Humidity and Ring Gauge

[Sophistic]

I guess we can all agree that you have to smoke thinner cigars slower to keep them from going hot/bitter. Now with all the talk about THE perfect humidity rate for cigars, wouldnt it make sense to keep thinner cigars in a seperate humidor at higher humidity, to slow the burn/prevent overheating?

[Smallclub]

No, unless you keep your cigars at a very low RH… A slim panatela, smoked at the right pace (slowly), will go out if it's too wet.

[garbandz]

" slow the burn/prevent overheating?"

you are in control,so you have to pace yourself,pay attention and slow down.Kind of like sex.............

[dogdays]

" slow the burn/prevent overheating?"

you are in control,so you have to pace yourself,pay attention and slow down.Kind of like sex.............

LOL!

[Sophistic]

" slow the burn/prevent overheating?"

you are in control,so you have to pace yourself,pay attention and slow down.Kind of like sex.............

well but it doesnt hurt when the humidity is right before the start

[...]

" slow the burn/prevent overheating?"

you are in control,so you have to pace yourself,pay attention and slow down.Kind of like sex.............

Care to elaborate on the taste profile?

[mikek]

" slow the burn/prevent overheating?"

you are in control,so you have to pace yourself,pay attention and slow down.Kind of like sex.............

Yah if you cant cut the mustard you can always lick the jar! Woops wrong thread!!!

[Smallclub]

well but it doesnt hurt when the humidity is right before the start

Specialy when the ring gauge is large...

[PigFish]

I seem to always be the guy challenging the cigar worlds 'great axioms.'

I too have professed a slower rate with thinner rings. But is it temperature that you are really measuring? Ever measured the tip of a burning cigar? I have! I have measured them up to 1000˚F

Frankly it is the complete burring of tobacco (I am speculating some here) that makes the dryer cigar taste better (to me).

If for example you take your torch lighter and hold it to a burning foot of a cigar, you don't suddenly get a bitter taste! This kind of blows the overheat theory!

When you over-smoke a thin ring, you may just be over dosing the blend. You may be taking a whole spoon full of pepper, instead of a pinch…

Overheating, may then be a misapplication of data. You may be over-smoking, not overheating.

With that said, we can keep the empirical data that "over-smoking" a thin ring can led to a bad taste, but explain why that additional heat does not create the same phenomenon.

We are back to speculating as to what the real reasons are for cigar performance. What I need is a comment now from my friend Jeremy (Magpie).

Oh, Maggie, care to chime in on this one?

-Piggy

[PapaDisco]

I also find that smoking a cigar in a very humid environment makes it tend towards the bitter end of the spectrum. Not entirely sure just how that works out, but when I take my nicely smoking, 65 rH, sticks from home to the 90R/90rH environment of SE Asia I find them to be much more bitter than at home. If I let them settle for a bit (2-4 weeks in the local environment, at at higher humidor rH) then they seem to smoke better again, only to eventually start back towards bitter 2+ months further on.

These are all unscientific impressions. I'm still trying to measure and nail down just what precisely is happening. Perhaps part of the problem is that the very humid cigar needs to be 'over smoked' in order to keep it lit. With sticks recently arrived in country it does look like the filler is burning faster than the wrapper (probably because of the wrapper rising in humidity first?).

[Optic101]

I seem to always be the guy challenging the cigar worlds 'great axioms.'

I too have professed a slower rate with thinner rings. But is it temperature that you are really measuring? Ever measured the tip of a burning cigar? I have! I have measured them up to 1000˚F

Frankly it is the complete burring of tobacco (I am speculating some here) that makes the dryer cigar taste better (to me).

If for example you take your torch lighter and hold it to a burning foot of a cigar, you don't suddenly get a bitter taste! This kind of blows the overheat theory!

When you over-smoke a thin ring, you may just be over dosing the blend. You may be taking a whole spoon full of pepper, instead of a pinch…

Overheating, may then be a misapplication of data. You may be over-smoking, not overheating.

With that said, we can keep the empirical data that "over-smoking" a thin ring can led to a bad taste, but explain why that additional heat does not create the same phenomenon.

We are back to speculating as to what the real reasons are for cigar performance. What I need is a comment now from my friend Jeremy (Magpie).

Oh, Maggie, care to chime in on this one?

-Piggy

I am with you if focusing at the tip (burn point) only.

Looking at the whole cigar we can see different temperature areas and gradients.

As slower we smoke as shorter is the hot area behind the tip and as higher is the temperature gradient.

In my (personal, not scientific confirmed) theory the tobacco behind the tip is influenced by temperature and humidity in proportion to time.

Smoking faster is extending this area (length), introduce a higher temperature and I would say is increasing the water contend there. A smaller Ring is supporting this.

Not proven which, but there should be physical and/or chemical reactions driven by higher temperature, supported by higher water contend and residue out of the burned tobacco.

Let’s expect this is the case we may talk about minor reactions.

But given the sensitivity of how storage humidity can influence taste, bitterness and flavour, that's the theory where I am so far.