What's the deal with Tubos?

[Kangaroo495]

Question about cigars in tubes:

Can you keep them in the tube? Or should they be taken out and kept in a humidor.

E.g. Smoked a Petit Edmundo the other day. Had been brewing it for 6 months, but never put it in the humi (as it had a touch of green on the wrapper). Just left it in the tube, and put it on the shelf. When I took it out to smoke, it was fairly soft, and in general an amazing cigar. Perferctly humidified.

My mate kept a R&J Churchill for three years in a tube without a humidor. He smoked it on the weekend and it was incredible!

Is this normal?

[sounddust]

If it hasn't been opened and the surrounding climate is rather OK, then there should be no problems. I once found a Davidoff tubo that must have been under my bed for 1 year and it was unsmokable. But I'm used to an average climate of +32 C and +80% indoor humidity.

[Colt45]

I keep tubes in the humidor with the caps on. Conceivably, if the tubes have been hermetically sealed with proper humidity to begin with,

they might hold humidity outside a humidor for quite some time - as long as they have not been opened after sealing.

[jquest63]

Don't make many tubed cigar purchases. Have had mixed experiences with them. I always inspect all my cigars on receipt, be it cabinet, box, tubed etc. and don't store in humi unless they pass muster. On occasion tubed cigars have gotten mold while stored in humidor inside the tube, where no other cigars (singles or boxed) in the humidor have grown any. After a couple of disappointing experieces, I've taken to removing the cigars from the tubes for storage in the humi. Keep the tubes though, as I find them convenient for an evening out.

[Van55]

I store my cigars in the original packaging inside my humidor. Tubos are no exception.

In my experience the tubes are not necessarily air tight, so the cigars can dry out inside of them.

It is said by some that cigars stored in tubes experience the effects of aging more slowly than non-tubed versions. Whether this is true or simply part of cigar lore passed on as "common knowledge" cannot be established.

One of the best, most memorable cigars I have enjoyed was a 1998 RyJ Churchill from a tube.

[Colt45]

On occasion tubed cigars have gotten mold while stored in humidor inside the tube, where no other cigars (singles or boxed) in the humidor have grown any.

I think that outside conditions such as temperature can certainly have an effect on the contents of a sealed container. For instance, I've found

that when traveling to very warm / hot climates using an airtight cigar caddy, I invariably end up with over humidified cigars.

[smk819]

I store my cigars in the original packaging inside my humidor. Tubos are no exception.

In my experience the tubes are not necessarily air tight, so the cigars can dry out inside of them.

It is said by some that cigars stored in tubes experience the effects of aging more slowly than non-tubed versions. Whether this is true or simply part of cigar lore passed on as "common knowledge" cannot be established.

I agree with Van. The tubed version of the Siglo II, were better than the box I got at the same time.

[Habanos2000]

I keep mine in the humidor with the caps off, just in case.

[brutusthebuckeye]

I store my cigars in the original packaging inside my humidor. Tubos are no exception.

Same here....

[mkz]

I store my cigars in the original packaging inside my humidor. Tubos are no exception.

Dito.

[mef]

I got the Czar's 12 Days of Christmas tubo sampler before Christmas 08. Kept them in zip lock bags and tupperware till my trip to Malaysia in March 09.

Enjoyed all the tubos cigars tremendously, great flavors and no problems with the burn in a very humid country. The only exception was the PSP 2 which was a little young to smoke.

The surprise from the sampler were the bolivars and montecritos tubos. I now find that R&J short churchill in tubos are better than the cab.

[MIKA27]

I have quite a few cigars which I purchased in 3's and 5's pack tubos such as Cohiba Siglo VI and R&J Short Churchills. I tend to remove them from the tubes, place the cigars in my humi and when I'm about to head out, I conveniently place the cigar in the tubo to take with me.

[Ginseng]

It is said by some that cigars stored in tubes experience the effects of aging more slowly than non-tubed versions. Whether this is true or simply part of cigar lore passed on as "common knowledge" cannot be established.

Sure it can. This is a simple question that lends itself well to a straightforward empirical investigation.

1. Buy two boxes of SBN-10 (plain wood box) Partagas PSP2.

2. Buy cardboard pack-15 of Partagas PSP2 Tubos.

3. Buy dressed box-10 of Montecristo No.2.

4. Remove the Monte2s from the box and keep the paper-wrapped dressed box to use.

5. Shuffle the cigars so that you have the following:

In the SBN box: 5 original SBN cigars, 5 tubos cigars removed from their tubes.

In Tubos: 5 original tubos cigars, 5 cigars from the SBN packaging placed into tubes.

In the Monte 2 dressed box: 5 original SBN cigars, 5 tubos cigars remove from their tubes.

It would be easier if there was a cigar that came in SLB/SBN and dressed box and tubos, but even so, this simple swap test can potentially tell you, over time, the following things:

1. Whether tubos affect aging and development differently from SBN or dressed box packaging.

2. Whether the cigars in original tubos and SBN packaging age differently under the same conditions of packaging.

Wilkey

[PigFish]

Sure it can. This is a simple question that lends itself well to a straightforward empirical investigation.

