Dry Boxing Your Cigars

[CanadianKodiak]

Why dry box your cigars before smoking? Is it because your humidor is at too high humidity to get a good burn on your stick, does it alter the flavours at all or do you only dry box certain sizes or types? Just curious as to the reasoning.

[Orion21]

If I have time and forethought to dry box I do every time. I don't know what it is, but my cigars smoke and taste better a little drier than the 63% Rh I keep my humidors at. It may just be a case of personal taste, but it is possible cigars smoke better at temps and Rh's that aren't optimal for storage or aging. Experiment and see.

[dvickery]

kodiak

i "wetbox"...age at (more or less) 62%...move to (more or less) 65% after i open the box.

why???they seem to age nicely at 62% and smoke nicely at 65%...simple as that.

derrek

[Orion21]

^^^ A perfect example. Most likely if Derrek gave me one of his cigars to smoke I would love it. I think the biggest difference starts at 70+ Rh. I have smoked several beautiful looking CoRo's out of a friends humidor in San Diego and he SWEARS 75% Rh is what experts agree is "optimal" . . . every CoRo smoked harsh as heck and burned like crap. To me lower Rh obviously makes a difference, but it may be hard to tell the difference when cigars are only a couple of percentage points different.

[ramon_cojones]

For me 62-63 is optimal and anything over 65 I can tell is too wet. If it's on the wet side I lose some of the flavor, cigar needs constand touch ups and draw becomes firmer. If it's on the dry side 60 or below the smoke becomes too harsh and I lose flavor that way. In my experience my ideal rh range gives me the optimal combination of flavor, draw and enjoyment without hardly ever having to touch up the burn as a side benefit.

To answer the op, I don't drybox because there is no need for me.

[Jason55555]

Few members converted me to dry boxing a while back, I always smoked my cigars around 68-70 but trust me try it out, it makes a huge difference on the burn. You get a much much muchhhhh better burn on your CC's and = more even flavor wrapper binder etc burn all at the same time in uniform.

I keep my CC at 64-65 but like brazoseagle etc etc etc will tell you 64-65% still is a lot of moisture thus dryboxing comes into play.

[mk05]

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=110155&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

[Rushman]

My store's humidor is kept just south of 65% with the help of one AC unit (to help bring the generally higher PDC Humidity down) and two humidifiers to bring it back up a tad and level it off near 65%.

I don't dry box as I never know what I want to smoke, and my whole store is essentially a humidor, plus the roughly 70% humidity level in PDC dry boxing would be tough. Smoking right out of the humidor at 65% works well for me flavor and burn wise.

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