How to look after your cigars during the warmer months.
May 16, 2018
Milder, brighter and warmer days lie ahead of us. We look forward to summer as a time when we can enjoy decent cigars outdoors. Some of you often worry about the state of your cigars. Here at Jeffrey st. we sometimes receive requests asking for advice on how best to keep cigars without ruining them. The most important things to look out for are: humidity and temperature. See below our recommendations for the warmer months.
Humidity
On the one hand, the more humidity the slower the burn you will get but also, you risk causing your cigars to crack due to excessive humidity. It is very easy to over humidify cigars in summer, the air is moister and you might be topping up your humidifier quite regularly.
If you notice that the humidity is too high, you can simply, leave your humidor open for an hour or so.
Make sure your humidor is not located close to a strong source of odours such as your kitchen. If you keep your cigar in your bedroom make sure you don't spray them with deodorant by accident.
If for some reason your humidor is located close to a window, then sunlight and heat might cause the humidity to evaporate. You might need to move your humidor to a safer place or top up your humidifying device quite often.
Temperature
In Scotland, excessive heat is not a real problem however, should the country experience a heatwave, the temperature might climb and you could end up with an unwanted colony of the dreaded weevil (or 'cigar beetle'). Whatever you do please remember: DO NOT keep your cigars in the fridge. While it may seem a safe (and cool) place to keep your sticks, it is not recommended as it will dry your cigars just like air conditioning. Also, if you're not careful enough, your cigars might taste like that curry or strong cheese from the other night. Just make sure the temperature does not exceed 22 degrees Celsius.
Should you be unfortunate enough to notice the first signs of a cigar beetle infestation, simply follow these steps:
-Remove ALL cigars from your humidor, remember, even if only one cigar shows signs of being infested there is a very good possibility that all of your cigars are at risk.
-Put your cigars in two or three zip-lock bags (freezer bags), you want to use at least two bags to avoid freezer burn.
-Place your cigars in the Fridge for 24 hours.
-After the first 24 hours passed move your cigars to the Freezer and leave them there for 3 days. You want to ensure that you freeze those wee devils.
-Move your cigars to the fridge again and leave them there for 24hours, you don't want to shock your cigars and damage them.
-After you cleaned your humidor to ensure there are no larvae nor weevils, then you can put your cigars back.