There’s nothing like a new fresh cigar, but have you ever had one that was hard as a rock and started to unravel the moment you cut it? What a buzz kill (pun intended). I have unfortunately encountered this problem too many times. I would purchase a brand new, fresh cigar and place it in my humidor and when I was ready to enjoy it I found to my disappointment that it was stale and started to unravel on me. This makes for an unenjoyable experience, not to mention a waste of money. This forced me to take another look at my humidor that was supposed to be keeping them fresh. My problem was that I didn’t properly season it. Seasoning refers to the humidor upholding the proper humidity for the cigars.
These are some steps on how to properly season your humidor so it will keep your collection of cigars fresh and ready whenever you want to smoke them.
Step 1:
Do not buy a brand new humidor and immediately place your cigar collection in it. If the cedar from the humidor is not properly seasoned the humidor will actually do the opposite of what it is supposed to do. It will dry them out leaving you with a hard stale cigar.
Step 2:
The most important ingredient needed to prepare your humidor is distilled water. Once you purchase your humidor use distilled water to coat the inside of the wood making sure the wood absorbs the water. However, don’t not over saturate the humidor.
Step 3:
This is probably the hardest step in the process and that is to WAIT AT LEST 24 HOURS AND REPEAT THE PROCESS. If you’re like me I have trouble waiting and that was another issue with my humidor. So wait and repeat step 2
Step 4:
If your humidor comes with a hygrometer make sure it is not below 72%. If so you need to season your humidor some more.
Step 5:
Another method is to fill a shot glass up with distilled water and place it into the humidor. The humidor and cigars will soak up that moisture helping to maintain a balanced temperature inside your humidor.
I hope this helps the next person for when they decide to purchase a humidor. For those of you having trouble with your current one, you might have to follow these steps again in order to help preserve your cigars and get the maximum potential from your humidor.