Wrapper On or Off

**MMAB** · 03-13-2005, 09:51 AM

This always seems to be a hotly debated topic on cigars.

The cello wrapper while for one is used to protect the cigar wrapper leaf from damage during shipping, is also there to help stabilize the cigar during storage and to keep the essential oils in the cigar. A cigar will still age with it's wrapper on, albeit a little bit slower than it would with it taken off.

BUT, storing a cigar with the wrapper off for extended periods requires very stable temp and humidity control. This is next to impossible when using humidors that most of us have. Every time you open your humidor, particularly in the winter months when ambient rh is an average of 40%, you are exposing it to a radically different environment than exists inside of it. I believe most of us open our humidors at least once a day and sometimes more making them just a bit unstable.

The cello wrapper protects the cigar from sudden changes in rh% and helps keep in flavor.

Keep in mind also that most of us don't really age cigars anyway. We smoke them! I have a moderate sized cabinet humidor. I'll be damned if any cigar has a chance of lasting more than eight months in my humidor before its smoked anyway!

Also, alot of cigars aren't meant for aging. I understand that any Dominican cigar should be smoked within the first two years of it's life. Going much more beyond that, the cigar begins to mellow too much and loses flavor.

I once bought a couple of boxes of El Rey del Mundo Reserva Saladas. Beautiful sun grown wrappers. A nice toro sized cigar. Sweet, spicy. I went through a box and thought I'd hold on to the other for a couple of years to see what happens. The ERdM's came in cabinet boxes, bundled with a ribbon. The cigars had no cello. Just the cabinet cedar box. Two years later, I lit one up and they were flat and boring having lost all of their original spiciness.

From then on, any cigar I buy that has no cello gets smoked right away. Even one of my local dealers agreed with me stating he felt that the cigars that sit in his humi-rooms for a long time with no cello lose flavor.

I am also aware that some manufacturers ship "green" cigars. Cigars that haven't had the chance to rest up properly before being smoked. A cigar can "rest up" in the box with the cello on with no trouble.

It's your choice and this was my two cents!

**hex1848** · 03-13-2005, 02:49 PM

very well written, thank you MMAB.

**JulesCigarQuest** · 03-13-2005, 10:24 PM

MMAB,

Well said. I keep the skins on. I don't want pollonation (spelling)....mixing of flavors.

**MMAB** · 03-14-2005, 03:34 PM

Hex and Jules for the compliment!

Good Smokes!

Mark

**hex1848** · 03-14-2005, 05:18 PM

I have actually noticed the smokes in my desktop humidor at the office seem to be going through exactly what you mentioned. I have a habit of opening the humidor way too often, the humidity has to go up and down up and down through out the day.

The sticks with out the wrappers seem to be teetering on the dry side; the sticks with the wrappers are fine and dandy.

**cockyhoskins** · 03-14-2005, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by JulesCigarQuest

MMAB,

Well said. I keep the skins on. I don't want pollonation (spelling)....mixing of flavors.

This made me think of Austin Powers:

"So I started to work my mojo, to counter their mojo...we got cross-mojination and their heads started to explode!"

**tk325** · 05-16-2005, 05:34 PM

What about the aluminum humitubes - I have a RyJ I brought from Canada in 03 that I am trying to 'bring back to life' and wonder if I should place it back in the tube and then in the humidor?

Thanks!

**MMAB** · 05-16-2005, 07:10 PM

Supposedly, in a perfect world, a tubed cigar is supposed to be fine on it's own in any normal environment. That's "in a perfect world"......

Chances are that the tube has been opened once or twice or thrice or.........

If you know for 100% sure that the tube has never been opened and is sealed tight and hasn't been left on the dashboard top in the sun or on top of anything hot, it should be perfectly fine as is.

But since that is difficult to be sure on that, I would put it back in your humidor opened for a month or two, if not longer.

But if the cigar has dried out, sorry, it's hopeless. The flavor is gone and no amount of time in a humidor will bring it back.

Tubed cigars are great for travel, etc when you can't bring along your humidor. The industry claims as long as the tube remains tightly sealed, unopened, the cigar will stay fresh for a long, long time on it's own.

**tk325** · 05-16-2005, 09:01 PM

Well, it has dried out to some extent, but I have seen much worse.

We can always hope, can't we?

Thanks for your insight.

**MadurosRock** · 10-06-2005, 11:14 PM

It all depends on what cigars you have, and how often you check your humidity level in your 'dor. Right now, my small 'dor only has a few Punch Rare Corojos in it, and since they're all the same, i took the cellos off, in order for the aromatics of the spanish cedar to do its thing. However, if you have some super mild's and a couple full, strong cigars, i would keep the cellos on, however, i'd open the ends, so that the cigars could breath, otherwise, they'd just take up the rest of the humidity in the plastic, and dry out, even inside your 'dor. So i say, if you have all the same cigars, (or similar cigars that you don't mind "merrying") go ahead, and take those cello's off, otherwise, just open the ends, and let them breathe a bit.

**Sonnyfoxxx** · 10-09-2005, 01:41 AM

I agree it's all personal preference, but I take mine off. I believe it lets them age nicely, and they just look better w/o them.

~Sonny~

**Mazeman** · 10-09-2005, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by Sonnyfoxxx

I agree it's all personal preference, but I take mine off. I believe it lets them age nicely, and they just look better w/o them.

~Sonny~

Yeah, but then if you take the celo off, you have to determine which cigars are allowed to touch the others so as not to intermingle flavors.

**MMAB** · 10-09-2005, 08:14 AM

Such filthy talk! INTERMINGLING!!!?????

They have magazines for that!

And you know what happens when cigars "intermingle"!? YOU GET A BUNCH OF LITTLE CIGARS RUNNING AROUND THE HUMIDOR!

Hey! What a novel idea! Cigars that could reproduce!

Cigar sex? No...no....I'm not going there!

Just to restate my previous post....I leave my wrappers on for the reasons I stated much earlier in Quiet C's thread.

**godfather** · 10-09-2005, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by MMAB

"Such filthy talk! INTERMINGLING..."

Always with the 'sexual innuendos' tied with cigars...every other post of yours....

I think you want it though....

Originally Posted by MMAB

"Given the choice between a woman and a cigar, I will always choose the cigar."

Can't say I agree, sorry MMAB...

**hp-^** · 10-19-2005, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by Mazeman

Yeah, but then if you take the celo off, you have to determine which cigars are allowed to touch the others so as not to intermingle flavors.

Do the cigars only have sex when they touch? If so that would make my world a lot simpler. (No, I am not trying to apply cigar physics to the real world if it's otherwise).

I want to take my cello's off for two reasons:

1) Looks nicer.
2) I am afraid that they will cause the cigar to exchange moisture unevenly or at a far lower pace.