cigar cigars cigar .com

a person told me that i shouldnt store ‘ scented’ cigars like the drew estate line,(acid, naturals,ambrosia) in the same humidor as montecristo, macanudo, bolivar, etc. is he right? he said that the ‘scent’ from the drew estates will get into the other cigars causing them to take on some of the smell and flavor of the drew estate. he said that sometimes it wont hurt the ‘traditional’ cigar but the mix might be a bad combination. i dont have a problem getting another humidor but will save myself some money if he isnt correct and there isnt a need to separate these cigars.

Cuban cigars originate from the Caribbean, which has a tropical climate very different to Europe. As a natural product, your Havana cigars need to be kept carefully. They are used to being in a warm climate with a relatively high humidity.

Therefore they will need to be protected from extremes of temperature and humidity (particularly low humidity). This is particularly difficult to achieve in air conditioned and centrally heated buildings, where the air tends to get de-humidified and cigars can dry out very quickly. Some cigars come in aluminum tubes which can help preserve them in dry climates, however they tend to mature at a much slower rate than ‘naked’ boxed cigars.

Maintain a temperature of 16 C to 20 C and a relative humidity of 65% – 70%.

In the UK you will need a humidor to maintain the humidity of your cigars at various times of the year:

Humidity

At the least, keep your cigars in a tight fitting cupboard, drawer or box, away from radiators and other sources of heat. Pick the coolest indoor spot in your house. Leave the cigars in their original boxes as this will help preserve them, stop them from being damaged, and prevent any cross-tainting of flavours between different varieties of cigars stored in the same area. If the humidity in your make-shift humidor is low, a damp sponge in a cup will serve as a basic provider of humidity.

When you purchase your cigars from Tomtom, they will be packed in an airtight zip-loc bag, which will maintain the humidity of your cigars while you transport them from the shop to your humidor. These bags are a very efficient short term humidor, however we would not recommend that you leave your cigars sealed in these bags for more than one month. Although humidity will be maintained, cigars also need to be exposed to some fresh air to allow them to ‘breathe’ and age correctly.

A variety of desk-top and travel humidors can be purchased (see ‘Accessories’) and are an essential item for the dedicated cigar smoker (more information below).

Temperature

The danger of excessive temperature (combined with too much humidity) is that the cigars can either go moldy or be damaged by weavil attack. If cigars go moldy, this is generally not a problem, as long as it is spotted reasonably soon and the mould (or bloom) only appears on the wrapper leaf. The mould can be removed with a soft brush (e.g. a badger shaving brush) and then the cigar can be returned to store in the correct conditions. If mould gets into the end of the cigar, we recommend that you do not smoke it. Weavil, or tobacco beetle, is a more serious problem. If you see any small holes in your cigar, you should take immediate action. Please call Tomtom for further advice. Never store cigars near direct sunlight or for long periods exposed to sea breezes (salt will not enhance your smoke). The lower the temperature, the higher the humidity required to compensate.

Desk-Top Humidors

There is a very wide selection of these humidors on the market. The basic design requirements are that they are sealable (and generally lockable!), but allow the cigars to breathe. This is normally achieved by leaving the base of the box unvarnished: and no portion of the inner cedar box should be laminated. The box contains a fitting, which provides the humidity: this is normally a pad containing a sponge or chalk, which can be dampened. The box may also contain a dial showing humidity and temperature.

As a rule of thumb, the smaller the box, the harder it is to maintain a steady level of humidity within its confines. These humidors do not regulate temperature. The price range starts from about 125 for a plexi glass humidor, which will hold approximately 50 cigars to 2000 and above. A comprehensive selection is shown on our accessory page. Fabulous humidors can also be created out of antique boxes which many families have inherited as writing slopes or medal cases and which have since become redundant. This is a very cost-effective way of storing your cigars in a unique and personal humidor.