1. Buy two boxes of SBN-10 (plain wood box) Partagas PSP2.

2. Buy cardboard pack-15 of Partagas PSP2 Tubos.

3. Buy dressed box-10 of Montecristo No.2.

4. Remove the Monte2s from the box and keep the paper-wrapped dressed box to use.

5. Shuffle the cigars so that you have the following:

In the SBN box: 5 original SBN cigars, 5 tubos cigars removed from their tubes.

In Tubos: 5 original tubos cigars, 5 cigars from the SBN packaging placed into tubes.

In the Monte 2 dressed box: 5 original SBN cigars, 5 tubos cigars remove from their tubes.

It would be easier if there was a cigar that came in SLB/SBN and dressed box and tubos, but even so, this simple swap test can potentially tell you, over time, the following things:

1. Whether tubos affect aging and development differently from SBN or dressed box packaging.

2. Whether the cigars in original tubos and SBN packaging age differently under the same conditions of packaging.

Wilkey

Where I disagree with you Wilkey is it cannot be "proven" by your means. An honest test would require homogenized test tobacco and not real cigars. Real cigars have souls (in a rhetorical sense of course) and each is different. As an individual has one life, one soul so does the individual cigar. No proof can be derived by smoking two separate cigars except that they are different. Can evidence be gathered, well yes but that would also be dependent on ones memory for taste over time.

I can believe that aging of cigars is linked to oxygen; oxygen is an agent for change. I often wonder at what rate a cigar consumes or binds oxygen for the aging process. Is it only the oxygen atom that is used in the process or is it the O2 molecule or free radical oxygen? Is there enough oxygen in a tube for the process???? The questions go on and on. What is more, perhaps it is nitrogen albeit inert, or one of the other gasses in room air that takes part in the changes. Perhaps it is all of them.

Like the tree falling in the forest one needs to ask, "if a cigar existed in space, would it mature???" -LOL

I like your analysis and analytical mind regardless Amigo! Someday you, Jonathan and I need to get together and solve all these cigar related dilemmas over a good cigar!!! -LOL -Ray

[Colt45]

Sure it can. This is a simple question that lends itself well to a straightforward empirical investigation.

It would also require extreme faith in consistency

[Ginseng]

Ray,

Science may be regarded as a disconfirmational endeavor. Propose a null or dummy hypothesis, show that it is false and you have a demonstration of some understanding that is real. Establishing a the presence or absence of a relationship between smoking characteristics and packaging is far from proving anything and some would say proof in the absolute sense is impossible. I certainly don't propose a full study with all the necessary rigor (validity and reliability). But if enough experience is gathered, then from that comes knowledge and truth.

Absolutely there is stick to stick variation and the vagaries of memory to contend with, but that is inextricable from the cigar. As for oxygen, it's easy for anyone to say that oxidation and reduction processes as well as anaerobic reactions take place in cigar (and wine) maturation. It's another thing altogether to demonstrate the parameters of their influence on maturation and development.

The more controlled and rigorous the study of basic effects in tobacco, the more removed from the pleasure of smoking. However, it's not to say that the fruits of such research could not benefit the experience through greater understanding of how to control and manipulate the development of our cigars.

Indeed, we shall have to chat about this over the appropriate accompaniment some day.

Regards,

Wilkey

[PigFish]

It would also require extreme faith in consistency

Yes... that is part of my point Ross. A cigar can be smoked but once and no two are exactly alike. Can one define for me the taste of age? In what terms of difference of taste of age would relative age be described? What time period makes for a discerning difference in taste of age, in what conditions and in which case, or would all conditions and cases be the same?

Wilkey I am not asking for an "extreme case" of proof, only credible proof. I can prove to my own satisfaction that cigars are inconsistent. Meaning in my case that when smoked within a short period of each other cigars from the same box will yield sometimes huge difference in taste to me. Those differences could be solely related to me as a human being and perhaps not applicable to others but I have made the statement and stand by it. What I can't do is claim that I could taste a difference solely attributed to the fact that certain cigars were entombed in aluminum tubes for a period in time. One could claim that the aluminum itself contributed to the taste and the difference if one existed could we not?

I see too many holes here beyond what 5 or 10 cigars would tell me. I can see myself onboard with the belief if I gave much thought to it but I can't give more weight to it than one of many competing opinions. Cheers, -Piggy

[anacostiakat]

Well here is a little empiracal information. Not that everyone doesnt have their own.

I just finished an eleven year old Lusi. Maginificent cigar. Beautiful. Nuances that are just so enjoyable to discerne.

I am following it with an 08 Mag 46 Tubo. The smell on this cigar coming out of the tube is all cedar and decadent tabac. The cigar smokes like an three year old HUP. Pretty damn good. I got them just to try and they have really impressed me. Put another 2 - 5 on this cigar and it will be excellent.

[Ginseng]

Works for me.

Wilkey

[Stalebread]

Colt, Wilkey, Pig, Van,

I love it when you guys talk science and reason.

To my very un-scientific mind there are so many variables that cannot be isolated in an experiement like this that it could never establish cause-and-effect but it might point to a correlation. At any rate, it could be very interesting.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the role the cedar veneer inside the tube plays. To what extent, if at all, do the cigars age/taste differently if the cedar is removed?

It all makes me think of that '98 Upmann Monarcas A/T that I smoked last year. Probably the best cigar I've had to date. I wonder if it was so good because it was stored in a tube or what?