Ziplock Confusion

[Sean3]

What's the purpose of storing boxes/cigars in Ziplock bags?  Seems that it would stop or slow down the aging process and nullify any outside humidity control.  Thanks in advance for input, cheers.

[shlomo]

Ziplocks are permeable and not air tight. Slowing down the aging is the goal for me, along with pest control in case of beetles. 

Cigars can regulate their own microclimate fairly well by themselves.

[stogieluver]

1 minute ago, shlomo said:

Ziplocks are permeable and not air tight. Slowing down the aging is the goal for me, along with pest control in case of beetles. 

Cigars can regulate their own microclimate fairly well by themselves.

Where have you been, Shlomo?  Haven't seen you post in quite some time.  Hope things are well with you.

 

[garbandz]

there was a thread about vacuum sealing that may be interesting reading for you, maybe a friend could find it?

[watches_whiskies_cigars]

10 minutes ago, shlomo said:

Ziplocks are permeable and not air tight. Slowing down the aging is the goal for me, along with pest control in case of beetles. 

Cigars can regulate their own microclimate fairly well by themselves.

I agree, Ziploc bags are permeable. The best (least permeable) ones I've tried are the large Arturo Fuente Ziploc bags that come with the Arturo Fuente humidipacks built in. They keep cigars in good shape for months. I, too, have used Ziploc bags to freeze cigars from a couple of boxes that had the beetle in a cigar shop's personal boxes.

[shlomo]

8 minutes ago, stogieluver said:

Where have you been, Shlomo?  Haven't seen you post in quite some time.  Hope things are well with you.

 

Was not able to view the forum properly for weeks after the "upgrade". 

Now, just too much of same old same old....so I read and pass over.

All good here, how bout you?

[stogieluver]

1 minute ago, shlomo said:

Was not able to view the forum properly for weeks after the "upgrade". 

Now, just too much of same old same old....so I read and pass over.

All good here, how bout you?

All good here, Shlo.  Yeah, been a lot of rehashing lately, but newbies gotta learn and we were all newbies at one time.  I appreciated your help when I was just starting out, and I try to help out here where I can. 

Sorry to hijack the thread.  Apologies.  Carry on. 

[fabes]

31 minutes ago, garbandz said:

there was a thread about vacuum sealing that may be interesting reading for you, maybe a friend could find it?

That's a good read for ya!

[Sean3]

Thanks for the input gentlemen.  No worries stogieluver, hijack away.  Excellent thread fabes, appreciate you posting it...seems most questions I come up with, have already been addressed at some point so I shall endeavor to do some searching before posting a thread for everything that crosses my mind.  That said, I'm grateful to be able to draw on the wealth of knowledge and experience that is available on this site.  Damn glad I became a member.  Cheers.

[PapaDisco]

In my humble opinion, I don't think it's accurate to say that what air is doing is 'accelerating' the aging of a cigar.  I think more air will take off volatile/flavor compounds and make a strong cigar weaker, quicker.  There's a period very early in a cigar's life when it needs circulation to get rid of the ammonia but after that I think (IMHO) that you want to avoid any more oxidation and let those stogies stew in their own sweet chemistry.  And that means wrapping them up in saran wrap (less permeable) or zip locks (more permeable) so the compounds within a cigar can slowly interact with one another.  Kinda like putting a cork in your bottle of wine, otherwise you get very different chemistry if you let air get to it.

Give it a try.  You don't even have to go out 10 years, just ziplock something for 6 months to a year or two if you can stand it, and when you go back and open up that bag it will be the most heavenly scent ever!

[Drguano]

Shlomo! Good to see you posting! Almost time so I'll just acknowledge the annual chauffeur 'joke' and leave it at that.