How to Charge a Humidifier - Cigars

To keep your cigars at the best humidity and temperature, a humidor is a must! It prevents mould, drying out and encourages ageing and maturation of the leaf. Inside a humidor you will find a small round or square device (like below) that holds humidor solution. The solution ensures the humidity inside the humidor is consistent. If it is too moist, the solution absorbs, if too dry, the solution releases. Simple right?

     

There is really no trick to the solution itself. There are many different 'types' on the market advertising the latest and greatest, where reality is they are all the same. (see below for how to make it). The important part is how it is stored and how freely it can absorb and release. So in comes the humidifier. 

The humidifier comes in various shapes and sizes and usually has a ‘grate’ type look at the top.

To charge the humidifier follow these easy steps.

    1. Remove the humidifier from the humidor.

    2. Squirt our awesome Humidor Solution onto the grate.

    3. Be sure NOT to overfill, you want the humidifier to be wet, NOT soaking.

    4. Use a cloth to wipe off any excess liquid from the front

    5. Re-attach the humidifier into the humidor

EASY!

Some personal tips and observations.

The first time you charge your humidifier will require more solution. I found that while experimenting with our awesome Humidor Solution, the humidifier needed filling about twice in one week. I thought this was strange, however after doing some research, the reason is that the humidor and cigars need to adjust to the humidity and as such require more of the solution to stabilize.

After this initial period, I check the hygrometer at least weekly, (sometimes daily... such nice cigars!) and top up the humidifier every 3-4 weeks. Some suggest filling the humidifier with distilled water in between those weeks, however I have found it easier to just keep using solution.

Remember that when you put new cigars in the humidor, they will need some time to stabilize, so make sure you check the humidity regularly, and you may need to fill the humidifier a bit sooner.

A 250 ml bottle of humidor solution should last a 50-100 cigar humidor about a year in normal conditions.

I make the humidor solution myself using a 50/50 mix of Propylene glycol and Distilled water. I fill the humidifier up with the solution every 3-4 weeks if needed. In the warmer weather i tend to fill up 2-3 times with distilled water only and then the 4th time again with the solution. Reason being that the Propylene Glycol doesn't evaporate as quickly as the water.

How To Restore Dry Cigars

It has happened to all of us at one time or another. You simply forgot about that nice box of stogies you had in the trunk of your car for 3 months...well, hopefully not that long. I always get asked what you can do to restore dried cigars.

The most important thing to remember is that restoring a dried cigar takes time--lots of time and patience. Don't be in a hurry to get the job done.

Step 1:

Put your cigars in a non-humidified humidor. If this doesn't exist, then you can use a Ziploc bag with some holes poked in it. You want to bring the cigars to a steady humidity level that is much less than 70 percent. Let them sit in this environment for about 2-3 days.

Step 2:

Dampen a fresh, clean sponge with distilled water. Place it inside the Ziploc bag, and allow it to sit there, not touching any cigars, for at least one more week. This will slowly add humidity to the cigars at a rate that will prevent the wrappers from bursting.

Step 3

After two weeks, your cigars should start to look a lot healthier. Put them in your charged, maintained humidor at this point. Don't smoke them yet. Let them rest for while. I would suggest a month or two, just to make sure things are back to normal. Then you can feel free to smoke to your heart’s content.

This has taken me some time to perfect, and i still play around with it from time to time, however following the above steps will increase your chances of resurrecting that dried out cigar..

Cigar Bloom and Cigar Mold

This post deals with Cigar Bloom and Cigar Mold. 

Bloom refers to the slow rising of "essential oils" to the surface of a cigar. It first shows up as tiny (almost microscopic) crystals on the surface, and can eventually make a cigar look slightly "dusty" with a whitish finish on the surface. It's harmless; in fact, some prefer to see a little bloom as an indication of strong taste. (Partagas anyone?)

Mold, however, is a fungus, growing on overly humidified cigars. You will recognize it as white, gray, or blue-green "fuzzy patches," with a definite dimension to them. Mold spreads by spores, so it's important to get rid of any moldy cigars immediately, before they contaminate your other cigars or the mold gets into the wood of your humidor. Mold appears when the humidity passes 85 percent. Hence the importance of keeping your cigars at the correct humidity. Something our own Awesome Humidor Solution does very well!

Saving the moldy cigars is going to be tough. Wipe off the contaminated cigars (contaminated ones only! Don't spread the mold!) with a clean paper towel, slightly moistened with distilled water. Separate the contaminated cigars from the others. 

Make some kind of temporary humidor for those contaminated ones (Tupperware works well), and put it in the refrigerator. Refrigeration will dry them out without a source of humidity. After some time (depends on the effected cigar and amount of mold) the mold should be gone. Re-humidify them as you would new cigars (ie for about a week - month). Make sure you do this in a separate container. If using the same Tupperware container make sure you give it a very good wash first.

