My Cigars are Ruined!

[ChanceSchmerr]

Well, I am home at last from my long deployment in the Med, arriving back in Canada last wednesday. After a few days with the Fiancee getting re-acquainted again, I took a trip up-island to Nanaimo to my parent's place, to pick up my 300 ct Humidor, which I had left with them for the duration of my 6 month deployment. I did this because I have done so previously for 2+ months, during which time I left the humi in a cool, dark place, and came back to find the cigars in perfect condition, with the RH beads working like a charm.

This time was different. I am now totally ruined.

I came upon my humidor to find the digital Hygrometer reading 18 Deg C, 47% Humidity. The cigars inside are dry as a bone - stiff as wood to the touch, with a bone-dry crackly noise if pressed. The whole contents of the humidor are nearly all the same, no cigar escaped the ruination. I almost wanted to cry - years of carefully collected and acquired treasures, ruined! RA 898s, ERDM Tainos, ERDM Grandes De Espana, SLR PC's from 95, SLR Coronas, Punch Petit Punches, Rafael Gonzalez Lonsdales, SCDLH Murallas, Sancho Panza Corona Gigantes, Party Lusitania 10 box from the Packers Super Bowl Win.....even the much-maligned Diplo 1's and Party D4s - every box with contents dried out. The RA 898s still smelled heavenly but are now dry with almost no give to them....and the singles I had carefully saved! A Cohiba Sublimes for when I pass my final Naval Engineering board this year, a single Trini Fundadore from 98, a Hamlet Shaggy Torpedo from when I met him in Vancouver a few years ago, my only Party SDC 2s and 3s.....all dried out!

My friends - what can I do - can these be brought back at all, can I re-humidify with any success? Or have I just been dealt the worst blow any cigar enthousiast could ever have, without beetles? What can I do to re-humidify and bring back these cigars?

All I can think of to do is to re-prime the humidor and re-wet the beads with distilled water, meanwhile storing the boxes in Large box-sized humipouches for a few weeks before re-introducing them into the re-primed humidor. Is there anything else I can do, or should do?

I smoked an '07 Punch Petit Punch from the humi to assess the state of the cigars. On clipping it, the wrapper on the head half-flaked off, and the cut was very dry indeed. The cigar tasted gritty when I first started to smoke it. There were moments of the tasty Punch profile I love, but it mostly just tasted dry and harsh. Not bland....just dry and harsh.

The beads looked as they did when I left them in the humidor before I left, and I had wet them with Distilled water before leaving. I had not had any trouble keeping the humidor around 68% for over a year before leaving. I honestly thought they would last 6 months without issue - I have barely had to wet the beads at all since starting to use them 2 years ago!

Am I being punished for my finds in Andorra by losing everything I had back at home? I'm crestfallen - how could this happen? What can I do to save them?

[Lotusguy]

OMG, I am so sorry to hear that!!

A nightmare come true... My only advice would be to rather slowly re-humidify them (so as to not risk cracking the wrappers) and hope for the best. Cigars can be quite resilient.

Keeping fingers crossed for you!

[rckymtn22]

Wow, that sucks, our worst nightmare. Agree with Lotus guy slowly rehumidify them. Not sure how to do it exactly but sure there is some info on the net.

[mk05]

I was given my sister's fiance's NCs stock a while back and they were in a bit worse condition than yours (week long hygrometer level told me 40%). My B&M told me to do the below and it made the cigars semi smoke-able again:

Put them into ziplock bags, no more than 10 singles in each, and slowly push the RH back up 5RH at a time (use beads and boveda packs to make sure RH don't spike). Give each 5% about 2 weeks. I would not try to push it any faster than that. The wrapper will explode. I allowed 3 months to get from about 50RH to holding at 65RH.

If you've left the humi in this condition for more than a couple months, chances are the oils have all vanished as mine were and will never taste as rich as before. After rehydration, I smoked them all to see for myself (only about 40 cigars) - flavors were muddled and lighter than before unfortunately, and some skunky.

Best of luck, perhaps more veteran members have better methods.

[Habanakane21]

So sorry to hear about this. I'd do exactly what lotusguy said. Take it slow.. Raising the humidity and temperature gradually. I've often help friends with their cigars. Beads, Tupperware and time. Goodluck.. May the gods of the leaf be on your side!

[mazolaman]

Gutted to read this Chriss, hope you can save them.

[Michel1968]

A terrible way to start the day... Hope you can save them and at least enjoy them (and choose to go for an active hygro system)

[Guest rob]

I'm really saddened to read this, mate. Such a beautiful and diverse collection and extremely heartbreaking.

As far as what do now, I'd suggest as others have - smallish increases in RH over the course of the next month or so. Instinct may have you wanting to get it back to 65% asap... though you risk destroying these for good if you rush it - cracking and split wrappers will surely happen. Take your time to get them back to 65%.

You've got nothing to lose, that's for sure.

