bringing back under humidified / dried out cigars

[winelover]

I have about 35 - 40 smokes that have all been poorly stored at c.45% rh but were ziplocked shortly following purchase and still give a bit when squeezed. They taste too dry and lack flavour. I am wondering if they are rehumidified slowly back to 65% whether they will come round or whether the oils etc are lost forever. Anyone have any experience here?

Obviously the humi issue requires attention but that is not my topic for this discussion.

Thanks in advance.

Graham

[Puros Y Vino]

Do a search. Lots of good advice here. I've restored some cigars that were dried out for over a year. It's a slow process,but I believe it works.

[CaptainQuintero]

Should be ok if they had some give and aroma to them, chances are they will be good to go

[finecigar]

Don't put the cigars straight into high humidity like Pete suggested, you need to slowly introduce them to the right humidity. 70 seems too high I would recommend 65 as the finished humidity but lots of studies show on the Internet as this being a long process between many months, it won't be happening right over the weekend. I have done it to a few older boxes with great results but I kept them in seperate area, patient, and true the cigars will never be the exact same but I believe you can attain some of the flavor and consistency back. Good luck and wish you the best. There is better info on the web than I can give..

[SeeGar]

I haven't got a particularly highly developed palette, but I don’t think cigars “recover” from drying out. I find they suffer in as little as a week being under-humidified. They continue to decline, and after a month I would pitch them.

You can re-humidify them, but the flavour and suppleness is long gone IMO.

[winelover]

Thanks for the comments. Appreciated. I will post an update in due course.

[SiegeA]

As stated earlier, take the rehydration slowly and if you have the ability, gradually increase up to what you store the rest of your stock.

Depending on how long they've 'suffered' will effect the oils in the cigars. If the oils have dried out, they won't come good IME. You won't know until you give it a go.

[Cohiba Stevie]

I haven't got a particularly highly developed palette, but I don’t think cigars “recover” from drying out. I find they suffer in as little as a week being under-humidified. They continue to decline, and after a month I would pitch them.

You can re-humidify them, but the flavour and suppleness is long gone IMO.

I would think the same...

Oils lost during the drying out process of under humidified cigars cannot be replaced. Its those oils that affect flavour, aroma and burn very heavily.

I hope that i am wrong however.

Let us know how you get on mate.

[polarbear]

I had a few RyJ churchills gifted to me from a friend

They'd been stored in his pantry for a number of years and were DRY

I've had them at 65% for a little over 2 years and smoked one the other week

Considering the cigar was one of the RyJ with only the gold band (fairly old) it wasnt as great as I would have liked

It had some flavours but wasn't what i remember the churchill to be

I'll sit on the other 4 for a couple more years and revisit them then

[Troels]

Bought a 3-pack of coros in a duty free last september that was dried out - been in my humi since - having the last of them now - smokable, but far from what it should be

[Smallclub]

They continue to decline, and after a month I would pitch them.

You can re-humidify them, but the flavour and suppleness is long gone IMO.

Certainly not after one month only, unless you live in the Sahara…

[SeeGar]

Certainly not after one month only, unless you live in the Sahara…

Certainly the ambient relative humidity and temperature depend on where you live, time of the year, what the weather is doing, and so on. A certain Irish mate of mine doesn't require humidification devices at all.

But in my house, centrally heated, I find a corona that has rattled around my office drawer for a month not very good. Probably the BOTL/SOTLs who live in Arizona have it worse off. Or the Sahara, for that matter.

Your mileage may vary, obviously. Perhaps I'm overly fussy.

What say you others? How long could a cigar sit out before you considered it unrecoverable?

[La Suerte]

A few years ago I had a partial box of Punch Nationales that had been kept in an ordinary sideboard since the mid 60's, looked & felt very dry..

I put them in my loft which sits at 60/60 & smoked one after a couple of weeks, fantastic smoke, full of subtle flavours..

To my thinking..as it sometimes takes years for a cigar to be at it's best, surely it must take years for it to be at it's worst..

talk of short timescales with cigars IMHO is nonsense..I'd personally try to revive anything..as to losses in oils & flavours that's surely down to the individuals palate & with no comparison, who will ever know? Enjoy everything for what it is..

