CCOM temp and humidity Q&A
This is from the latest CCOM newsletter:
Q & A: Humidor Temperature?
Q: I just received a new humidor to store my cigars. What is the recommended temperature to keep my sticks in good shape?
A: The standard rule, regarding temperature and humidity, is referred to as the ’70-70’ rule. For the most part, cigars prefer 70 percent humidity along with a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This ensures each cigar has the moisture and heat needed to age properly. Since some cigars, like maduros for example, are fermented longer than others and utilize stronger, thicker leaves, a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit is also acceptable. Maduro wrappers do not need as much humidity or heat as Connecticut wrappers due to the amount of oils in the leaves. However, no humidor should be kept at a temperature lower than 65 degrees Fahrenheit. At a lower temperature, the aging process is drastically impaired and the cigars will begin to lose their unique flavors. If the temperature is kept above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the combination between heat and moisture may not only lead to the decomposition of the tobacco, but also to an infestation of tobacco beetles, which is never a pleasant experience. To remain on the safe side and to guarantee the cigars in your humidor are aging properly in addition to being kept in the best condition possible, keep the humidity in each humidor at 70 percent with a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Comments
the vast majority of people i have talked to online in this and other forums have kept the humidity at 65%
if every expert says that 70/70 is better why is it that most average guys keep the humidor in the 63-68% range?
I know why i do it. I know why others do it. so i guess the real question is why do all the experts not do it?
We've discussed this before about the smokeability reasons for less than 70% but no one anywhere to my knowledge has touched on reasons for aging at less.
I keep my humi at 65% and i think that my aged stock has smoked well. im not sure how much i can say because i dont have a single cigar older than 3 years old.
It's a heck lot easier to remember 70/70 than 65/70 (or is that 70/65? wait.. which was the humidity??)
You'll find lots of silly rules in life that come down to perfect measurements. It's amazing that when we were inventing scales of measure that we were so advanced as to create a system wherein all of life's useful little "rules" would fall into magical, easy-to-remember things and round numbers such as this. Have you ever heard the 8x8 rule for drinking water (drink eight 8-oz glasses of water per day, which BTW has not been supported by any proper scientific medical study in the history of time)?
The point I'm trying to make here is that there is likely a very comfortable tolerance up to the scientifically measured thresholds for things like hatching of beetles or growth of mold. I've personally found, and many others here have as well, that cigars tend to smoke really well with an rH in the mid 60's. I also doubt that the statement that cigars will not age as fully at temperatures below 65 to be rather suspect. I would like to see the studies that were conducted to test this. My guess is that they number somewhere around zero, give-or-take zero.
I keep my tupperdor somewhere in the 65-70% range, and my humidor (smoking queue) stays very solidly in the 64-66% range. The temps of both are locked right around 72-74 degrees with our central air. My only worry is that when I receive a shipment with water pillows, the cigars have been subjected to temperatures above 80 degrees (it's summertime, right?) for several days, and the water pillows have been shown in my own tests to escalate the humidity when they are super-saturated.
I've gotten no beetles in cigar shipments to date, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we can all just settle down a little bit with respect to our obsessive number-watching.
I don't think the answer would make me do anything differently. It'd just be interesting to know.
I've recently been trying to just let go and enjoy. I still watch the numbers, but I check my smoking humidors every few days instead of every day, and I'm not obsessed with a 1% drop in RH. Enjoyment is inversely proportional to worrying.
low end RH 60% ive heard in europe they dare to go lower but not me. any lower than this and youll have kind of a crispy feel to them
high end temp would be (in some opinions) 72 because beetles start to become active then. I think its 78 because i dont have beetles and because above that its too hot in the house.
low end temp.... well, ive had my cigars as cold as -10 and they still taste ok.