Cigarsmokers.com

H U M I D O R   F A Q (c)
ver 1.1
November 6, 1994

Compiled by
Mike Duvall

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
     Welcome
        Additional Information Sources
     Copyright Notices
     Caveat (PLEASE READ!)
     FAQ Formatting
     Contributions
     Credits

2. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE MOIST
     Proper Humidity
        Science for the Non-scientific
        A Practical Discussion
     Proper Temperature
     Humidifiers
        Professional Models
        Homemade Models
     Hygrometers
     To Seal or Not to Seal
     Bloom or Mold?
     Worms

3. HOME-MADE HUMIDORS
     Tupperware - Friend or Foe
     Ideas Everywhere
     A Cooler Method of Storing Cigars
     Larger Needs

4. PROFESSIONAL HUMIDORS
     Where to Start
     Where to End
     How Much is Too Much
     Professional Alternatives

5. BOTTOM OF THE HUMIDOR
     The Scent Of A Good Cigar
     Saving the half-smoked cigar
     Storing Different Types and brands In One Humidor
     Propylene Glycol x2
     The Great (possibly) Cedar debate
     That Perfect Smoke Ring
     My Cigars Don't Smell! (but...)

6. APPENDIXES
     A. Glossary of Terms
     B. Revision History
     C. Bibliography
     D. Humidors Suppliers
     E. Tobacconists Around the Globe
           Mailorder At A Glance
           Tobacconists by State and Country
     F. Things I wish I knew, a simple Questionnaire!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=­-=

1. INTRODUCTION

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=­-=

                  ===================================
                                Welcome
                  ===================================
Whew, what a project.  If someone had told me before I started working on
this FAQ how much material there was out there about storing cigars, I
wouldn't have believed them.  The wealth AND depth of information has been a
source of constant amazement and this project has taken a lot longer than I
ever thought it would.  I have learned so much and made a lot of new friends
working on this and have enjoyed every moment of it.  I sincerely hope the
information presented in this FAQ helps every one of us to better enjoy the
cigars we smoke.

There is information in here for everyone, from those of you who have fine
professionally made humidors to those of you just starting out who are
nervous about messing up that first box of premiums you just laid out $50
for.  You will find information about humidity and temperature, mold and
worms, construction ideas and tips (the largest section in the FAQ, btw),
do-it-yourself home ideas, and answers to common and not-so-common questions
about humidors and the cigars they store.

There are several appendixes in the back, including a glossary and a listing
of tobacco shops around the country (The list is growing nicely but send me
info about your favorites shops if they are listed!  I also had some things
left unanswered so there are a few questions for you to answer if you can in
the very back.  Please take a minute to look the questions over and see if
you can help out!

Finally, there are on-line places to turn to for more help.  You probably
got this from alt.smokers.cigars, but if not, that is a great place to go
for help.  There is also a moderated Pipes (tobacco) mailgroup:

                       Internet Pipes Mailgroup

Submissions:    masti...@scr.siemens.com
Requests:       masti...@scr.siemens.com
Coordinator:    Steve Masticola (masti...@scr.siemens.com)

The Pipes Mailgroup provides a forum for discussing the moderate use
and appreciation of fine tobacco, including cigars, pipes, quality
cigarettes, pipe making and carving, snuff, collectible tobacciana,
publications, and related topics. The mailgroup is lightly moderated
to prevent flame (except for the purpose of lighting up. :-)

You can look for information on the Web at home page:

               http://www.craycos.com/~beaty/pipes/pipes.html

                  ===================================
                                 Caveat
                  ===================================
Please keep the following passage in mind always as you read this guide.

       I have done my absolute best to provide you, the reader, with
       information as accurate as possible.  The only absolute I
       found was this: There is simply no one guaranteed method of
       storing cigars that won't ever fail.  There is no substitute
       for checking your cigars on a regular basis no matter what
       method of storage you utilize. Leaving cigars unchecked for
       many months time is inviting a humidor full of despair.

       As you will find out soon enough, some of the sources of
       information contradict one another.  In most situations, I
       presented both arguments to let the reader decide which
       argument he felt was more accurate or better suited to his
       particular situation.

       When I interject my thoughts into the work, I have made every
       effort to do so in a clear and straightforward manner.  I
       have tried to give proper credit to the original sources of
       information.  In the end, I make can no promises about any of
       the information contained in this FAQ.  YOU USE THIS
       INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!

                   ==================================
                           Copyright Notices
                   ==================================
This FAQ is copyright 1994.  All original material and content not directly
credited to someone else is copyrighted.  Commercial material in this FAQ
came with its own copyright limitations.  Individual contributions were
credited as best as possible.  Authors knew their material would be made
available for public dissemination.  Everything else is the result of my
work.  I expect no monetary compensation for this work to myself in any form
or manner.  I make all information available to the public expecting and
accepting nothing in return.  Unless I grant permission otherwise, I expect
this work to remain together in the general form as it is now and that all
sections including this one remain together as a complete work.

