Expert: James Yee - 12/9/2007

Question
Could you please tell me, do mass-market or machine made cigars need to be humidified? I usually smoke premium handmade Honduran or Dominican cigars, but just on a fluke I recently picked up a package of 6 Lonsdale-size cigars for $10 bucks from a local CVS Pharmacy drug store chain outlet, to be used on a later camping trip. Each of the cigars came individually wrapped in a small cellophane wrapper, and were packaged all together into a larger plastic bag. They're a pretty large size, so I figured they probably weren't the dry-cured type of cigar.

Do these type of mass-market cigars (such as the El Producto or Garcia y Vega brands) need to be humidified, or are they good to go without a humidor on hand? Someone once told me that these type of cigars can just lay around at room temperature without any protective covering or humidor, but I wasn't sure about that, so I figured I'd ask someone who is an expert.

Answer
Hi Dominic,

To ensure that the cigars taste fresh, burn evenly and have flavour, all PREMIUM machine-made cigars should be properly stored in a humidor.  However, many small, cheap machine-made, third and fourth tier “convenience store” cigars such as Captain Black’s, White Owl, Century Sam, etc. do not need to be humidified.  Because many of these cigars are already cut at both the head and the foot, humidifying these cigars can actually cause them to split.  A lot of premium machine-made cigars, even those wrapped in cellophane, can indeed sit out longer than premium handmade cigars but its still good practice to properly store and humidify them.  Inexpensive machine-made cigars that are packaged in plastic containers rather than wooden cigar boxes do not need to be humidified.

Dry cigars, aka “dutch cigars” also do not need to be humidified.  This includes small machine made, convenience store cigars and novelty “flavoured” cigars.  There are also cigarette-sized cigars (aka “cigarillos” and “cigaritas”) and these cigars – even premium cigarillos/cigaritas – also do not need to be humidified.

If you are taking cigars on a camping trip and you don't have a travel humidor or cigar case, sealing the machine-made cigars in a Ziploc bag or Humi-pouch should be just fine.  More expensive, premium cigars (either handmade or machine-made), should be kept in a humidor, travel humidor or humi-pouch.

Hope this answers your question.  If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I’ll be happy to help.

Regards,
James