Nothing on Earth lives without water. Your cigars need water to sustain their viable life as a smokable, enjoyable indulgence. No matter how much you know or don’t know about the importance of stable humidity for your cigars, you probably already have at minimum a layman’s understanding that they need humidity — the life-sustaining water that we all need. Consistency of the relative humidity (RH) level in your cigar humidor contributes almost as much as the humidity itself. Let’s take a look at why consistency matters.
Do you remember as a kid having (or at least hearing of) a magical expanding “toy” of some kind — all you had to do was add water. I remember getting something like that and it was about the size of a medicine capsule. Just drop it into a glass of water and this little pill morphed into a dinosaur that almost filled the glass of water. Yes…it was a tightly compressed sponge crammed into a water soluble capsule. Kinda useless after the one-time magical growth experience, but still fun to watch. I did a quick search — and yes, they’re still made. Little tiny sponges that make kid smile.
They come in adult sizes, too…shaped like cigars…the very ones we smoke. These rolled up tobacco leaves are naturally cellular and they do, indeed, absorb water just like a sponge. Over the centuries we have learned that the best way to keep them fresh and “alive” and increasingly enjoyable is by exposing them to water-laden air — the humidity we strive to maintain in our humidors. And being the cellular “sponges” that they are, than can and will expand and contract with changes in the amount of moisture present in the air that surrounds them — the relative humidity. And there’s the rub: the expansion and contraction. When your cigars start to dry, this causes them to contract; then, when rehydrated, they expand again. A dry and brittle leaf expanding can easily crack.
Cracked cigar leaves are more than aesthetically undesirable. They cause burn issues like canoeing, unraveling wrappers, uneven burn, etc. These kinds of distractions never fail to ruin the experience for me. What is supposed to be time spent relaxing and enjoying is instantly transformed into a problem to be managed. It pains me to waste nearly anything, but a cigar with burn issues is dead to me…but I digress. Back to consistency. When the RH level is consistently and adequately maintained, burn issues are rare with premium cigars. Yes, some variability is to be expected, but is largely controllable with just a bit of attention. Cheers!
—Danny Jackson