Aging sticks in plastic wrap/saran wrap/cling film

[Pailong]

Hi all,

Does anyone age/keep their cigars wrapped in plastic wrap/cling film/saran wrap? (whatever you want to call it!) Like you know when you buy custom rolls in Cuba and they wrap the sticks in the plastic wrap. Does anyone actually leave it like that and let it age that way or do you unwrap it?

I know a lot of people wrap their actual boxes in plastic wrap and age it that way - I never really know the benefits of this?

But I'm talking about wrapping the actual sticks in it (without box). Currently I have some custom rolls wrapped in plastic wrap really tightly (from a trip to Cuba) and since coming back home, have just left the sticks in the wrapping and all I did was then put them into a big resealable zip bag, threw a boveda in there too and sealed the bag up. I have this in a storage container (it's not an airtight container though but I thought it should be fine since the sticks are in a zip bag).

If anyone does indeed wrap their single sticks like this, why do you do it?

 

Thanks!

[Chef]

I wouldn’t do this.  Plastic shrink wrap smells. 

[99call]

6 minutes ago, Chef said:

I wouldn’t do this.  Plastic shrink wrap smells. 

^^^^^ This

[Colt45]

I think if I wanted to keep them wrapped, I'd remove the plastic and use aluminum foil.

[PigFish]

Not my thing, however you might want to search the forum for this topic and examine replies from @Ginseng. Wilkey is/was intensely interested in this topic and did a lot of work with it, not to mention a scholarly gentleman! Good luck on your search.

-the Pig

[Bucky McSwensen]

If you must wrap (no original box) I recommend wrapping in glassine paper (same stuff as cabs, you can easily find online) then get a food saver or other vacuum sealer and use those bags.  You can seal the bags before they crush the sticks so make sure its snug but not compressing.  This is my plan for freezing then storing as I have some customs on the way.  There should be no long term scent issues with this storage.

 This isnt the best for access but great if you arent gonna touch em for a while.  For immediate access I'd do a cedar tray or just a ziploc bag.

If others feel strongly otherwise please chime in before I ruin my sticks doing this long term.

Vaccum sealers are also a game changer for food prep and freezing (smoked meats, raw meet i buy in bulk, chili, all that)

[BrightonCorgi]

I travel with each cigar rolled in cellophane; the cigars stay humid for weeks and they don't get damaged.  I unroll them when I get home and put back in their boxes.

[HumidorJuan]

If your ageing them and a humidor isn’t your thing, go tupperdore 

[mt1]

I don't see why cling wrap would be different from a tupperware in terms of the plastic (I am not a plastic expert so I am sure there are differences but are they noticeable differences?).

I am personally a big fan of ziploc bags.  If you're super worried, the Ziploc branded ones by J&J are BPA-free.

[LordAnubis]

I don’t see any benefit in it other than it’s probably cheapest wrap that’s available. As long as you have frozen your cigars I see no issue with the way you’ve stored them. 

That being said there’s a lot said about “airing” cigars. As in opening a sealed Tupperware once  in a while. I’d assume the same thing would apply to these after a while? 

[JoeyGunz]

From my experience quite a few of the custom roll's seem to be on the wetter side than I like, I'd imagine wrapping them in cling film would only keep them that wet and could cause some problems down the line.

[Pailong]

Thanks everyone for their replies!

I think the wrapping in cling film helps preserve their freshness whilst travelling (and I guess the same idea applies when people wrap their cigar boxes in cling film, to slow down the aging and keep them protected). I know that when buying boxes from Netherlands, a certain shop will plastic wrap the boxes really tightly cause they know that you're travelling so it protects the cigar boxes whilst they aren't in a humidor/bag with boveda.

I guess leaving them in cling film will really slow them down massively, especially since they are wrapped super tightly. Seeing as they are freshly rolled customs, I'm thinking whether I should just unwrap them to let them "air" out and breathe and allow them to properly age for a year. I might do an experiment and leave some wrapped up and the rest I'll put into an empty cigar box, put the box into a zip bag and chuck that into a tupperdore as my wineador is full (I always believe aging in wooden boxes helps as opposed to just aging them in plastic containers). I've frozen all of these custom rolls so they should be fine but yes, I think "airing" them is important (although I have seen people say that they wrapped their boxes and never touched them but when they went to smoke the cigars years later, they tasted amazing! Probably due to really slowing down the aging process and locking them in that consistent environment inside the cling film).

Saying that, I recently cracked open a box of cigars that I've been aging in my wineador for exactly 2 years (box is inside sealed zip bag, no boveda, box only been opened once in 2 years to check state of cigars, zip bag opened maybe 4 or 5 times to rearrange boxes inside). The cigars smelled amazing and smoked brilliantly and have definitely "aged" and developed. All my boxes in my wineador are kept in sealed zip bags, without boveda in them (instead I scatter the boveda all around the inside of the wineador).

[Sandman]

I wouldn’t do Saran type wrap. Gallon size quality Ziplock type baggies. I have bags of custom rolled that have had custom rolled in them for 14 years now, and they are still perfect shape and smoke perfectly. I currently have lots of very good stuff stored in many gallon bags. They age just fine.