I haven't had any moldy cigars, however have opened some cigars to see them with the white and fluffy patches. The first time you may freak out a bit, however this is perfectly normal (the freaking out that is) as the fluff seems to be an unnatural addition to a nice cigar.

Cigar Weights

Here is a list of the weights of cigars according to their factory names. A quick google search will give you more specific weights also, however this list is very handy when you are bringing cigars into a country that requires you to pay duty.

Just a quick disclaimer, this is just for information. Do your homework when importing cigars!

Vitola de Galera Weight - gram Common Name 
Almuerzos 7.52 Corona 
Belvederes 6.21 Short Panetela 
Brevas JLP 8.21 Corona 
Cadetes 5.43 Short Panetela 
Campanas 12.45 Pyramid 
Canonazo 13.00 Robusto Extra 
Carlotas 6.39 Panetela 
Cazadores 11.27 Lonsdale 
Cazadores JLP 10.00 Long Corona 
Cervantes 10.80 Lonsdale 
Coloniales 9.18 Corona 
Conservas JLP 9.20 Long Corona 
Coronas 9.29 Corona 
Coronas Gordas 11.41 Grand Corona 
Coronas Grandes 10.14 Long Corona 
Coronitas 6.35 Petit Corona 
Cosacos 8.84 Corona 
Cremas 7.64 Corona 
Cremas JLP 7.59 Corona 
Culebras 6.67 Culebra 
Dalias 11.86 Lonsdale 
Dalias Cortas 9.42 Corona 
Delicados 10.29 Long Panetela 
Delicados Extra 8.9 Long Panetela 
Deliciosos 6.23 Slim Panetela 
Diademas 21.62 Giant Perfecto 
Dobles 14.58 Robusto Extra 
Double Robustos 15.05 Double Robusto 
Edmundo 12.34 Robusto 
Eminentes 8.46 - 8.66? Corona 
Entreactos 3.27 Small Panetela 
Exquisitos 9.45 Perfecto 
Favoritos 7.64 Petit Perfecto 
Franciscanos 6.72 Petit Corona 
Franciscos 9.94 Corona 
Generosos 8.91 Perfecto 
Genios 12.45 Robusto Extra 
Gorditos 11.66 Robusto Extra 
Gran Coronas 18.79 Grand Corona 
Hermosos No.1 14.28 Grand Corona 
Hermosos No.4 10.86 Corona Extra 
Julieta No.2 15.07 Churchill 
Laguito Especial 10.29 Lonsdale 
Laguito No.1 10.29 Long Panetela 
Laguito No.2 8.15 Panetela 
Laguito No.3 2.81 Small Panetela 
Londres 7.29 Petit Corona 
Magicos 11.24 Petit Robusto 
Marevas 8.46 Petit Corona 
Minutos 7.46 Petit Corona 
Nacionales 8.28 Corona 
Nacionales JLP 8.28 Corona 
Ninfas 7.07 Slim Panetela 
Pacos 15.07 Double Corona 
Palmas 6.76 Slim Panetela 
Palmitas 5.68 Slim Panetela 
Panetelas Largas 5.01 Slim Panetela 
Parejos 8.90 Panetela 
Perlas 5.91 Petit Corona 
Petit Bouquet 6.06 Petit Perfecto 
Petit Cazadores 6.04 Petit Corona 
Petit Cetros 7.04 Petit Corona 
Petit Cetros JLP 6.32 Short Panetela 
Petit Coronas 7.70 Petit Corona 
Petit Edmundo 10.76 Petit Robusto 
Petit Robustos 5.27 Petit Robusto 
Piramides 14.26 Pyramid 
Placeras 5.27 Small Panetela 
Prominentes 17.86 Double Corona 
Reyes 6.37 Petit Corona 
Robustos 11.66 Robusto 
Rodolfos 17.08 Double Pyramid 
Romeo 13.22 Perfecto 
Salomon - I 19.80 Double Perfecto 
Secretos 6.37 Petit Corona 
Seoane 5.01 Small Panetela 
Serie C No.1 6.37 Double Corona 
Standard 6.90 Petit Corona 
Tacos 10.79 Perfecto 
Trabucos 5.80 Short Panetela 
Vegueritos 6.10 Short Panetela

Cigar Ring Gauges Explained

Ever wonder what the ring gauges mean and what size it really is? What does a 42, 50, 52 ring gauge actually mean. What size is a Corona, or a Robusto...

Hopefully this post will shed a bit more light on it.

Ring Gauges of Cigars

The ring gauge of the cigar relates to the diameter measured in inches. So for example a Double Corona with a ring gauge of 50 has a diameter of 50/64th of an inch.

