Dry cigars

[BurnDownKing]

I got a couple of sticks today from this guy at work who had a ton of cigars in a couple of humidors but hadn't exactly been upkeeping the humidor in a while. Needless to say the cigars seem a little dried out. I told him I'd take them home and see if I could bring them back to life.

The only thing I've seen to do is put them in a ziploc bag with half of a paper towel slightly damp with distilled water and leave them alone for a few days. The sticks are still in their wrappers and everything. Does this seem like the thing to do?

[Eville]

Exposing them to too high of a humidity level when they are dry is risking splitting them. Ease them back to life.

[BurnDownKing]

Yeah the paper towel is barely damp, gave it like 2 sprays from my squirt gun. That shouldn't be too bad should it? The sticks are still in their wrappers too so not too exposed.

[craig]

Er, by "wrapper," do you mean cellophane?

[BurnDownKing]

Yes the plastic/cellophane wrapper that the stick comes in. Whatever it is. :)

[craig]

Okay, good. The "wrapper" is the name given to the outer tobacco leaf of the cigar in American English, so it was confusing. (Other names are "capo" (Spanish) or "cape" (English)). The cellophane wrapper is just called "cello."

That the cigars were kept in cello is perfect. Do NOT crack open the cello. The cello will naturally moderate how quickly the cigars can re-humidify - in fact, if the cello ends were reasonably air-tight, then the cello will slow down the re-humidification process so that it will take months.

The cello also keeps the oils in the tobacco from going anywhere, and preserves the cigars (slows down the aging process), when compared to cigars stored without cello.

[BurnDownKing]

Oh so then how long do you think I have to leave them in the ziploc before I should smoke them???? I was told a few days....

[Eville]

i would wait a month or 2 at least.

[BurnDownKing]

Holy smokes..... Ha, no pun intended. Alright I'll put them in the deep dark corner and forget about them....

[Eville]

Bear in mind that that is just me being safe, or attempting to. a more experienced BOTL will likely come along and and give you a completely different time frame. In this case, I would take his/her advice over mine.