[Smallclub]

But in my house, centrally heated,

Central heating is definitely a problem, I agree.

[ramon_cojones]

I've never seen oily wrappers on vintage cigars.

[Orion21]

Here's the thing, unless you smoked the same cigars BEFORE they became dried out you will never know if bringing them back worked or not. My theory would be that if you reinvigorated dried out cigars you would halt the decline, but most likely wouldn't be able to improve them from a state of ill repair. I think that is the common theme voiced by those who have smoked them "they were just ok." Put it this way - if you had a box of Cohiba 1966's that you shoved in your desk drawer for a couple of years and then put back in your humidor for a couple of weeks would you expect them to smoke like new?

[mk05]

put them in the bathroom and take showers twice a day. i tend to use head and shoulders to infuse my cigars with a nice minty aroma.

[winelover]

Certainly the ambient relative humidity and temperature depend on where you live, time of the year, what the weather is doing, and so on. A certain Irish mate of mine doesn't require humidification devices at all.

Agree. In my home I don't really need a humidor as the rh is arpund 65% and the temperature fairly low. The UK's damp conditions mean that we are a hub for fine wine storage with literally billions of pounds worth underground at places like Corsham.

So what went wrong with my smokes? Well these were stored at my office in a desktop. It was fine initially but then I got moved to the third floor (that's fourth floor in the States) and as I had no window and a vicious air ventilation / heating system it meant that the rh had dropped to a dry environment basis. My poor old desk top was loaded with distilled water but it wasn't effective. I ziplocked my smikes before they lost their springyness but even though they are ziplocked they are drying out because of the oppressive outside conditions (and because of the desktop). I have learned not to store smokes at home as it can be more destrictive -risk of "domestic violence" !!

I have put a cup of water in my desktop to see what happens. Meanwhile the cigars are still ziplocked so in theory they shouldn't be rapidly over humidifying at the rate of knots.

We will see. Thanks all for the comments.

[winelover]

UPDATE: I have successfully rehabilitated my cigars to 65% and just had the pleasure of having a monte 2 I would give a 92/100. Stunning.  Very lucky escape for me.

[Guybrush]

Thank you very much for posting the update. I have some cigars that lost a good amount of humidity over the last three months because they have not been stored as airtight as I expected them to be. Your update gives me hope.

[cooper669]

Well I just got back from visiting my dad. He heard about my interest in cigars and asked me about re-humidifying some of his cigars that had dried out. He didn't tell me exactly how long they had been dried out and I don't know if I really want to know. I think they were dried out for a couple years. Apparently he purchased them about 20 years ago, about 50 assorted CC's and he said they were aged when he got them. I didn't go through all of them but I saw Cohibas, La flor de cano, Bolivar, Montecristo's. There were others but I didn't want to handle them as they were very dry but in decent shape considering. They had shrank pretty bad and a lot of the bands were really loose. I was able to gather up some boveda packs and I told him to start with the lower rh packs and every couple months raise the Rh with the next % up. The cigars still had good aroma but only time will tell. He has quit smoking cigars so when they are ready I'll be trying them. I'm guessing about next summer some time. I'll post results then. It is a shame he let them go because he said they cost him $1200 CAD at the time.

[dougincanada]

If you think they past proper restoration try dipping one. I put a few drop of rum on a plate and roll the cigar through it and let it sit in a ziplock for 24 hours before smoking. Alcohol penetrates faster than water. If booze is not your thing, try espresso coffee. I haven't tried coffee yet but the principle should be the same. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Regards,

Doug

[cooper669]

My dad lives a couple of hours away and he wouldn't let me attempt that anyway. He said if they turn out half as good as they were, they will still be great. It would be a damn shame if they turn out un-smokable, I guess at that point there will be nothing to lose. I have a feeling they will be ok but certainly not to their former glory, when he is satisfied the re-hydration process is complete, you can bet I'll take the drive down there to smoke them. Maybe he will even join me.