Do you dry box?

[icantbejon]

I'm just curious if a majority of people find this to be a useful tool. For those that do:

1. How long do you let them sit?
2. How do you plan out your smokes for that time?
3. How long is too long?
4. Are there any risks of completely ruining the cigar?
5. Are there any particular sticks that you've found dry "better" than others?
6. Should the box be completely DRY? As in no humidification source whatsoever?

For those that have tried and don't find it useful:

1. What went wrong?
2. Why do you think it happened?

Just wanting a little more info is all.

[bobarian]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2

[WeekendSmoker]

It depends on a couple of aspects.
Some cigars seem to do better when dryboxed for a day or so, and I find that certain brands benefit more than others. It also has to do with how humid the enviroment is - in the summer when it tends to be pretty humid here i won't drybox because the humidity usually exceeds that in my humis - 65%ish. Conversly, when it is bonedry in the winter I also won't drybox because cigars dry so fast they they sometimes crack.
I've gotten into the habbit to cut a cigar, check the draw, and if it is tight drybox it for a day. Usually though not always the draw has improved. I don't drybox for more than a day except for when I forget....

WeekendSmoker

[darkleeroy]

I dry box in an old cedar humidor, if the cigar needs it (my Padilla Miami's love sucking in humidity for some reason). Often times I can pull most any cigar out of the humi and it smokes fine.

That being said, where I live is known for being a pretty humid place, heck ambient humidity right now is 61%, so "dry boxing" my cigars isn't that big of a difference from the humidor.

When I do get a wine cooler set up, I may use my dry box more often just so the cigars acclimate from the cold to warm. I'd imagine they'd be spongy if I just took em out and started smoking them in super hot, humid Florida

[pektel]

Dryboxed? Not familiar with this. I will say that my mancave has been showing a constant 69 degrees F, and between 68-69% RH. So I have no humidification device in my humi right now (small 20 count humi that came with a credo style humidifier). Is this dryboxing?

[T.G]

Dryboxed? Not familiar with this. I will say that my mancave has been showing a constant 69 degrees F, and between 68-69% RH. So I have no humidification device in my humi right now (small 20 count humi that came with a credo style humidifier). Is this dryboxing?

Almost.

The idea behind dryboxing is take a cigar or two out of your humidor a day or two before you want to smoke them, then place them in an unhumidified cigar box, preferably a wooden one that is at a lower humidity than the humidor and has not seen humidity in awhile so that it the cigar can vent some excess water and the box will absorb it.

I don't like planning that far in advance for a cigar, so I just keep everything between 55% and 60% usually.

[T.G]

That being said, where I live is known for being a pretty humid place, heck ambient humidity right now is 61%, so "dry boxing" my cigars, isn't that big of a difference from the humidor.


You could get a desiccant pack and put it in the drybox with the cigar.

Camera stores usually sell tins of desiccant that you can re-use many times, simply by placing them in the oven, or as I prefer to do, on a wire rack then set a 75W photo flood clip light over the top (rest the edges of the hood it on the rack) and turn the light on and just leave it for an hour or two (way cheaper than running an oven, even a toaster oven for that same length of time).

[icehog3]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2

Ditto. Bob knows stuff.

[tsolomon]

I will dry box when I find a cigar that has a bad draw. I keep one humidor with a RH of 60% and will leave it in there until the draw improves. Sometimes it works and if it doesn't, I move it to an old wooden cigar box for 1-2 weeks and then I will toss it if still can't be smoked.

[kaisersozei]

I used to, but not so much anymore since lowering the RH in both humis to the 60-62% range. If I plan to smoke something from my cooler (70%,) I may pull it out a day or so in advance and drybox the way that's been described here.

[bigliver]

I've had to drybox newly purchased cigars at times, but that's just because they arrive wet and I couldn't wait to try one. Usually I just let them sit for a week or two to get down around 65. When I do drybox, I take the stick out the night before. The downside is that it completely takes the fun out of picking a cigar for the next evening. More often than not, I won't want that same cigar the next day.

[Volt]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2


:tpd:

I keep my stcicks at 63% - 65%. Perfect burns 99% of the time. I have to be a little carefull in the summer time heat and move them to a cooler room at times, but I can't remember the last time a home stored cigar tunneled or canoed on me. Some plugged stuff lately though from the trees they are rolling in the middle of the cigar though.

[bigdix]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2

x2....unless it's a CC I buy here in Japan, which tend to be a little wet. But even those I usually just give a week or two in the humi and all is well.

[bsmokin]

I've actually been thinking I would try this out. Since my humi is pretty steady around 70% and I'm having a hard time lowering it.

