Dry Boxing Cigars

[LeafLover]

For the last month, I've been dry boxing my cigars 12-24 hours before smoking them. I've noticed a considerable improvement in the taste and the burn. My humis are between 65-70 rh. My questions is: Why is dry boxing prior to smoking yielding a better smoking experience? Could it be that when the blenders blend the cigars, they are doing them in environments that are lower in rh inherently making the tobacco drier then what we are actually storing them in?.............Leaf Lover

[Tampa1257]

I have found for my personal taste, that because I keep my humidor between 63%-65% rh, that I typically only dry box around 24 hours, a day. My experience has taught me that Cuban cigars smoke much better at the lower rh level. They just do.

[Ginseng]

I suppose I'm a contrarian. I store between 63-65% and smoke at around 70%. I find the flavors are richer and fuller. I can't get down to as short a nub as I can with a drier cigar, but the improved delivery in the other 75% of the stick is worth it to me.

Oh, and when I get new sticks that are too wet but that I just have to try, I do dry box for a day or two.

Wilkey

[PigFish]

I keep a couple of very dry desktops but don't dry box per say. My smoking humidor is my Aristocrat and it runs a pretty consistent 64RH. I don't want to go against the experience of another but I can't recall 24 hours making a 70RH cigar smokable, not in my book anyway. I don't keep any wet cigars; what I would consider cigars over 70RH, not intentionally anyway.

I have always wanted to keep some cigars for a few months at 70 to 75RH, weigh them and then store them at 65RH and see at what point they actually fully acclimatize and stabilize to the lower RH as a function of their weight. I have never performed the test however.

Wilkey what do you do to bring a 65RH cigar to a consistent 70RH prior to smoking? I find that wet cigars are often bitter and acrid. Since I can only smoke a cigar once there is no way of proving my experience as fact so I will consider it preference or perhaps even a belief. -Piggy

[mbrody]

Wilkey, You are not alone. I also prefer to store at 67% to 70% and am fine smoking in that range. I prefer not risking to go "too dry" and find if I do, I lose too much flavor. My real test is the feel of the cigar. Spongy at the foot with no "crackle" tells me they are too moist. A day in the drybox should help. A gentle roll between the fingertips and a consistant light crackle tells me they are OK to smoke. All this after at least a month of stabilization, of course.

There is another problem though. I have not calibrated my Hydro's. My 65-70 could easily be plus or minus. That is where the feel of the cigar really comes in to play...

Experiment to see what you like best...

[Bartolomeo]

Mine are stored 62-65* and 63-65%...........I leave a couple on top of my Vino in the open 24-48 hours before smoking.......everything is good

But at the same time I have smoked them right out of the Vino and they have been just as good, go figure

Bart

[bunburyist]

Unfortunately I never really get the chance to drybox, except on weekends, but I normally go entirely by feel, which seems to work ok for me. Store mostly at around 65% but it has a habit of falling towards the low 60s because my air-con is almost always on.

Out of interest, how long can a cigar be dry-boxed for before it starts to be adversely affected. I've found cigars I've accidentally left out for a week or so are still ok, just a small drop in flavour, but it's hard to know when you might be imagining things..

[samb]

Ive never dryboxed. My cigars usually smoke pretty well outta the vino which stays consistent at 66%. I may try dryboxing with a view smokes after reading this.

[thechenman]

I don't drybox either. Never felt the need to. I store my cigars between 60-65rh...it does drift higher during the summer months when it gets more humid. I supposed I should consider it as the humidity does affect my burn during the summer, and I sometimes get more bitterness than I like towards the end of the cigar, but dryboxing would require me knowing what I want to smoke the next day, and I just don't think that far ahead when it comes to selecting cigars. It is more about what my mood is like at the moment, and what appeals to me when I open my humidor. The bigger problem for me is wrapper splits int he winter because of the dry air. Just can't get myself to rinse my cigars before smoking.

[LeafLover]

I have found for my personal taste, that because I keep my humidor between 63%-65% rh, that I typically only dry box around 24 hours, a day. My experience has taught me that Cuban cigars smoke much better at the lower rh level. They just do.

Thanks. Will make sure my habanos get good dry box time

[LeafLover]

Unfortunately I never really get the chance to drybox, except on weekends, but I normally go entirely by feel, which seems to work ok for me. Store mostly at around 65% but it has a habit of falling towards the low 60s because my air-con is almost always on.

Out of interest, how long can a cigar be dry-boxed for before it starts to be adversely affected. I've found cigars I've accidentally left out for a week or so are still ok, just a small drop in flavour, but it's hard to know when you might be imagining things..

Truly, just been dry boxing for about a month. But I would leave the stogies open to air or in my travel humi for 12-24 hours without the cello. I'm really impressed with the burn and taste.

[LeafLover]

I keep a couple of very dry desktops but don't dry box per say. My smoking humidor is my Aristocrat and it runs a pretty consistent 64RH. I don't want to go against the experience of another but I can't recall 24 hours making a 70RH cigar smokable, not in my book anyway. I don't keep any wet cigars; what I would consider cigars over 70RH, not intentionally anyway.

