I watered my cigar last night

[LGC]

I tried this out with the 40 year old Romeo that I smoked the other night. The wrappers on these sticks are thin and fragile. The added moisture helped the texture. The wrapper became more supple after it was wetted and sat wrapped in the dry paper towel. The burn was razor sharp and didn't require any relights. After trying this method out for the first time, I will continue to practice this on older cigars with fragile wrappers. I personally don't see why folks got their panties twisted over this. Cigars are only dried leaves; and I'm willing to experiment with anything at least once. I take the enjoyment of cigars seriously, but I don't take myself or cigars too seriously. I never form my opinions on things... especially if I have no experiences to base them on...

[Ginseng]

Wilkey

This must of happened when you were finishing grad school, but I remember Van and Tampa just loosing it at the mere mention of MRN's technique

Ah, makes sense.

Well now, I imagine these two gentlemen are probably still having this discussion, albeit more placidly, up past the pearly gates. Still unresolved, I'm sure.

Wilkey

[baragh]

I find this activity hard to reconcile with dryboxing. I thought I wanted the wrapper to be drier to prevent tunneling?

[CaptainQuintero]

As soon as we can get Smithy, myself and Ken at the same time and place for a video review we will do a tasting on this with some young cigars ( same boxes ) to see if we can get some agreement. Ideally it should be blind tasting but I suspect you will be able to tell immediately which cigar has been doused.

Do it! Do it! Do it!

has the added bonus of using those buckets that Ken's been filling up on his deck

[Smallclub]

I find this activity hard to reconcile with dryboxing. I thought I wanted the wrapper to be drier to prevent tunneling?

Older (vintage) cigars don't need to be dryboxed; they are much less hygroscopic than young cigars.

[CaptainQuintero]

bump

Anyone had a go at this?

[jazzmonkey]

I tried on 4 cigars this winter. I smoke outside and it's very cold, so I'm missing some nuances. But I smoked 8 of those cigars in the past few months.

With about the same weather conditions and same smoking time. I found that none of the wrappers from the 4 broke up. And they smoked a little smoother than the other 4. On the 4 I didn't wet, 3 of them the wrapper broke, most in the last 1/3 of the cigar. And they were all harsher.

But it didn't convince me to do it on premium smokes. I wouldn't do it other that to prevent them from breaking up in the cold.

[Orion21]

I am going to try this tonight. I will post pictures along with a review. I think I have some young RyJ SC's that could use a nice arse kicking

[David67]

That's it, I'm trying this tonight too. Partagas Short will do the job.

[Orion21]

I did it with my lunch cigar - '98 Boli Inmensas. 100% did not hurt it. The wrapper felt like silk afterwards and the burn in laser sharp on the parts where the foot wasn't broken. Can't comment on flavor differences. I will smoke two RyJ SCs this evening with the same wrapper color and blend based on the look of the feet.

[Orion21]

Differences:

1) Laser straight burn, which none of my previous boli inmensas have had.

2) The "magic dots" in the ash, which has been accompanied by a very sweet flavor. 100% know I have not had this flavor in these cigars before.

3) The wrapper doesn't seem to be burning as much as it is melting away. Its a subtle difference I am noticing and may not mean anything.

[Smallclub]

I do it every time I smoke a Piedra. It gives suppleness to the rough wrapper, it slowes and improves the combustion. No noticeable influence on the taste; perhaps a slight gain in roundness and depth, but it may be purely psychological.

[MPS]

I'm kosher so ever since I learned my Monsdales were dipped in pig fat I wash them.

[Orion21]

Experiment started. Will be back with analysis and pictures later.

[Orion21]

Faucet on low head of the cigar first let the water run over the cigar for 2 seconds. Rotate and then move the excess water over the wrapper to get even distribution. Then immediately roll into a paper towel for about a minute. Unroll and light it up! That what I did.

[BonVivant]

Not good enough. Still not kosher...lol

This is all really crazy to me....why not just let the cigars sit in the bathroom with you when you take a shower so the 95% humidity will plump them up for better smoking pleasure....This is craziness!!!

Washing a Monsdale is a blessing in itself and smoking it is something short of a coming of Messiah, so I was told

[BobLobLaw]

I have done this a few times and never had a bad experience. Not sure if the cigar was better, but the water certainly did not adversly affect the burn and I do feel like the flavors were more pronounced.