                   ==================================
                             FAQ Formatting
                   ==================================
With that out of the way, please proceed in an orderly manner to your
current favorite cigar, light it up, relax and enjoy this FAQ. Because of
the nature of this style of text file and the numerous operating systems
people use, little layout was done in regards to page formatting.  It won't
be that pretty to have this spewed forth from a printer with no page numbers
or formatted breaks, but I don't have a program that will easily do such a
thing and can't possibly anticpate the variou limitations of other services
and operating systems, such as America On-Line (no offense meant to the end
user!).

I wrote this on a PC using QEDIT 3.0, which I would be lost without under
most circumstances.  The right margin is set to 76 for body paragraphs and
68 to highlighted passages.  I did not format the document for a set number
of lines, so this will spool awkwardly from your printer.

                   ==================================
                             Contributions
                   ==================================
Most of the information I received came in the form of supporting evidence
or stranded threads from other on-line services.  Comments like "...what
so-and-so said has also worked for me..." or "...I use such-and-such type of
humidor..." made up most of the material.  In cases like this, I used the
information to add weight for or against an idea or product without citing
each and every source used - look for a big thank-you in the credits though!

In cases where individuals submitted larger ideas and concepts, I tried to
include the original message as a stand-alone section.  When someone told me
not only what they use, but how they made it, why they like, and why it
works, I did everything I could to leave their work unchanged.  To that end,
when I use other people's messages, there will be a few lines of description
at the start to explain any changes I have made and properly credit the
author.  The style looks like this:

Name:         - The name of the contributor
Mail Address: - The contributor's mail address
Comments:     - Anything I might want to add about the following section

There may also be an "Ed. Note:" at the bottom if I decided to add my own
paragraph or two regarding the contributed section.  Note that when I
collected posts from Internet, they came from alt.smokers.cigars unless
otherwise stated.

After giving it some thought, I decided that there wasn't really any need to
have an "Edited" line.  That has been removed since the first release.  I
have spell checked the FAQ and made minor revisions as I see fit.

I also took information from several books and magazine articles. I credited
them using the standard MBA style format.  A complete bibliography is in
Appendix B.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------­+
|  Finally, I am always looking for information to add to this FAQ.        |
|  Please send anything you would like considered to my address:           |
|                                                                          |
|  r...@mercury.interpath.net                                             |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------­+

                   ==================================
                                Credits
                   ==================================
It is with sincere gratitude that I thank the following people for their
contribution to this guide, without which none of this would be possible.  I
have tried not to leave anyone's name out from the credits, but in some
cases, the information I was given might have contained only a first name or
a mail address that didn't include a full name(or any semblance of a name
for the matter). If I left you out, I am honestly sorry.  It was most
unintentional.

Steve Banks (MFSTMAN)                msft...@aol.com
Edward N Blue                        e...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Richard E. Byer                      r...@netcom.com
John Cantrell                        cantr...@sparky1.aero.org
Dennis Colarelli                     denn...@tigger.cs.colorado.edu
W. Donald Cotter                     wdcot...@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
Jerry Coyne                          jco...@pondside.uchicago.edu
Bob Curtis                           b...@news.gate.net
Keith Cutter                         KCUT...@delphi.com
Marc Dashevsky                       m...@world.std.com
Bill Medeiros                        medei...@maui.com
Daniel Morris DeRight (Sodapop+)     sodap...@CMU.EDU
George Dibos                         geor...@meaddata.com
Edmund Dombrowski                    dombrow...@bdcv8.nrl.navy.mil
Larry Faulks                         pec...@aol.com
Joe Houghtaling                      h...@escape.com
Kameran Kashani                      k...@entropy.wpd.sgi.com
Alvin Kincer                         amkin...@ucdavis.edu
Mike Leschin                         S...@cc.usu.edu
Craig Lewis                          cle...@psl.nmsu.edu
Tom Lockard                          lock...@kenyon.edu
Dean Lois                            dml...@outreach.its.mcw.edu
Steve Masticol                       masti...@scr.siemens.com
Richard Miller                       m...@usa.net
Patrick Schlesinger                  psch...@netcom.com
Emerson Schwartzkopf                 esc...@csn.org
Jeffrey D. Van Schaick               jeffr...@netcom.com
Mark Shaw                            mns1@.rtc.sc.ti.com
James Spence                         73530.1...@compuserve.com
J.R. Stutt                           j...@nic.cerf.net
Scott Tracht                         tra...@bozo.scs.uiuc.edu
Tim Tyson                            tty...@tyrell.net
Richard Varenas                      VARE...@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu
Rick DeVries                         rdevr...@eb.com
Ted Weinstein                        auronCw2t7w....@netcom.com

AJAXBOSTON                           ajaxbos...@aol.com
Chris ???                            c...@rain.org
Jack ???                             infsup...@aol.com
??? ???                              bry...@ngc.com
??? ???                              thor...@aol.com
??? ???                              delan...@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu

Though listed above, three people in particular have really gone out of
their way to make this FAQ very much better than it would have been
without their efforts.  A special thanks to Ray Walker, Steve Masticola,
and Bob Curtis.

