Temp control - how important is it?

[Porch Dweller]

Originally Posted by nutcracker

So interestingly I had been worried about temp because I have some cigars in a wine cellar. I recently came across a comment from Edward Sahakian (the manager of the Davidoff store in London, England) on James Suckling's website. He suggests 13 degrees Celsius 65% humidity as perfect for aging cigars.

I am now officially confused, based on my understanding of RH, however this is a highly respected cigar retailer who probably has a lifetime of experience with sort of thing.

Cooler and drier than conventional wisdom.

I used to keep mine at 70% just because I'd read that that was the optimum for NCs. It wasn't until I came here to CA that I saw that many, many folks prefer their's lower. So I did some experimenting and realized that 63-65% is my preference; they just seem to burn and taste better.

As for temperature, I keep my wineador at 65* (18C). I could go lower but sometimes I'm taking a cigar out and heading straight outside to where it could be 98* (37C) and 85+% humidity and that big sudden change seems to affect the burn. I usually take about five to 10 out at a time and put them in a humidor to let them adjust to the temperature changes, and just pull sticks out of the humi to smoke. But sometimes there's something in the wineador I want to smoke NOW, so I don't keep it as low as it can go.

[heyferg]

[quote=Porch Dweller;1976597]I used to keep mine at 70% just because I'd read that that was the optimum for NCs. It wasn't until I came here to CA that I saw that many, many folks prefer their's lower. So I did some experimenting and realized that 63-65% is my preference; they just seem to burn and taste better.


FWIW - this is my experience as well. For years I always kept my cigars at 70%. Then I split a box of PSD4s with a friend of mine. We were smoking at his place and he gave me one of the SD4s and it was 100 times better than my cigars from the same box. Better burn, better taste, just plain better. We starting comparing notes he told me he kept his humidor at 60-62%. So I started experimenting and found that I like cigars kept at 65% best.

Live and learn!

[JJKJR]

I had only one episode of beatles and I swore that it would never happen again. It cost me several nice sticks. I now freeze ANY cigars I put in my humidor. It's a very simple process which has no negative effects on the cigars.

[8zeros]

Originally Posted by JJKJR

I had only one episode of beatles and I swore that it would never happen again.

I haven't seen a Beatles episode since I was too young to smoke.
I try to keep the humidity down and the temperature is whatever room temp allows.
I have a cooler in the cellar for boxes. It's always cool down there. Cold in the winter. I try not to keep too many in the humidor upstairs. I haven't seen a beetle attack yet and don't want to.