Odd Flavors from Ambient Temperature?

[Shakey]

I store cigars at 62-65% RH and they usually smoke fine on my deck. In the last week I’ve been getting tunneling, relights, and mushroom/musty flavors in the last third of some cigars that I smoke outside at home. I haven’t had this issue with cigars I smoke indoors at a cigar lounge. One difference during this time is that the humidity in my area has been very high, in the 80% to 99% range. Could that be causing my issues? 

[Bijan]

43 minutes ago, Shakey said:

Could that be causing my issues? 

Yes. Hot and close to 100% RH makes it almost impossible for me to enjoy a cigar all the way to the end.

Same does not happen in the winter. It's a combination of temperature and humidity.

[Socrates]

Same problem where I am especially now in the summer, hot and humid most nights. I too store in the low 60s RH range, but it doesn't make much difference. If the humidity is > 85% outside they just don't burn well for me either. Only thing I do is either pick a short cigar so I can get through most of it and enjoy it, or I pick a cheap one out of my stash. If the outside RH is in the 70s I find they smoke fine, but once over 80% the experience quickly goes south. Not sure why this is the case but definitely been my experience too.

[Shakey]

Thanks for the replies, good to read that it’s a known issue. I’ll be smoking at the lounge more until the humidity drops a bit. 

[Shakey]

Following up on this - daytime humidity dropped down to 60% and the cigars are smoking beautifully again. Nice to know the problem was with the outdoor conditions and not my storage. 

[EasternPromises]

I'm currently based in Singapore where humidity even at night is consistently in the 80-90% range. Dry boxing has definitely made a huge difference in how well my cigars burn. I have seen some people comment that dry boxing does impact on the flavour, which on reflection i think could have some merit. If so, I think it's a fair trade off.

One thing I have noticed is that many stores, lounges and individuals in Singapore store their cigars at a higher humidity - 69-72%. I've wondered whether this is to take into account the higher ambient humidity when smoking outdoors - maybe this reduces the need to dry box? I'm not sure. 

[GerardMichaelTX]

When the musty flavors begin to show themselves have you ever tried "purging" the cigar by blowing into it for three seconds? This strenthens the cherry a bit and prevents the cigar from dying out. There is also the added benefit that usually the flavor profile kicks back to the initial light for a brief period of time. Purging doesn't help with uneven burn but I did see a video where Nick Perdomo took an uneven cigar and very gently applied pressure along the side of the cigar that was burning unevenly to help open pockets in the tobacco allowing it to breath more openly. I have used this method to varying success but if you have a brittle wrapper on a cigar that's been aged for quite some time I do not recommend.

Otherwise those two methods seem to prolong the enjoyment of a cigar in high humidity and hot climates.

[Shakey]

Had another funny thing happen yesterday with our high humidity summers - was at my lounge and happened to open my humidor when my Govee app was open on phone. The reported humidity in the app went *up* when I opened the humidor. My humidor was at 67% and the room (with windows open and fans on) was closer to 73%.