Happy smoking and safe storing, mates!

Mike    

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-­=-=

2. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE MOIST

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-­=-=

Regardless of the method you use to store your cigars, maintaining the
proper environment is essential to success.  What is the proper humidity and
temperature?  Should the cigars be stored in an airtight container?  What
should be used as a humidifying device?

The good news is that there are a plethora of answers to these and other
questions about proper conditions for storing cigars.  The bad news is that
no one seems to agree on exactly what some of those conditions are.  Let's
begin this by examining the key term of humidity.

            ===============================================
            Proper Humidity: Science for the Non-scientific
            ===============================================
From: Craig Lewis
Mail Address: cle...@psl.nmsu.edu
Edited: Spelling, Minor format revision
Comments: This was a reply to another post in the Usenet group.

Ed. Note: A formula for determining Relative Humidity can be found in
Section 6 in the Glossary.  I will try and locate the formula for converting
absolute humidity to a partial vapor pressure.

                =======================================
                Proper Humidity: A Practical Discussion
                =======================================
Maintaining proper humidity is probably the single most important thing to
control when storing cigars, whether using a professionally made humidor or
one of your own creation.  Keeping the humidity at the proper level will
help ensure that each stored cigar burns evenly and stays together.  Dean
Lois posted on Usenet:

      "If they become too moist they are likely to expand, splitting
       the wrapper and binder with no chance of saving them.  Even
       if they are not yet at that point, it is likely that they will
       not burn very well now.  You may be fine if you can gradually
       get them back to a somewhat drier condition.  Ideally, 70
       degrees and 70% humidity is what you are looking for, and even
       the best of humidors need constant monitoring to make sure they
       are maintaining that standard.  And remember that the humidity
       gauges should only be used as a guide.  There is still no
       better substitute for your own touch and visual inspection."

70% humidity is indeed what most posts on the net cite as proper for storing
cigars, but there are some who disagree, albeit slightly.  According to
Richard Hacker, in his book THE ULTIMATE CIGAR BOOK on page 133, "Cigars
should be store at 65% to 70% humidity...." and "A cigar that is too dry
will smoke hot, fast, and unevenly; to moist and it will be hard to
light and even harder to puff..."

Anwer Bati in his book THE CIGAR COMPANION: A CONNOISSEUR'S GUIDE (p.218)
recommends "[cigars] should be protected from extremes of temperature and
kept in a humidified environment - ideally at 65 F-70 F with 70-73 percent
humidity.  Bati states later in the section:

         If cigars are stored in a warm climate, bugs can
         sometimes appear - the tobacco beetle, in particular.
         Heat allows the larvae to hatch.  You should never
         store cigars anywhere near direct sunlight, or exposed
         to sea breezes.  If you store cigars at a low
         temperature, you must raise the humidity to compensate.

Ben Ricci, CompuServe address 71331,3435, has an interesting twist to this
debate:  "Cigars need humidity to stay in perfect condition, and the colder
the atmosphere, the more humidity they need. At 55 degrees F, they need
about 80% relative humidity, at 65 degrees, 76%, and at room temperature,
73%. Most information provided to consumers is incorrect. The 70/70 rule, 70
degrees F/70% humidity, is incorrect." This is from a letter to me from
Richard DiMeola of Consolidated Cigar Co.

Did Mr. Ricci really get a letter from Richard DiMeola of CCC?  Who knows?
If this is correct, then a major player from a major cigar house clearly
debunks the 70/70 rule.  Considering that worms and other nasty things
apparently like humid climates, I tend to advocate staying away from 73%
humidity at room temperature.  And since he didn't state what room
temperature is, all the more reason to be careful.  keep in mind that even
the best digital or analog hygrometers have some margin of error and I would
hate to find that mine was reading 73% when it was really 76% or 77% RH in
the humidor.

UPDATE: In regards to the above paragraph, I have received more information.
I ordered a sample box of H. Upmanns that was accompanied with a pamphlet
co-written by Harry Schielein, a noted hotelier, food and wine expert, and
Richard DiMeola, V.P. and C.O.O. of Consolidated Cigar Company.  Below is
what the pamphlet had to say about storing cigars.  It CLEARLY says 70% RH
is wrong.

