Saving Dehydrated Cigars
January 6th, 2010 by Drew Sabot, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
If there is one tragedy where a box of high-quality cigars is concerned it would be in their being ignored and going stale. While many people wrongly believe that a sealed box of cigars is impervious to many common problems, the fact of the matter is that they are not packaged to retain their best qualities. This is the reason that the best tobacconists keep their cigars in proper storage cabinets with humidifiers and hygrometers fully engaged.
In fact, among all of the cigar accessories available, the humidor is one of the most important. This is especially true when someone is attempting to restore a dehydrated cigar, or even a whole box of cigars that have become withered and stale due to exposure to an unstable environment. The key to successfully returning any cigar to a state in which it can be enjoyed is patience. This is because there is a great deal of time required before the cigar is back near its original state.
The next step requires you to buy a bottle of distilled water which is available at almost any pharmacy, and to dampen a brand new sponge with this water. Ring it out well and place this in the bag with the cigars, but be sure that the sponge is not in contact with any of them. Leave this setup in the closet for another week to ten days. This part of the process is going to slowly rehydrate the cigars without overdoing it and causing them to split wide open.
After the two to four day period, a small sponge which has been dampened with distilled water should be added to the container. It is important that the sponge is not touching any of the cigars, and that the container is kept at a constant temperature and steady level of humidity. The cigars with the dampened sponge should be left alone for another ten days to allow the cigars to slowly hydrate; otherwise a sudden rush of humidity would cause the leaves wrapping the cigars to burst.
If you want to age cigars that have been dehydrated, you simply follow this same process and leave them in the humidor for another full calendar year. The humidity level must be at seventy percent and the ambient temperature at seventy degrees for the process to work successfully.
Dave Sabot is the owner of an online specialty cigar lighters store. With expert knowledge of cigar accessories, including nibo group lighters, Dave also owns a premier online cigar accessories store.
