Humidification – Part II

SO, you have decided that you need a humidor – and now you need to work out how big it should be.

This is a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ type dilemma.

Let us give you a word to the wise – get a bigger one than you’ll think you’ll need!

We all start with modest intentions. You buy a stick here, you buy a stick there. You buy a sampler pack. You love it, and realise you want to learn more. A pal gifts you a stick or two, you pick up a bargain box while on holiday – and suddenly, you have no room left to store your precious sticks.

So, the most obvious next step – and the most common – is what’s known as a ‘Desktop’. The desktop humidor does exactly what it says on the tin; it is a well-sealed box of moderate size, suitable to sit on a large desk or sideboard.

Now, most small humidors are made of wood – it looks attractive and has the correct solidity and, most importantly, the capability of making a close seal between the lid and the body of the box. Remember, these boxes are only useful if they are capable of being closed units, controlling the conditions within. There are other materials available to make humidors; plastic, Perspex etc, but for the sake of clarity, we’ll stick with wood.

Of course, a desktop humidor is only capable of holding a certain amount of cigars – and what we know as cigar merchants is that soon you will be buying cigars to smoke – and cigars to age. Now you need even more space!

We’re not suggesting you buy a house with a spare room you can use as a walk-in humidor (wouldn’t that be nice!) but we would respectfully suggest you buy the biggest humidor you can afford and safely store in your house. And be sure to have the preferences of your other half in mind, too! Remember, as Kipling once wrote, “There’s peace in a Larranaga.” (Look that quote up online and thank us later…)

There are DIY alternatives to the ready-made humidor, like plastic airtight packing boxes, which will do at a push – but you’ll never get optimum performance from anything other than a specially crafted humidor.

Now that you have your humidor of choice, before filling it to the brim with handrolled masterpieces, you need to think about those all-important controlled conditions within it. Your humidor should be lined with sweet smelling Spanish Cedar wood, which has excellent water retention capabilities – but you need to now find a source of pure water to keep your cigars ‘alive’; without drowning them.

In the next blog in this series, we will delve into how to do just that and recreate the balmy plantations of Cuba or Dominican Republic in your humidor at home.