Cigars are a luxury for many. Much like fine wine, they’ll collect their favorite pieces, savoring them over time during special occasions or when they feel like it. But cigars can be ruined without the proper care, which can be devastating to your overall investment and collection. How can you make sure that your cigars stay in pristine condition after you purchase them? Let’s take a look at three helpful tips for caring for your cigar collection at your home.
1. Observe Proper Storage Placement
There are good places in your home to store cigars, and then there are places throughout the home that will lead to the degradation of your cigars quite quickly. When storing your cigars, make sure that you’re putting them in a room that doesn’t get overly hot throughout the year and one that doesn’t experience a great deal of sunlight. Sunlight and heat can damage the wrapper, dry out the tobacco, and encourage the potential growth of cigar beetles.
Always store your cigars in a place that’s away from light and heat. Your cigars will last longer this way!
2. Purchase a Humidor
A humidor is a device that features a humidity control system that allows you to better control the humidity around your cigars. This ensures they don’t dry out or get too moist, both of which are dangerous to the cigars. Take care to invest in a quality humidor that has good reviews, monitor the humidity levels often, and keep it at about room temperature and a humidity level of around 65 to 72 percent. The larger your collection is, the more humidors you’ll have. Keep them in a safe place and make it a point to regularly inspect your cigars and make any necessary changes to the humidors so that they retain their quality moving forward.
3. Keep Storage Sparse and Move Them Around Frequently
When you purchase a humidor, it’s easy to assume that you’ll want to work on filling it up and then move on to the next humidor as you increase the number of cigars you own. But this isn’t the case. In fact, you’ll actually want to keep your humidor about halfway full. This ensures your humidor can do its job properly. Overfilling it with quality cigars can prove detrimental to its functionality.
Another useful tip is to move your cigars around in the humidor frequently. As good of a job as humidors do, certain areas are subject to moisture fluctuations. Moving your cigars around guarantees that they’re getting an even humidity experience and not experiencing more humidity than the others in your collection.
Collecting cigars is a fun activity for cigar aficionados, but there are mistakes that can be made in this hobby. If you don’t properly store your collection, you could run the risk of ruining your favorite pieces and losing a ton of money in the process. If you’re going to spend the money on starting and maintaining a cigar collection, it’s important to take proper care of them. Keep your cigars in pristine condition and keep them smokable for longer using the tips offered above.