your humidor and hygrometer at least once every two weeks to make sure everything is working properly.