Expert: M J Robbins - 11/22/2011

Question
Hello,

The other day I bought 4 very nice cigars:

Padron - Family Reserve - No. 45 - Maduro
Padron - 1926 - # 9 - Natural
Padron - 1926 - 80 Years - Maduro
Padron - 1926 - 40th Anniversary - Natural

I stored them in my humidor and after 24 hours went to check the humidity which was a bit high (around 74%). To remedy this I decided to leave the humidor open for a short time in order to bring the humidity level down. Then I made a very stupid mistake. Getting ready for bed I forgot about the open humidor and left it open over night (8 hours). By this time the RH had dropped down to 36%.

My question is by accidentally leaving my humidor open over night and subjecting these beautiful cigars to 36% humidity have I ruined them? I am concerned that I may have dried them out. Is this enough time to do irreversible damage to them?

Thank you

Answer
4 cigars in what size humidor?
To keep cigars fresh in a 50 cigar humidor you need 20 cigars or more.
Buy a box of Padron 3000 maduro as a base and put the good cigars in between. Always leave the cigars in the wrappers they come in.

In a small 10 cigar humidor only use a 72% Boveda.

Just close the box and everything will be fine.
I've left cigars out for a day on a table and they were fine - of course that is at a moderate humidity in Southern California of about 40 to 50%. Next time just take the humidity device out and put it back in when the humidity is lower.
Or opening the box and just blowing around in the box can lower humidity a little also.

74% is not bad at lower temperatures so if you keep your house at 68 degrees or lower during the winter 74% is almost perfect.
Humidity relates to temperature 70 degrees at 70% RH is the same as 65 degrees at 73% RH.

OK 3 videos on you tube Mike Paradise Cigars check them out also?

Enjoy
M