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: Hi..I bought a new humidor.. its a 15-20ct..pretty small..I have set it up and I'm getting a reading of 67F and 71%RH. My question is..how do I make the humidity go down to atleast 67%RH? right now it stays constant at 71%RH? please let me know.
Thanks, Rish
ANSWER: Rish,
A hygrometer measures relative humidity (RH) - that is the humidity relative to the temperature. A baseline to start with is 70 degrees F and 70% RH. As your storage temperature goes down from 70 degrees, your RH needs to increase - generally 1% RH increase for every 1 degree your temperature is below 70.
At 67 degrees, your target RH is 73%. If you are at 71%, your cigars should be fine. Generally hygrometers are not super accurate, and being within 2% is fine. The ultimate test will be to see how the cigars react of the next few weeks. If they start drying out or start getting too soft, let me know and I'll try to help you figure it out.
Hope this helps.
Bill
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QUESTION: I just checked my cigars..they have been at 70-71%Rh and when i squeeze them they are sort of soft..what should I do here? I have a montecristo no.5 which is a bit soft but my rafael gonzales is about right.
Answer Rish,
You want the cigars to be a bit soft, just not mushy. If you think the cigars are over-humidified the only thing you can do is leave the humidifier out of the humidor for a few days and let them dry down a bit. However, be cautious because it is very unusual for a humidor to over-humidify cigars.
