AboutBill Finck Jr. Expertise I'm a fourth generation cigar maker and have spent 25+ years operating our factory as well as a mail order cigar company. I belong to cigar manufacturers associations as well as retail cigar associations so I'm usually up to date with current events relating to cigars. I've smoked the majority of brands on the market and would be happy to share my opinions of them with you. Since I live in the U.S. I have very little experience with Cuban cigars, but other than that I know a least a little bit about almost every brand of cigars on the market.
Experience In addition to growing up in and now managing our cigar factory for 25+ years, I've spent time in many factories in Honduras, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic and Mexico. BR> Organizations Cigar Association of America, Retail Tobacco Dealers Association
Question QUESTION: Hello!
well i have a slight problem with my humidity levels. its currently sitting at about 73, and i prefereably want it at 67 - 70%. i am currently employing one madelaine crystal humidifier. basically, my questions are as follows. what do you know about boveda packs? would you reccommend them, and should i use them INSTEAD of my humidifier? also, would they work well with the madelaine humidifier if i chose to use them together? thanks a lot for the help,
JP
ANSWER: JP,
I've never used the Boveda packs so I can't give you a recommendation. Are you trying to lower your humidification because your cigars are getting too soft? It is very unusual to have over-humidification issues when using evaporative type systems, so I'm wondering what is going on. Give me some details and I'll try to help you.
Bill
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QUESTION: i keep my humidor in a closet in my basement. i am trying to lower the humidity because my sticks are just a little too supple and burn a bit unevenly. i have a 50 count humi and i only have about 30 in there. would it also help to fill the box up a little with more cigars? i feel like im running out of options
Answer Since the cigars are in the basement, I assume it is pretty cool down there. 2 things to consider when measuring humidity:
1. you are measuring relative humidity - that is the humidity level relative to the temperature. Starting with a baseline of 70 degrees and 70% RH, as your temperature decreases, your target RH increases. At 69 degrees your target RH is 71%, and 68 degrees the target is 72%... If your storage temp is cool, your RH sounds good.
2. Most hygrometers are not super accurate. You can easily have a 3% variation from what the unit reads to what the actual is.
Bottom line, don't let the 73% reading worry you. If you want to check your hygrometers accuracy send me and email at b.finck@finckcigarcompany.com and I'll send you my humidors 101 paper that has lots of this type info in it.
If your cigars really are too soft, there are only a couple of things you can do. First, don't store them directly below the humidifier. Second, there's nothing wrong with leaving the lid of the humidor open for a few hours and letting it dry down a bit. If you have to do this once a week while you're down there smoking - no big deal.
The other thing I just thought about is the dampness of the basement. We don't have basements in Texas, but I assume yours is probably damp. Maybe you just need to take the humidor out of that environment, up the the main house where the air is dryer?
