Digital Hygrometer: Adjustable or with memory option?

[buzz]

I think a tighter consistency is going to be more important for long-term storage/aging. For instance, 70/70 is a good mark to aim for, with as little change as possible. If this is a storage-only box, then opening it regularly for a cigar to smoke, disturbing the ambient conditions therein, won't be a problem.

If you're talking about a humi you're smoking from most of the time, then some fluctuation won't matter or even be noticed. Conditions in my humi go from probably around 58-65% rh and from 65-78 degrees. Which is cool, because a cigar from a 70% rh box is usually too wet to smoke. I've never noticed the temp to make any difference, unless it's the temp in a car on a hot day. Also, from that same box - an igloo cooler - I've seen cigars develop plume, which is supposed to be a sign of a well-aged cigar, having been left undisturbed for a relatively long period. These were Fuente Anejos, with the fluctuations described above. But they were in a cigar box that I left closed.

Thanks basil, I plan on having a small "pretty" (per my wife's request) humidor to be my go-to humi and a large coolidor in the closet for longer storage. So I will pay closer attention to the consistency of the humidity in the coolidor.

-Buzz

[basil]

Dennis is right - if it's fuzzy it's mold. I find that it wipes off easily too. It forms on the surface first and if there is only a little bit, then wipe the cigar off and smoke it. If it is on thick, or on say over 25% of the surface and/or it can be seen in the filler (at the foot), or maybe has distorted the shape of the cigar, then I'd chunk it. I don't freak when I find mold. It's the same as bread mold and there's no getting around your cigars being exposed to the spores - every cigar in your house is "contaminated" right now. The only control you have is that over the rh and temp. I've gotten more mold in boxes from vendors than I've found in my humis and I've sent some back and kept some where there were only two very lightly affected cigars. These were removed and once the box of cigars was placed in appropriate conditions, the mold did not spread. Granted, I live in an arid climate and mold has just been a negligible issue. (Out of curiosity I checked the rh in a sack of bread once and I don't remember what it was, but it was way high, maybe in the 90s, and much more conducive, as we've all seen, to formation of mold.) IMO, mold doesn't warrant an emergency environmental response action - if they're not in cellophane, they go in a baggie and then maybe in a separate box in the humi. I've never noticed a difference in a cigar that I knew to have had mold on it right before I lit it.

On the plume, I guess I've seen tiny sparkles on a wrapper before, but when I see very small, bright white, non-fuzzy specks and patches (I understand they're crystals, but I'm pretty sure crystalline patterns can be discerned only under a microscope), then I know I'm looking at plume, or bloom. I count it lucky and light that baby up.

[mail man]

Basil,
Excellent description, thank you for all of the info, being so new, this might come in handy some day soon. The only problem now, is I am going to be inspecting all my sticks before I smoke them for Plume .
Thanks again for all of the info sharing.

Keith