Any chance you claim them on insurance? Kenny Gargett may be able to send you some proforma letters from his previous 'destroyed cigars'; experience.

[khomeinist]

Am very sorry to see this Chris. I wouldn't give up. Slowly bring these cigars back to 65 RH. Five percent increases at 2 week intervals would be my technique.

Email Ray. I would trust his advice on this matter. I think you might be able to bring these back at 47% RH

[shrink]

Too bad, Chris. But don't despair; I've heard of cigars stored for long periods at even lower humidity being brought back to life. After all, 47% isn't room humidity; it's only 13% lower than the 60% at which many aficionados store their stogies. And fortunately the temperature has been in the cool range, not hot. If you PM me, I'll send you the names of some experts who have successfully restored vintage cigars that were stored dry.

[OZCUBAN]

Oh no ,

I am really sorry ,to hear this news Chris ,cannot imagine the feelings you must be going through ,my advice would be as some of our members have already stated a SLOW gradual increase in R/H

And like others have already said you have absolutely nothing to loose ,and like most disasters there are always survivors ,there's always hope

Cheers OZ

[jedipastor]

OMG, I am so sorry to hear that!!

A nightmare come true... My only advice would be to rather slowly re-humidify them (so as to not risk cracking the wrappers) and hope for the best. Cigars can be quite resilient.

Keeping fingers crossed for you!

This. 6-months isn't that long, imvho. Ideal, no. But I've rehabilitated cigars this way myself and they've turned out all right. Just do it slowly as our friend here suggests. These sticks might not end up being long-term storage candidates anymore, but I think you'll be able to burn them for everyday sticks just fine. Here's hoping!

[laficion]

Chris,

What a nightmare !!!!!

I'm truly sorry to hear this. All I can say is the same as other brothers have said above.

I would also add the fact that you'll need to Recondition your Humidor, first,rehumidify your

Humidor slowly to put it back in a proper atmostphere. While this is in process, take all of

your cigars, If they're in box, leave them in their box and put the boxes in a big pastic bag.

I would also place the singles in other empty boxes and place them in plastic bags, all of

this at room temperature.

From there, very slowly and once a week , slighty vaporize the inside of

the bag with water and close or fold the bag under the boxes laid out flat.

This will take some time but if you apply this and check your cigars every week, they will

come back to life.

Chris, your cigars are not that old, at least not old enough to have lost all of their essential

oils.

I have done this with cigars that were poorly kept and with no humidification for over

25 years. I brought them back but they lost all of the oils after so many years. This is not

your case, with less then six months, they are still retrievable.

Good luck l'ami. Of course this is only my 2 cents worth but please let us know how things work

out.

[bassman]

PM sent.

[Puros Y Vino]

Chris,

Sorry to hear about your stash. There is some hope though. Below is what worked for me.

You'll Need:

Several containers of odor free tupperware.

ziplock bags (perforate them every square inch.

digital hygrometers(enough for each container, or cycle them through)

water cushions.

Instructions. Separate stogies into ziplock bags.

suspend the bags in the containers so that there is space below for air flow.

lightly saturate the water cushions.

place the cushion below the cigars.

Put hygrometer in and seal container

Take reading after an hour.

You're looking to slowly raise the RH. Start at around the 50's and work your way up to the 60's slowly.

Caution. This process could take months.

You'll also want to rotate your sticks and change the orientation now and then. You don't want one part of the stick to get over humidified.

In general, the more containers you can afford , the better the results.

While doing this, re-season your humidor and get it to about 65RH. Slowly migrate rehab sticks over once they seem fine.

Good luck.

[riazp]

Chris, I dont have much to add knowledge wise to how to save the cigars, but I am gutted to read this I'm sure you'll be able to save them with the advice these great guys gave you. Good luck, sucks this happened to such a good guy

[Onsto]

Sorry to hear this Chris, it's been colder than usual in BC this last few weeks and my oasis IIXL has been running a lot more than it usually does as a result. With any luck that means the RH in yours has only dropped so low relatively recently.

47% shouldn't be catastrophic, follow the advice given above and leave them at 65 for a good long rest afterwards and I'm sure most of them will be as they were.

[rcarlson]

FWIW, they may be only "mostly dead."

I have brought them back. 4-6 months dried, like you.

I recall it took about 7-8 months of very, very slow hydration. They restored and were oily at the end. The wrappers were a little more delicate on some but not all. All but a few returned to far better than "just everyday" smokes too. In fact, I handed some off to experienced CC smokers and got no negative reactions. When I told them after-the-fact, they were surprised and doubted me.

Patience.

Be the Cigar Whisperer!

[bigfunkyg]

Wow! I'm so sorry to hear that Chris. That is truly tragic. I think that would be most of our worst nightmare.

Sounds like you have some good advice from the board here so best of luck!

G

[CanuckSARTech]

....I came upon my humidor to find the digital Hygrometer reading 18 Deg C, 47% Humidity.

