Humid & cigars ruined

[davidsan]

I recently spent 2 weeks away with work. the night before I left I was at an engagement party & brought along a bunch of cigars for the guests to celebrate the occasion. My uncle smoked half of a punch punch and decided he had enough & gave it to my old man(unknown to me). the next day I flew out and was gone for 2 weeks. I returned the other day and one of the first things I did was check my humidor to see how it was fairing.

Well I was greeted with the unmistakable smell of stale ash, I almost teared up on the spot. My old man had decided to put the half smoked stick back in the humidor. An honest mistake I guess for someone who doesn't smoke cigars but still a bit of an oversight.

So now I'm left with a humidor stinking of ash but also nearly 75+ sticks that have been sitting in this ashy environment for just over a fortnight.

Is there any hope that the cigars will ever recover after time? I currently have them in ziplock bags. And I'm in the process of sanding down the humidor and cleaning it out.

Luckily I still have a few boxes which were in Tupperware but they are my rarer boxes I was saving, but currently the only sticks I feel comfortable smoking.

Needless to say I had several stiff drinks after finding out this news and decided to light up the first of my Upmann Royal Robusto's that I ordered from Rob a few weeks back.

[Colt45]

....decided to light up the first of my Upmann Royal Robusto's that I ordered from Rob a few weeks back.

Was this in the same humidor - if so, how was it ? If not, have you tried one from this humidor yet?

[Paul3]

x2 for what Shlomo said. I had a very similar experience only mine was a buddy that had waaay too much to drink and decided to put his cigar out, literally stub it out, inside one of my desktop humidors, with friends like that....right. I only had 15 random sticks in there at the time (a 50 ct. humidor), but they smelled something awful when I opened that humidor a little over a week later. I moved the cigars to another empty desktop humidor and let them sit for a few weeks. The smell off the nose wasn't entirely gone, but honestly when I smoked them they seemed 100%. As for my buddy. Well he's now the proud owner of a burnt, stinkin desktop humidor...only cost him $150.

[davidsan]

The Upmann's and another box were in another humidor so they were fine, (actually the Upmann was fantastic!) I've moved some of my sticks to another desktop humidor which is clean and I'm cleaning out the ashy humidor today and leaving it for a while to see how it goes.

[Dimmers]

Hehe same thing here during my stag a few months back. Both humi and sticks are fine going forward ( can't say the same for damaged liver and dead brain cells )

[davidsan]

Thanks for the response guys, not feeling so bad now. Sounds like it will just take some time to come good.

[Cohiba Stevie]

First of all, dont beat yourself up about it, and dont fall out with your dad about it. This may seem like a stupid mistake to seasoned cigar smokers like us but an easy oversight to unfamiliar folk.

1. You prob wont be able to save the naked cigars that were in there. Toss em and get more. They are replaceable

2. Air it out. If you have a well ventilated garage or shed it would be a good idea to leave it open and let it sit for a few weeks.

3. Go easy on the sanding, if your humidor is genuine spanish cedar, the make up of the wood itself will mean you wont need to remove much.

4. Baking soda. Get a small tupperware dish and fill it with baking soda, add some water till the baking soda is wet but not completley dissolved, it should be the consistency of wet sand, NOT A PASTE. Let it sit there with the lid closed for a few weeks and you should be golden.

5. Relax. Let us know how it goes and good luck.

[Smacky]

Have had a similar thing happen to me, where a friend could not finish a cigar I gifted him and after putting it out, put it back into a small Behike box I was using as a travel humidor. When I discovered it a few days later it reeked and I feared for the other cigars in there. I simply transferred those cigars to a another isolated box for a week or so and have left the behike box empty with the lid open for a few weeks. I think the cigars will be fine.

[Justmi]

Sorry to hear about this davidsan. This is why you get a humidor with a lock and keep it locked up.