I have always wanted to keep some cigars for a few months at 70 to 75RH, weigh them and then store them at 65RH and see at what point they actually fully acclimatize and stabilize to the lower RH as a function of their weight. I have never performed the test however.

Wilkey what do you do to bring a 65RH cigar to a consistent 70RH prior to smoking? I find that wet cigars are often bitter and acrid. Since I can only smoke a cigar once there is no way of proving my experience as fact so I will consider it preference or perhaps even a belief. -Piggy

I agree with your assessment of how 70rh stogies smoke

[Habanos2000]

I keep my cigars stored between 63-67% and around 65 F. I do dry box them for 24 hours when I remember, but I've had cigars straight out of the humi that are just as good, if not better and sometimes if not worse, than the dry boxed sticks.

In conclusion, I don't notice a significant smoking/flavor difference one way or the other that couldn't be attributed to some other factor.

[tsolomon]

I keep most of my humidors at 65% or lower. I dry box when I can, but that takes planning and knowing what you're going to smoke over the next couple of days. I test the draw on all my cigars before lighting and any that are too tight, go into the dry box for a couple of more days. My dry box has a RH of about 50-55% depending on RH of the house.

[Van55]

If you drybox, you must rinse. Or lather, rinse, repeat if you prefer. And don't forget to floss.

LOL

[Ginseng]

Wilkey what do you do to bring a 65RH cigar to a consistent 70RH prior to smoking? I find that wet cigars are often bitter and acrid. Since I can only smoke a cigar once there is no way of proving my experience as fact so I will consider it preference or perhaps even a belief. -Piggy

I have one small cooler (18-qt, I think) that I keep at a higher humidity. But this year, I've made it a habit of pulling a few cigars every week or two and sticking them in a Pelican-type traveldor. There isn't much science to it, I just blow a couple of deep breaths into the traveldor at the end of a smoking episode. The cigars stay noticeably softer and silkier in the hand and the next time I'm ready to smoke, I just pull one out and go.

It is indeed a preference, but one that is overlaid on a basic aspect of cigar performance. A too-dry cigar will indeed rapidly become bitter and acrid. You can test this yourself by smoking during a rainstorm. Likewise, a too-dry cigar invariably starts pale and bland. Of this, there should be little debate. However, there is a reasonably wide range of humidity wherein a cigar's performance is more likely to be a consequence of preference and perception rather than absolute features of the smoke derived. Conflation of the absolute with the preferential is, in my experience, a common source of disagreement in this hobby. To be clear, I make this as a general statement. Also, one cannot speak of the performance of a cigar, whether conditioned under drier or moister conditions, without speaking to the smoking technique. The speed, rate, depth, and vigor of the draw all contribute to the experience. That said, there are portions of the envelope where technique will not make any meaningful difference.

I tell you, it's hard to fully and clearly express the intricacies of the smoking without coming across as a pedant. I find smoking to be satisfying from an intellectual perspective, as I think you do too, as well as from a sensuous perspective. I keep trying to be clear and understandable but am not at all sure I'm always doing a good job.

Wilkey, You are not alone. I also prefer to store at 67% to 70% and am fine smoking in that range. I prefer not risking to go "too dry" and find if I do, I lose too much flavor. My real test is the feel of the cigar. Spongy at the foot with no "crackle" tells me they are too moist. A day in the drybox should help. A gentle roll between the fingertips and a consistant light crackle tells me they are OK to smoke. All this after at least a month of stabilization, of course.

There is another problem though. I have not calibrated my Hydro's. My 65-70 could easily be plus or minus. That is where the feel of the cigar really comes in to play...

Experiment to see what you like best...

The feel is key. But it can be a bit deceptive. For example, the very oily, thick, and pliant Trinidad Ingenios wrapper versus a thin, dryish, velvety Upmann Monarch wrapper. But those represent extremes. In general, I like the squeeze test too. Insofar as the hygrometers, I agree. While the correspondence with reality can be less than absolute, what's important is that the trend is usually valid. That is, your reading of 65% may be less than or more than 65% if that is the true condition, but if your reading goes down, that almost certainly means the RH is dropping. Likewise, the opposite is true if your reading is going up. So, truly it's best to speak of of "your" RH and the trend. Calibration packs or salt calibrations can be a real boon...if they are used correctly.

I'm tempted to believe that there cannot be a hard and fast rule for smoking humidity. Cigars are "living" things that vary in a great many ways and this suggests to me that a rigid orthodoxy with respect to the numbers (e.g., minimum years to age, proper storage humidity, proper smoking humidity, best interval between draws, etc.) is no more useful than dogmatism in any other human endeavor.

Wilkey

[LeafLover]

. You are referring to "chow box.". Haha. Haven't heard that one in a long time. I try to do that as much as I smoke too. LOL.

U

If you drybox, you must rinse. Or lather, rinse, repeat if you prefer. And don't forget to floss.

LOL

[Wil]

Do you guys cut your cigars before dry boxing?

[Trex]

Interesting That you guys have such a low RH fro CC. I thought they needed to be around 70+ on them. Learned something new

[LeafLover]

Do you guys cut your cigars before dry boxing?

Yes, I do. My logic is that the air will circulate through the entire cigar.