Being in New Zealand, and not working with inches, this doesn't tell me an awful lot, so here is a table that shows the ring gauges in centimetres.

Ring Gauge mm

1/4         6.3500

17/64 6.7469

19/64 7.5406

21/64 8.3344

23/64 9.1281

25/64 9.9219

27/64 10.7156

29/64 11.5094

31/64 12.3031

33/64 13.0969

35/64 13.8906

37/64 14.6844

39/64 15.4781

41/64 16.2719         PETIT CORONA (129mm long)

43/64 17.0656         CORONA (142mm long)

                                      LONSDALE (165mm Long)

45/64 17.8594

47/64 18.6531         CORONA GORDA (143mm long)

                                      CHURCHILL (178mm long)

49/64 19.4469         ROBUSTO (124mm long)

51/64 20.2406         DOUBLE CORONA (194mm long)

53/64 21.0344         BELICOSO (140mm long)

55/64 21.8281

57/64 22.6219

59/64 23.4156

61/64 24.2094

63/64 25.0031

64/64 25.4000

________________________________________

* some cigars like Torpedos, Pyramids and Figurados will differ in diameter from top to foot.

* as the ring gauges are all odds, most cigars have an 'even' number. eg a corona is 42 ring gauge.

The different names and sizes are averages. Different manufacturers have different sizes. Coronas, Churchills, Robustos are generic names with the sizes above being the most common.

Hopefully you have found this helpful. The next step is to name the different cigars, the lengths, the names, eg Robustos, Coronas, Rothschild, Churchills, Panatellas, Short Churchills, etc. These names relate to the sizes of cigars and usually have an interesting history behind them.

For a Cigar Glossary, for cigar names, sizes, explanations, etc, check out the Cigar Glossary blog.

Cigar Glossary

Here is a comprehensive list of Cigar Terms that i have found particularly useful. It encompasses most cigar related words and a few extras too..

AROMA

The smell of a burning cigar.

BAND

Paper placed around the cigar, usually near the head, originally used to protect white gloves from tobacco stains. Merchants quickly seized the idea and began using it as a place to put their brand name. Allowing them to differentiate their cigars from their competitors.

BARREL

The body of the cigar.

BINDER

A single leaf of tobacco wrapped around the filler to hold it together.

BLEND

The mixture of tobaccos used in the cigar that provides each cigar with its unique character.

BLOOM

A harmless white film or spots on the wrapper caused by oils in the tobacco rising to the surface. This also indicates a stronger smoke. Also, called Plume. 

    I wrote a seperate blog post re Cigar Plume or Cigar Mould just click on the link to be taken there..

BODY

The main or middle part of the cigar.

BOUQUET

The smell of an unlit cigar.

BOX

The container used to package cigars. Traditional styles include:

CABINET SELECTION

Wood box with a sliding top, designed to hold 25 or 50 cigars.

8-9-8

A round-sided box designed to hold three rows of cigars with eight on the top, nine in the middle and eight on the bottom.

Flat Top or 13-topper

Flat rectangular box which is the most common container used today. This package holds 13 cigars on the top and 12 on the bottom.

BULK

The large piles of tobacco leaves as they undergo fermentation.

BUNCH

Refers to the cigar when it consists of the filler and the binder, before the application of the wrapper leaf.

BUNDLE

Packaging method which uses cellophane overwrap on 25 or 50 cigars traditionally without bands. Bundles are usually cheaper than boxed cigars, and contain seconds of premium cigars.

CAP

The circular piece of wrapper leaf placed at the head of the cigar to secure the wrapper.

CATADOR

Professional cigar taster who determines a cigar's qualities of aroma, taste and texture. (such a tough life that must be!)

CHAVETA

The knife used in a cigar factory for cutting the wrapper leaf.

CHURCHILL

A large corona format cigar, usually 7 inches long with a 48 ring gauge named after Winston Churchill who liked large cigars.

CORONA

A traditionally-proportioned cigar measuring 5 1/2 to 6 inches by 42 to 44 ring gauge.

CORONA GORDA

A long robusto format 5 1/2 inches with a 46 ring gauge.

CULEBRA

An exotic cigar consisting of three panatelas that are braided together to form one cigar.

CURING

The process of removing moisture from freshly harvested tobacco.

CUT FILLER

Filler tobacco consisting of chopped pieces most common in machine-made cigars.

CUTTER

A device for clipping the end off a cigar. Some resemble scissors with curved blades; others look like small guillotines for making a straight or V-shaped notch. In addition one variety looks like a .44 magnum bullet and another a fountain pen, they pull apart to reveal a punch that cuts a round hole in the end of the cigar.

    My favorite is the V Cut.

