Cigars like many other consumable goods require special care to preserve their quality. Milk must stay cold. Meat must stay frozen. Cigars are best preserved in air that has a moisture content between 65 and 75%. The moisture content of the air is commonly known as the humidity. If a cigar is kept in an environment where the air is too dry, it will lose moisture causing a loss in flavor. The wrapper of the cigar will dry out and will become prone to cracking. Once a cigar wrapper becomes cracked the cigar can easily become worthless. A small crack in the wrapper will make drawing smoke from the lit end of the cigar much more difficult. Cigars are a luxury item that are often shared on special occasions with guests and friends. Most people consider it in bad taste to offer a ripped cigar to someone. A large enough tear will cause the guts of the cigar to spill out. It is possible to repair a small rip in a cigar with a repair kit, but an ounce of prevention is always worth more than a pound of cure. A cigar stored in an environment that is too humid may cause molding of your cigar stock or hatching of tobacco beetle larva that will destroy your cigars by burrowing through them. High humidity can also cause your cigars to swell in size, which may cause the wrapper to rip. The interior tobacco leaves of the cigar will absorb moisture making their volume larger. Keeping you cigars in the 65-75% humidity range is key to maximizing the shelf life you your cigars.
A humidor is any kind of storage space that is used to store cigars or pipe tobacco. In a humidor the narrow optimal range of humidity for storing tobacco is maintained. Most tobacco shops have humidors that are walk in. Humidors for home use are small boxes that can be conveniently stored on a shelf or in a cabinet. Personal box type humidors hold between thirty to a hundred cigars. Tabletop humidors are also popular for home use. A tabletop humidor has a larger capacity than a box humidor. The smallest sized tabletop humidors hold a few hundred cigars while the largest hold a few thousand. This type of humidor stands on legs like a table. The smallest sized humidor obtainable is a travel humidor, which holds between ten and forty cigars.
Box type and travel size humidors are made mostly from wood or lined with wood on the inside. The type of wood used for the exterior is less important than the wood used for the interior. A tabletop humidor, which is designed to resemble a table, may be made from more exotic materials like leather or marble but usually has a wood lined interior. Spanish cedar is most frequently chosen wood for lining the inside of a humidor because it has tobacco beetle repelling properties, and it imparts taste into cigars stored near it. Mahogany is also used for the interior of a cigar humidor; mahogany has a less pungent odor compared to Spanish cedar.
Humidors come equipped with a hydrometer, which is a device that measures humidity and some form of a self-regulating air humidifier. The most common way the humidity in a humidor is maintained is through the use of a mixture of 1:1 Propylene Glycol and water. Propylene Glycol is an inexpensive alcohol that emits water into the air when humidity is below 70% and absorbs water when humidity is above 70%. Room sized humidors will more than likely have some kind of automated machinery that monitors air humidity and adjusts it accordingly.
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