Loose or Box Storage

[ERJenkins]

Hello everyone:

I have finally given up buying more desktop humidors to take care of my cigars and have decided to go for a small cabinet (with my desktop ones, that should give me 400+ capacity).

My question is about box storage - are there any opinions about the best way to store cigars - in box or loose?

I do age my cigars but not usually for too long - I won't leave a box completely alone for 3 years for instance and would just save a proportion for long term aging. This would potentially mean lots of half full boxes...

Thanks for any advice.

Eliot

[Colt45]

Here's a link to a fairly recent, similar thread:

Link

For what it's worth, I like to leave cigars in boxes as long as possible. Open up a nearly full box of cigars and take a deep whiff, then do the

same with a desktop full of singles. I usually find the box will have a more intense aroma.

But in the end, I've had batches of singles which have aged nicely and tasted great sitting loose in a desktop.

Welcome to FOH.

[samb]

Welcome to the forum.

[Trevor2118]

Welcome to FOH.....

[ERJenkins]

Thanks for the advice and welcome.

I think I will indeed go for the cabinet and use boxes - seems like doing anything else is just delaying the inevitable...

Great to see a forum focusing on Cubans. There's always plenty of stuff for the American market but I suppose the rest of us are a bit spread out. I moved from the UK to the US two years ago and was stuck on mostly American market cigars until I found a few websites such as Cigar Czar - it is great to get back onto Habanos - still the best by far.

Eliot

[thechenman]

Welcome to FOH. I too tend to keep my cigars in boxes even if there are only a few sticks left in it. When I need to make room for more boxes, I wll begin to empty those singles into a drawer. To be honest though...this is just me being neurotic. I can't imagine that being in a drawer with different singles would change the profile of a cigar all that much, at least not in the short term...as of course not including flavored sticks.

[PigFish]

The truth be told the box represents an environment inside an environment. This, like everything in the cigar world is a double edged sword. The rewards in my opinion outweigh the liabilities in some cases. The reward is that the box shields the cigars inside from rapid environmental change. I am not a believer that some change damages cigars but there is too much to risk when your collection becomes an "asset." That insulation is a drawback when you are looking to smoke 70RH cigars at 63RH. It may take months to have them come to equilibrium inside a box in a small differential RH environment.

I store inside my original boxes whenever I can. The box itself is not worth much to me. But as I began to use refrigerated humidors it became apparent what changes take place in a humidor when the cooler is turned on. I tend to believe that cigars kept in room weather benefit little from a box, as in a desktop unit. Once refrigeration is in place all things change.

[thschrminm]

For me..... once a box gets below 8-10 sticks left in it, I toss the box and put the remaining sticks in my singles drawer for consumption.....

[wescat]

If storing within a large temperature controlled device, I would keep all cigars within a box. The box represent a micro environment within the macro environment, dampening the swings in temp and RH that the individual cigars are exposed to during refrigeration cycles. IMHO.