Xikar VX V-Cut V Cutter - Mesh

DEMITASSE

A small cigar around 4 inches by a 30 ring gauge.

DOUBLE CORONA

Cigar with dimensions of 7 1/2 to 8 inches by a large gauge of 49 to 52.

DRAW

The flow of smoke from a cigar. It can be too easy (hot) or too tight (plugged)

FILLER

The tobacco that makes up the center of the cigar. There are two main types of filler, short and long.

FIGURADO

A Spanish term that refers to cigars with exotic sizes, such as torpedos, pyramids, perfectos and culebras.

FLAG

An alternative to a cap. The flag method of finishing a cigar involves shaping the wrapper leaf at the head of the cigar so that it secures the wrapper. Sometimes, it is tied off in a pigtail or curly head.

FOOT

Also called the "tuck," it's the part of the cigar that is lit.

GALERA

The room in which cigars are rolled at the factory.

GUM

A vegetable adhesive used to secure the head of the wrapper leaf around the finished bunch.

HAND

Individual leaves of tobacco that are hung together after harvest and tied at the top. These hands are piled together to make a bulk for fermentation.

HANDMADE

A cigar that is bunched, bound and wrapped entirely by hand.

HAND-ROLLED

A cigar made entirely by hand with high quality wrapper and long filler.

HEAD

The end of the cigar that is placed in the mouth.

HOT

A cigar which has a quick, loose draw. This is caused by the cigar being underfilled. It is usually accompanied by harsh flavors.

HUMIDOR

A box (but actually an environment) used to store or age cigars. Like a wine cellar, the box is fitted with devices to control temperature and humidity. The ideal environment should be 21C and 70% relative humidity.

LIGERO

One of three types of filler tobacco. This aromatic tobacco adds body to a cigar blend. Ligero means light in Spanish.

LONG FILLER

Whole leaves selected and rolled by hand to create a looser and easier draw of smoke.

LONSDALE

A cigar typically 6 1/4 inches by a 42 or 44 ring gauge.

MACHINE MADE

Cigars made entirely by machine. Heavier weight binders and wrappers are generally used and cut filler is used in place of long filler.

MOLD

The device used in making cigars that gives shape to a finished bunch. Also, a fungis, which is potentially damaging, that forms on cigars when they are stored at too high a temperature.

OLEORESINS

Oils and resins found in tobacco that give it its smoking qualities.

PANATELA

A widely-varying cigar format ranging from 5 to 7 inches with a gauge from 34 to 38.

PERFECTO

A cigar with a rounded head and a closed foot.

PETIT CORONA

A short corona format usually 4 1/2 inches by a 40 ring gauge.

PLUG

A tight spot in a cigar that prevents a proper draw.

PREMIUM CIGAR

A high grade cigar made by hand from 100% tobacco long leaf filler.

PURO

A cigar whose filler, binder and wrapper come from the same country.

PYRAMID

A cigar with an open foot and a tapered head.

RING GAUGE

The diameter of a cigar is referred to as the ring gauge. It is a measurement equal to 1/64 of an inch. A 64 ring gauge would be one inch in thickness and a 32 ring gauge would be 1/2 inch thick.

check out the Ring Gauges explained blog post here

ROBUSTO

A short churchill format typically 5 to 5 1/2 inches by a ring gauge of 50.

ROLLER

Highly skilled artisans who apply the wrapper to the bunch.

SECO

Spanish meaning "dry". This filler contributes aroma and is of medium-body.

SHADE GROWN

Tobacco, usually the wrapper leaf of a cigar. For mildness, the wrapper is grown under tents and is not exposed to sunlight.

SHADE LEAF

Tobacco grown under a canopy or tent producing a thinner, more elastic leaf used in the wrapper.

SHORT FILLER

Chopped scraps of leaves hand-rolled, but more likely machine-rolled, to create a tight hard draw of smoke.

SMOKING TIME

A 5-inch cigar with a 50 ring gauge, such as a robusto, should provide anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes of smoking pleasure. A double corona, a 7 1/2-inch cigar with a 50 ring gauge, may give over an hour and a half worth of smoking time. A thinner cigar, such as a lonsdale, smokes in less time than a cigar with a 50 ring gauge.

SUN GROWN

Tobacco which is grown in direct sunlight. This creates thicker veins and a thicker leaf.

TOOTH

Small bumps which texture the wrapper on a cigar.

TORCEDOR

Title earned by the master cigar rollers.

TORPEDO

A cigar with a closed head and a closed foot.

TUBO

A cigar that is placed in a tube. Most tubes are aluminum while some are glass.

VEINED

The rib of the tobacco leaf. A quality cigar should not be too veined.

VOLADO

A type of filler tobacco chosen for its burning qualities.

WRAPPER

The outermost tobacco leaf of the cigar.