I went as far as getting a cheap humi for dryboxing from the devil site... but it turned out to be so D-MN U-LY that now I'm not so sure... ;)

[marge796]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2


:tpd:

[Adriftpanda]

I could care less about dry boxing because imo, it taste almost the same. Sometimes I leave a stick laying out on my kitchen counter for a week and guess what? It still taste good! I wouldn't worry too much about dry boxing a cigar unless the humidity runs high in your storage.

[icantbejon]

So it would seem the majority of people are not inclined to dry box. That's good. From the sounds of most people having success with humi's, it's a matter of keeping a slightly lower RH. I'm going to have to change mine. I have mine set from 64-66 and I've been having terrible problems lately. I know I need to move my humi, as it sits on an outside wall, and has been very hot in this terrible summer. I'm seeing mold and burn problems on a consistent basis.

[SilverFox]

I am not a fan of dryboxing. My logic is pretty simple with regards to why. I don't think that your cigar dries out evenly. It makes sense to me that the portion that is exposed to a dryer environment will lose moisture first. So this means to me that the wrapper will dry out more quickly than the inside.

I know that it would wick moisture from the binder and filler but it seems that in order for the wicking (osmosis?) to occur there would have to be movement from a higher concentration of moisture (binder and filler) to a lower (wrapper) meaning my cigar would not be even in RH...........that then leads to a variance in the burn.

While the difference is likely minimal and probably not noticeable........I would know and even if the difference is only psychological it would still be a difference.

I also store my cigars at 62.5% and find they smoke just nicely there. I don't smoke from my ageing coolers so the higher RH in them is irrelevant.

But then again maybe I am just a little more fastidious than others :)

[icantbejon]

Perhaps I need to try some aging boxes. Would you suppose that's only needed for a CC?

[Mr B]

No dryboxing for me. I store everything at under 65%. Grab and go! Occasionally will get a tight draw but that is more due to low productions standards at the time the stick was produced. :2


X5

[d'am]

For those that have tried and don't find it useful:

1. What went wrong?
2. Why do you think it happened?

Just wanting a little more info is all.

I don't think anything went wrong. I just didn't notice much or any of a difference. If I store my cigars at 65%RH, a day at ~50%RH doesn't like much of a change. Like a lot of others, I'd prefer to select a stick from my humidor just before I smoke it, rather than planning in advance.

[bishjd123]

I store mine at 65/65. It allows me to grab and go for what piques my interest at the time I want to smoke.

[OLS]

I Lay a cigar out on the counter overnight. Improves every aspect of the smoking experience.
Naturally, I do not make allowances for the preferences of others, this is how I DO IT. But I
had my first bad draw in maybe 50-75 smokes the other day. Sale stick, du Dauphin, so like
Bobarino, I call that a manufacturer's defect.
In answer to your specific Q's, a week might be too long, a month probably ruins the cigar,
but never say never. PLANNING for smoking is more of a harvest of ready to smoke sticks.
I would go through all my stock, pull out a flaked wrapper here, a hideous wrapper there,
a particularly oily cigar in another box, then I put them all in a desktop. When I want to smoke
a couple of cigars over a weekend, I might pull out two or three for that and lay em out overnight.
If they don't get smoked, I just toss em back in the desktop. For those who posted and stated that
they do not want to be restricted or over-planned, I think that the desktop in the middle of deep
storage and "a night on the counter" is a good happy medium. And I'd be lying if I said that
I ALWAYS DRYBOX. :)

[dvickery]

i age at 62%...this can be for a looooooong time...rarely less than 3 or 4 years any more and seldom are the cigars themselves less than 10 years any more.

open boxes(the boxes i am smoking from)...i move to a humi at 65% or 66%.

i just find they smoke better(slower) and taste better(for me) if i "wet box".

just gotta be different
derrek :hm

[icehog3]

i age at 62%...this can be for a looooooong time...rarely less than 3 or 4 years any more and seldom are the cigars themselves less than 10 years any more.

open boxes(the boxes i am smoking from)...i move to a humi at 65% or 66%.

i just find they smoke better(slower) and taste better(for me) if i "wet box".

just gotta be different
derrek :hm

Interesting take, Derrek, I say "whatever works". :)

[JohnE1000]

All of my cigars are kept in 65rh, so dry boxing is not needed. I don't plan which cigar to smoke next. It depends on what I am in the mood for at the moment; it could be any cigar.

Acidic drinks and food can ruin your pallet, so I stay away from this types of food, it I am planing on smoking.

Petit Coronas and perfectos are better smoked on the dry side. Larger gauge cigars are more forgiven to humidity.

[Tank]

I like my cigars stored at 70-75% humidity. I usually pull out some sticks for the week and put them in a dry box or travel humidor.