....All I can think of to do is to re-prime the humidor and re-wet the beads with distilled water, meanwhile storing the boxes in Large box-sized humipouches for a few weeks before re-introducing them into the re-primed humidor. Is there anything else I can do, or should do?

...Put them into ziplock bags, no more than 10 singles in each, and slowly push the RH back up 5RH at a time (use beads and boveda packs to make sure RH don't spike). Give each 5% about 2 weeks. I would not try to push it any faster than that. The wrapper will explode. I allowed 3 months to get from about 50RH to holding at 65RH.

First off, sorry to hear about this. This situation sucks.

Secondly, I'll take those RA 898's off of your hands.

Thirdly, lots of good information given here so far.

For my thoughts, I'd do a combined of everything given. Yes, I'd raise the humidity 5% every two weeks. And like someone mentioned, you're only down 13%-18% from the ideal. If you checked on these when you left, and you had just re-moistened them, I doubt that they've gone the full 6 months being that dry. More likely, if the RH was around 65% or so when you left, and with evaporation generalities and whatnot, you're probably looking at them having been sub-60% for the last three months (really not that bad), and likely only sub-50-55% for the last month to two months. I'd say, again in generalities, you've likely only maybe lost 10% of your oils/flavours maybe, being that you smoked one bone dry and you still did actually get hints of flavour there (I've smoked cigars that were bone dry as well, sitting in 40% storage for ages, and no flavour at all when dry, but when revived, still had decent amounts of flavours and potential).

I've helped a few buddies with issues like this before. I'd combine a bit of everything that was said.

Take everything out of your humidor. Go buy huge coolers (for what it's worth, everyone should have a "back up" coolerdor or two, for situations like this and whatnot - they are the most stable, foolproof, long-term storage option just about out there, and at a dirt-cheap price). I would put all your boxes in good, air-tight coolers. Do a calibration on your digital hygrometers, to ensure +/- 1% accuracy. I'd then put an ACTIVE humidifiation system in there, like a Cigar Oasis or Hydra unit, as well as your rh beads also (the beads would help control any over-humidification). Then, pick a day per week, and only open the cooler on those days. So, let's say a Saturday. If they're at 47% now, then on this Saturday, set the active unit at 50%. Next Saturday then, open the cooler, and restack all your boxes (top ones on the bottom, bottom ones in the middle, and middle ones on the top - this moves them around to equalize any potential uneven RH distribution, however fractional it may be). Then, set the active humidification to 52%. And, don't dilly dally when you're in there - open things up, shift them around, reset your RH level, and get things closed up and sealed - don't have things opened up more than you need to. Then, the following Saturday, repeat the process.

This way, you're shifting things around every week, bringing the RH up small increments every week (2% or 3% on varying weeks, working out to a 5% increase over two weeks). Then, once you get up into the 60's, I'd leave it for two weeks at a time between openings, and then once at 64/65%, just leave them alone for a whole month. Don't inspect, don't smoke, just let them marinate.

A SIDE NOTE WITH ALL OF THIS - I think that an active humidification system is the best way to go through this, and the most fool-proof way for these small increments of RH increase. However, if you don't have a Cigar Oasis-/Hydra-type unit, then I would still do all the following (in a coolerdor, etc., etc.), but just add small increments of distilled water to your beads like Frank or Guy explained. But, IMO, its worth it to go active humidification for something like this. If you don't have one, I'd say order one right now, and start with the bead method, but get an active unit in there PRONTO.

I think that after that, any flavour loss might only be a mental hurdle. They'll likely smoke great again, given a potential re-initialization of an artificial "sick period" (which I've experienced before, a sour period again when the cigars should have been long past that, just due to the trauma that they went through).

But, other than that, I think they'll be fine if you go through these slow steps.

Again, this is EXACTLY a reason why I think everyone should have coolerdors available (if not actually used for long term storage), and have active humidification aside from beads. My 2 cents...

Let us know what you decide to do, Chris, and give us detailed updates along the way.

Cheers.

And oh yeah - I believe you have my address still for that RA 898 box that you won't want anymore.....

[Dbone]

I believe it will be all okay buddy. I kid you not. I had a package of Mag 46 show up on my door 14 months in transit =)

I threw them in my cabinet which is set to 60RH and after a month I smoked a couple and they're doing alright. A couple slightly burst through the wrapper, but overall the box was saved... Best of luck

[spirit]

I believe it will be all okay buddy. I kid you not. I had a package of Mag 46 show up on my door 14 months in transit =)

I threw them in my cabinet which is set to 60RH and after a month I smoked a couple and they're doing alright. A couple slightly burst through the wrapper, but overall the box was saved... Best of luck

WOW... if a box can still turn up after 14 months in transit then there HAS to be a way to resurrect your collection after a couple of months at less than ideal %RH levels...

[ckearns]

Sorry to hear this, Chris. As others have said, time and patience is key. Good luck!

[Omskakas]

My condolences dear sir.

[Nino]

Don't give up Chris,

they can and will be saved - no worries