Death of the wooden humi

[d'am]

Originally Posted by markem

Never forget that the goal is to properly store your cigars. Any storage meeting this requirement is proper storage.

That said, there is a culture of implied sophistication or elegance around the traditional wood humidor lined with cedar. Certainly, if one wishes to have a show piece, a wood humidor comes first to mind.

Exactly. Wood evokes sophistication and taste. It's not some toxic plastic goo poured into a mold, cooled, and dumped onto an assembly line. Instead, the natural beauty of trees combined with the labor needed to turn a it into a humidor implies a certain cost. In comparison, a plastic cooler looks "cheap."

The same holds throughout much of the industrialized world. Consider cotton vs. polyester clothes; leather vs. synthetic dress shoes; brick vs. vinyl home exteriors. The list goes on. In the end, natural materials (and their costly manufacturing process) are considered "sophisticated"--even if they're unnecessary or even inferior.

We can argue the merits of synthetic materials, but it won't change the tastes of the public. Who cares if your humidor's chipboard is made from scraps swept off the lumberyard floor? Slap a 1/64" oak laminate on it and you've got instant class. Wood humidors aren't going to disappear, even if they're technically inferior.