Travel Humidors

Ranging in price from 100 upwards. These are not suitable for long-term storage of cigars, however they are essential if you are moving about: the wrapper leaf on a handmade cigar is very thin and delicate and will easily damage. The safest way to prevent this is to keep the cigars in their original box, in tubes or in a purpose-built travel humidor.

Cigar Cases

Generally these do not offer humidification systems built in, but will protect your cigars if you take them in your pocket for the day. There are some metal tubes with hermetically sealed screw tops that will act in the same way as a cigar tube and seal in moisture. The majority are made from leather and offer protection from damage as well as limited protection from fluctuations in humidity and temperature.

Reviving Dried-Out Cigars

This is not an exact science and not always successful. Dry cigars need to be rehumidified very slowly and with care. We suggest you speak to us

Footnote

We do NOT recommend that cigars are kept in a refrigerator for storage. It is likely that the cigars will be dried out by this process and irretrievably damaged.

It happens to the biggest premium cigar aficionados out there: things start to get a little stale.

Not “stale” in the sense of dried-out. That can happen, of course, but it’s not likely to, if your humidor is set at the standard sixty-seven to seventy-four percent relative humidity range, and as long as the air temperature inside the box is between sixty-nine and seventy-four degrees. (It is, isn’t it?) No, this kind of stale has more to do with you than it does with the cigar. You feel like your premium cigar habit is in a bit of a rut, and you think it’s time to try something new.

Luckily, cigars come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and tastes, so if you’ve had enough of sweetish, almost-chocolaty oscuros you can move to the other end of the taste/color scale and try the pale-khaki-colored, dry, delightfully astringent tastes you’ll find there. If you’ve gotten into the habit of smoking long cigars that usually take around the same amount of time, every time, switch it up with some panatelas or cigarillos. If you’re in bad enough rut, it might even be time to make your own premium cigar sampler, going out of your way to pick cigars that don’t fit your usual taste profile.

But as above, so below: the premium cigar industry itself occasionally finds itself in the same sort of predicament. The standard shapes, sizes and tastes are already hitting their popularity plateau, and no one’s sure what the next breakthrough possibility is. At these times, makers of premium cigars often turn to one of the most reliable sources of business and cultural innovation: the past.

In the 1990s, when the premium cigar industry rebounded from a case of terminal stagnancy and even became, for the moment, somewhat trendy (while inspiring something of a late-1990s backlash as well), such a turn to the past for new ideas happened with the chocolaty, oily oscuro cigar mentioned above. These dark cigars occupy one extreme of the taste-color continuum–the informal rule by which light-colored, tan cigars are the driest and bitterest (features for which cigar aficionados prize them, as bitter hops make certain beers a once-in-a-lifetime experience), while, as cigar wrappers darken, the taste contained inside tends to get sweeter. The oscuro is like the bottom key on a piano, the lowest bass note on a guitar. It denotes how sweet and how dark a cigar can get.

But by the time of the so-called early 1990s “cigar boom,” oscuros were unpopular and very hard to find. This probably has more to do with an overall contraction in the market than with the oscuro itself, a kind of cigar that can be delightfully well-made as any other. With fewer people overall smoking cigars, flavors that had always been acquired tastes even among cigar fans were less likely to sell, and premium cigar makers stopped rolling them.
By the mid-1990s, though, you could find oscuros again–just as you can today, with the premium cigar industry continuing to function at a level far exceeding that of its 1991 state.

More recently, another nearly-extinct species of cigar has been recreated and is in the midst of repopulating cigar shops and online stores near you. The Salomon–a big cigar that comes in between perfectos and diademas in terms of its size–is tapered at both ends, and has always been popular in Cuba. Its unusual shape means that premium cigar makers have a difficult time finding rollers with the requisite talent and experience to make Salomons. But that hasn’t stopped La Flor Dominicana and Rocky Patel from adding new Salomon-sized models to their premium cigar lines–or from making quite an impression on taste-panelists and Cigar Aficionado (and other industry) reviewers alike.