             If you keep your cigars at 70% relative humidity
             and 70 degrees F, they'll dry out over a long
             period of time.  To combat this, get a decent
             humidor, keep the cigars at room temperature,
             charge the humidifier in the humidor with moisture
             regularly and you'll have no problem.  For large
             walk in humidors, remember that a manufacturer
             equilibrates cigars after rolling at room
             temperature and about 72% relative humidity.  At
             this level of temperature and humidity, the three
             parts of the cigars are allowed to equalize in
             moisture content, to slowly, ever so slowly, _dry
             down_ (in italics in the pamphlet).  So room
             temperature and 72% relative humidity will dry down
             cigars over time and 73% will keep cigars perfect
             forever.

             As the temperature gets lower, the humidity has to
             get higher to keep cigars fresh.  Never let the
             temperature get to high.  High temperature and high
             humidity create an incubator atmosphere and before
             you know it, there will be little bugs flying
             around to ruin your entire selection or a white
             mold will develop, or both.  Dry cigars have less
             flavor and aroma, are less mild and flake off in
             the mouth.  Dryness is the major cause of
             unraveling wrappers, the second most frequent
             complaint among premium cigar smokers.

Ok, so what the hell is "room temperature"?  And I was under the impression
that white spots were bloom, not mold.  Nice pamphlet though...

Sent me this note further commenting on the above discussion:

From: Craig Lewis
Mail Address: cle...@psl.nmsu.edu
Comments: I agree with Craig's assesment that temperature is less importand
          than humidity.

                                 - BEGIN -

One interesting note is that the actual absolute humidities are *probably*
pretty close to each other.  Relative humidity is:

             (absolute humidity) / (saturation vapor pressure)

The absolute humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air;  the sat
vapor pressure is how much water vapor the air can hold.  SVP is a function
of temperature;  as air warms, it can hold more moisture.  So, if the
absolute humidity in the humidor remains constant, the *relative* humidity
goes down as the temperature increases (because the SVP goes up).

This tends to imply that the temperature is not as significant as the
dryness (or moistness) of the air.
                                  - END -

One final warning from Cigar Aficionado, from the Autumn 1994 issue:
"[Avoid] "moisture" shock"--too much moisture delivered to fast, and the
kind of thing which usually destroys great cigars.

How much leeway you have when controlling the temperature of your humidor
may depend somewhat on your taste.  Some smokers prefer a slightly drier
smoke while others like the heavier feel of a really moist cigar.  If you
stay around 70%-73% humidity you should do just fine.  Remember to compensate
for lower temperatures by increasing the humidity.

                   ==================================
                           Proper Temperature
                   ==================================
Everyone seemed to have a different idea of what the exact proper
temperature should be when storing cigars.  The range was from about 65 F to
72 F.  Most people talk about the 70/70 rule, which means a relative
humidity of 70% and a temperature of 70 F and I believe this will work fine
for anyone keeping cigars over a period of time.  Richard Hacker recommends
70 F on page 133 of his book.  Anwer Bati, on page 218 of his book, states
that you should store your cigars "ideally at 65 F-70 F..."  Bati further
states, "If you store your cigars at a lower temperature, you must raise the
humidity to compensate."

                   ==================================
                              Humidifiers
                   ==================================
There are a many different types of both professionally made and homemade
humidifiers available to help maintain yor cigars.  While a professional
model is certainly desirable, a lot of people have found homemade versions
to be quite effective.  If you have a professional humidor, it almost
certainly came with its own humidifier of some sort.

One idea to keep in mind is that you can increase the amount of humidity by
increasing the surface area of your humidifying device (if you are making
your own).  For example, if your current humidity device is a paper towel
and it just isn't cutting it, try using sponge soaked in distilled water and
or distilled water and propylene glycol.

A second thing to keep in mind is that the larger the humidor, the larger
the humidifier may need to be.  Or, the more frequently a device needs to be
charged.  If you use a water-based humidifier, as you most likely will, use
only distilled water.  The reason, Steve Banks says in a Usenet post dated
19 Aug 1994 02:09:02, "Distilled water is more mold resistant."  Richard
Hacker agrees in his book (p. 133):

          The most important advice I can give you now is to
          always use distilled water in you humidifying agent.
          Tap water tends to cause mold and has additives that
          can destroy the effectiveness of some humidifiers over
          a period of time and can even alter the flavor of your
          cigars.

Dean Lois sent me this post about recharging humidifying units.  "I have
used a 50-50 mixture of propylene glycol with water to recharge mine.
This should only have to be done about twice a year."  See Section 5 for
a detailed description of Propylene Glycol.