Smelly Humidor

[aaronsaffer]

Hi there,
I bought a humidor made by Adorini, and it is a small cabinet with 3 drawers. When I first opened it, it had a fairly strong smell of new wood like it has just come from the factory. I aired it for a few days but it still has a slight smell.

I have another small humidor (20 cigar capacity), which I kept my cigars in for a number of months and it smells lovely, like one should smell. I wondered if because my new one is larger (100 cigars) that it would require a lot of cigars inside for it adopt the smell of the cigars. I've put in about 15 cheapies to see if it will change, and it has got better, but when I tried one of the cheapies the other night, they tasted slightly bitter as though they had absorbed the taste of the new wood.

I'm apprehensive about putting my good cigars in incase it ruins their taste, but I can't help but think that if I stuck 25 Monte's in, the humidor would inherit the smell as the cheap ones don't seem to have much of a scent anyway.

Also, this may or may not be relevant, but the drawers that are inside the humidor, all have a black laquer finish that did have a slight smell to it. Should I keep these out for a while to let the smell wear off? The smell isn't too bad now though.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
Aaron

[LilRichKid]

Have you called the company or the previous owner that you got the humidor from? What did they say for you to do if you did called them? I would let the humidor air out

[aaronsaffer]

It was brand new, and I've not contacted the company yet, I was going to give it a few days airing out. If I air it out, do I need to re-humidify it again as I did when I first bought it or should it retain humidity?

[LilRichKid]

Thats a good question the best thing you can do is call the company and let them know about the smelly problem with humidor and see what they say maybe they will give you a new one for free? Thats what I would do if I was a seller and you bought a humidor from me and it has the same problem as your stating here

[Roham]

It was brand new, and I've not contacted the company yet, I was going to give it a few days airing out. If I air it out, do I need to re-humidify it again as I did when I first bought it or should it retain humidity?

You would have to rehumidify it like you did the first time I think.

[Roham]

This same topic came up not long ago. New humidor, strong smell. Someone mentioned leaving baking soda in the humidor for a few days as it absorbs odor.

[Yeagermeister]

are you absolutely sure the interior wood is spanish cedar, and not some cheaper alternative?

[aaronsaffer]

Yeah its definately spanish cedar, I think the smell I have been getting is from the paint finish on the outside, as the drawers on the inside all have a painted front to them. It is wearing off now, I've got about 20 cheapies in there which seem to doing alright, I think that it hadn't been taken out of its box as no doubt it came from a warehouse, as opposed to Humidors in the past that had been kept on the shelf of a tobacconist. It just smells of new wood, and I need 50 cigars or so to make it smell nice.

[aaronsaffer]

Something I tried which seems to have worked a treat, after reading suggestions of putting a shot glass of whiskey in my Humidor, I put a shot glass of Baileys in. I love the smell of it, probably more so than Whiskey, I made sure not to leave it in for too long, but now my humidor has a lovely faint smell of creamy baileys Definately worth a try!

[MMAB]

or adhesives used in the manufacture of the humidor.

These usually dissipate over time.

Whisky or Bailey's in a humidor? Hmmmmmm.....interesting

[aaronsaffer]

Yup, the baileys has been fantastic. The bad smells have gone now, after putting in 50 monte's the humidor smells as it should. However, I smoked a cigar today that was in whilst the bailey's took effect, and it had a beautiful creamy hint to it, never had that before, and when you took a draw, you got a very faint hint of that aroma of baileys + the alcohol! Amazing!