How To Season A Humidor
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Just as you need to preserve your food from getting spoiled, cigars, cigarettes, cannabis, or pipe tobacco also need to be preserved against spoilage because little or high humidity can harm tobacco products.
To optimize your smoking experience, you must ensure that your cigars are adequately preserved under the proper humidity. The primary purpose of a humidity box is to provide the needed atmospheric condition to keep tobacco product contents from physical damage and deterioration by sunlight.
In recent times there has been an increase in demand for humidors as tobacco lovers have come to realize its importance in preserving their cigars. A quality humidor is all you need to protect your cigar and make it age gracefully. Tobacco products are not like raw food that get spoiled easily, provided they are preserved under the right humidity.
To season your humidor, you must pay adequate attention to the process because it involves a multi-layer step. If done right, your cigars will be preserved for years without having any form of change in their flavor or damage to the physical content.
In this article, we will discuss how to season your humidor to preserve your cigars from getting dried out. Enjoy as you read along.
How To Season A Humidor
Find a Good Humidor
There are different types of humidors available on the market such as traditional, electronic, wineadors, and tupperdors, and getting the one that suits your specification should be your priority. To get the best out of a humidor, you need to keep it half full.
So, what will determine the humidor you are buying will be the size and quantity of your cigars. For instance, if you have 50 cigars, don’t buy 200 cigar humidors.
Carefully Wipe Your Humidor Box
Once you have made your box selection, it’s time to start the seasoning process. There are two ways you go about the humidor box seasoning. It’s either you season the wood with a glycol solution or distilled water. Seasoning your humidor box is important and must be done before placing your cigars in the box.
Seasoning your humidor box is easy, and you can always do it yourself. All you need is a paper towel or sponge, then dip it directly into a distilled water, squeeze out the excess water, then gently use the paper towel or sponge to wipe wood in the humidor.
However, you must ensure you water every aspect of the wood for moisture to spread evenly. At the same time, don’t dip in too much to avoid the water sipping out of the wood and drip onto your cigar.
Check The Humidity Level In The Box
The next stage is to take the humidifier that comes with the humidor or buy a separate one compatible with the humidor. Then, fill the humidifier with the same distilled water or glycol solution used for wiping the wood.
At this stage, the humidor will release moisture, a process known as seasoning. The seasoning period usually takes at least two weeks or more, depending on the climatic condition of your area.
But during this period, it is advisable you don’t place any cigar into the humidor box. After a week or two, you should check the humidity level of the humidifier using a hygrometer. If the reading is within the range of 67% to 72%, then you can go ahead to place your cigars in the box.
However, if it reads below 67%, that is a red flag. Storing your cigars in the box at this level is not advisable.
When To Start Placing Your Cigars Into Your Humidor
Before placing your cigars inside the humidor, ensure the gauge is all set. You cannot be so sure. Just double-check to ensure that there is no less or high moisture coming out of the wood. Once that is clear, then you can start putting the cigar into the humidor.
To keep the cigars in good condition, don’t keep them static on one spot. Make out time to change their position by rotating them a few times a year. In addition, it is not out of place to season the box at least every four or six months to maintain a perfect moisture level.
Bottom Line
Placing your cigars or any other tobacco products inside a humidor box is the best way to preserve them for an extended period. However, the humidor box also needs proper seasoning to keep the cigars in good condition. You need to be sure of how many cigars you have at your disposal to determine the box size you will be buying.
To season the humidor box, you need distilled water to load moisture inside the box. But you must be patient enough to allow the moisture to spread evenly inside the box, and make sure the humidity level is not below 67% before placing your cigars.
I have been smoking cigars for 30 years and counting, I started at 18 years old with mild Cubans and worked my way up to medium and now bold. I own 4 humidors, that I try to keep stocked at all times.