Next time I think I will pick two small guys from the same box. Wet one and not the other and give them to the subject to smoke simultaneously and see if there is a difference.

[Smallclub]

This is all really crazy to me....why not just let the cigars sit in the bathroom with you when you take a shower so the 95% humidity will plump them up for better smoking pleasure....This is craziness!!!

Wetting the wrapper under the tap for 2 or 3 seconds have very little (if any) effect on the overall humidity of the filler. Try it with a cheapo, you'll be surprised.

[Jnaube]

As soon as we can get Smithy, myself and Ken at the same time and place for a video review we will do a tasting on this with some young cigars ( same boxes ) to see if we can get some agreement. Ideally it should be blind tasting but I suspect you will be able to tell immediately which cigar has been doused.

Montecristo A?

[Orion21]

I finished my side by side with two RyJ Short Churchills about 30 minutes ago. They were from the same box with BUL SEP 11 as the code. Both had the same color wrappers and the feet showed no difference in blend as far as I could tell.

When first wet and dried the cigar that I rinsed it turned a shade darker, which should be expected. I punched both cigars and lit the rinsed cigar first. I did not notice it took any longer than normal. I puffed away and immediately got hit with a smooth sweetness. It was very nice. I then turned to the non-rinsed cigar. Lit it up and puffed away. Right away I noticed this cigar was much drier, harsher and had no sweetness. The wrapper also burned very uneven for the first inch. On the other hand the rinsed cigar had a great burn from the start.

Into the first third I noticed three very distinct differences with these two cigars. The rinsed cigar was smoking much cooler, smoother and sweeter. The non-rinsed cigar kind of had an off putting odor of marijuana, not joking. I remember I haven't smoke these in about 6 months because I thought they were way too young to smoke, also a reason I chose to test these.

The burns eventually evened out, but they did burn differently. Like I posted above the rinsed cigars wrapper had the look of melting more than buring vs the non-rinsed cigar and the ash were different colors. The rinsed cigar's ash was much whiter than the non-rinsed cigar.

I agree with small club's comment above. The wetting of the wrapper won't effect the binder, only the wrapper and I really liked the results. Like the Bolivar I smoked this afternoon I got a lot of sweetness out of this cigar, which makes me think the dampness helps bring out the sweetness if a wrapper has any. It also helps the cigar smoke cooler, which prevents harshness or tannic dryness. Finally, I didn't have to puff on the rinsed cigar as often to keep it lit. The non-rinsed cigar actually had to me puffed more often. Overall, I would not be against trying this again. I would especially be apt to do it if I had a cigar with a brittle or very think wrapper. It's not like I haven't had cigars that smoked really well before now, but this experiment has made me think. To rinse, or not to rinse, that is the question . . .

[LordAnubis]

Ive only been here for all of two minutes, but the scientist in me has to question whether it helps, or if perhaps your just washing away some not very good smoking dust that settles on the cigar, or maybe some random other nasties that settle on the wrapper of the cigar. If the wrapper was able to absorb any form of mositure in 2 seconds that would really surprise me. A way to test this will be to weigh the cigar, water it, dry off with towel and prepare to smoke it, then weigh it again. Need some good quality scales though, preferably to 3 decimal places. I have some very accurate well calibrated scales at work so i'll test it out on a smoke i have here with me.

[jazzmonkey]

What made me try this was the cold weather we have. I think that burning cigars dry up much quicker than in a warm and humid weather. A wet wrapper is more likely to keep the moisture from escaping during smoking, at least that's what I got from the post I read.

But I didn't leave it under the tap for 2 seconds. More like 7-8 seconds. Then took the excess water off.

[BonVivant]

It works and that is a fact - love to see the faces of my friends when I do it, but it is always done for a good reason.

[LGC]

When I did this on a 70's RyJ Corona with a delicate wrapper, the cigar did not absorb water by simply holding it under the stream. You'll see the water head right off. I had to rub the wrapper with my finger to break the surface tension of the oil. The wrapper became supple afterwards. The picture of the cigar is on the first page.

[mk05]

People do it because it helps dry wrappers become somewhat more supple again, so that the wrapper does not crack when you are smoking the cigar which expands the tobacco (the heat).

I remember vividly when you guys did it in front of me in NYC. Dunked that whole Sig VI along with the Santa Felipa. Tasted just fine. Oh how Frederic's face cringed at the sound of "PPP."