Over-humidified cigars...

[Cohiba Stevie]

Ok so here's the scoop...

I went out for a nice bite to eat with my lady friend last night, a few pints of peroni and fine italian dining sort of thing lol.

Anyway the weather has been quite good in ireland over the last few days and i decided to pick up a cigar to enjoy outside with a pint of italian beer keeping the smoke company.

I went to a well known off liscence in belfast that has quite the formiddable selection of habanos, cohiba CoRos, montecristo no. 4s, bolivar royal coronas... The usual suspects found in an upmarket liquor store. So i bought a cobiba robusto, bid farewell to the vendor and headed round to the bar to fire it up. When i arrived i pulled it out of the little cardboard box and noticed that it felt incredibly spongey, there was a very obvious 'spring back' when the cigar was subjected to a pinch with the fingers. I was then plagued during the 45 minute smoke with lighting and burn issues. Ive never had this before. And the vendors humidor was pegged at 65%rh snd 67 degrees.

Anybody had this before? Are these characteristics of an over humidified stick?

[gr8tdanz]

I have had a few sticks that inexplicably had damp filler even though my humidor stays at 65-67% all the time. I opened one up after being unable to smoke it and the filler was damp. Grabbed another of the same brand and it was fine. Not sure what the reasoning is, just happened.

[davidl]

The cigars could have been a new batch that the vendor got the previous day...I am finding that more and more vendors are selling over humidified cigars.

[Dbone]

Sounds like indeed your cigar was over humidified, although hard to come to a conclusive answer. The burning issues could be due to poor construction from the roller. Although the cigar should not feel spongey as you stated.

My unscientific test when out in the field goes like this. First thing is check aroma with the nose, if it's been stored to dry there usually will be very poor if any aroma. So that rules out dryness. Then I will gently pinch the cigar and roll it between my fingers, I listen for good amounts of crackling from the inside. I'll check these at least at two or three places on the cigar... this rules out over humidification. Once you begin to smoke the cigar the crackle will go away as the tobacco warms and oils / tar reduce the dryness at cold. This could account for why overly wet cigars only get worse. Few firm pinches up and down the cigar feeling for consistent construction, no empty or hard spots.

It's possible you had a combination of over humidification (spongey as you noted) and poor construction (bad burn). Now if the CoRo kept going out because of poor draw, that could be construction again. Kept going out with decent draw - probably wet. The ash will be very dark if wet, typically.

I store my cigars at 63-65% & 65F and from time to time I will have to relight and deal with bad burns. But spongey before lighting isn't correct.

Best of luck next time Stevie

[lancerv43]

Sounds like it was over humidified to me there is both the possibility that the box just came in or that perhaps the hygro was not calibrated correctly I have been in humidors before that read at 65% but you could feel in the air that it was much higher it felt very damp. Anyway that is a big bummer hope you have better luck next time.

[Cohiba Stevie]

A very consice explanation there Dbone, i really think you hit the nail on the head. I really appreciate you taking the time to write that and and i would say it has definatley answered my query. I never really had any problems with draw, but as you mentioned about dark ash and the over spongyness, the problem is quite apparent now. The stick was definatley too wet.

Wow... Another thing i hadnt even mentioned and is a definate first for me is...

ive had my first bad cohiba robusto.