how to restore dry cigars

JOEPEPRX

can anyone give me some pointers on restoring old cigars(they are pre-embargo cuban cigars dated 1940 and 1950) they are not brittle, but are a little dried out.thanks for any input

madurofan

JOEPEPRX:

can anyone give me some pointers on restoring old cigars(they are pre-embargo cuban cigars dated 1940 and 1950) they are not brittle, but are a little dried out.thanks for any input

Holy crap. How have they been stored?

Bad Andy

whoa...where did you find these

gmill880

You should very carfully and very gently deposit them priority mail to my address........I'll let you know if they survive or if I had to smo...errr...dispose of them

j0z3r

That's an incredible find. To answer your question, for cigars that old that have not been maintained properly, I don't think you could really restore them. As a cigar dries out, it loses it essential oils which are responsible for its flavor and you can't restore what is lost. That amount of age coupled with the drying out would lead me to the assumption that those cigars are little more than really old, dried out sticks of tobacco.

If you want to try and get them properly humidified to see if they're worth anything, the best way would be to gradually raise the humidity they are in, start them low probably around 50% and let them sit in that environment undisturbed for probably 2-3 weeks. You would then want to graduate them into a slightly higher humidity, no higher than 60% and leave them be again for 2-4 weeks. After that, I would bump the rh% up to 65% and leave them for 90 days minimum.

Good luck with restoring them, but don't get your hopes too high.

urbino

j0z3r:

That's an incredible find. To answer your question, for cigars that old that have not been maintained properly, I don't think you could really restore them. As a cigar dries out, it loses it essential oils

On the upside, the wrapper turns into rich, Corinthian leather.

madurofan

j0z3r:

That's an incredible find. To answer your question, for cigars that old that have not been maintained properly, I don't think you could really restore them. As a cigar dries out, it loses it essential oils which are responsible for its flavor and you can't restore what is lost. That amount of age coupled with the drying out would lead me to the assumption that those cigars are little more than really old, dried out sticks of tobacco.

If you want to try and get them properly humidified to see if they're worth anything, the best way would be to gradually raise the humidity they are in, start them low probably around 50% and let them sit in that environment undisturbed for probably 2-3 weeks. You would then want to graduate them into a slightly higher humidity, no higher than 60% and leave them be again for 2-4 weeks. After that, I would bump the rh% up to 65% and leave them for 90 days minimum.

Good luck with restoring them, but don't get your hopes too high.

THis is why I asked how they'd been stored.