Humidor Care - The Accuracy of Hygrometers

I am willing to bet that just about everyone who smokes cigars on a daily basis has a humidor in their house. Some people, as I was told today, have several. I received a humidor as a gift for being best man in a wedding. Up until this point I smoked cigars often but never thought about spending the money on one. Now that I had it I was pretty excited. I followed the instructions, got it up to the recommended 65% - 70% and started smokin'. Well fast forward to the present... I stopped smoking cigars for a little while and therefore my beautiful humidor just became a show piece on my entertainment center. When I started back up again, a little more educated now on cigars than I was back then, I noticed a few things not quite right.

After my last post I purchased a few sticks to have on hand. Two of which were the Cusano M1s and one was a Rocky Patel Vintage. I placed them in my Humidor, smoked one of the M1s and left the rest to burn another day. When I came home the following day I grabbed the Rocky Patel Vintage ($11.99), lit up and sat out on my porch. I immediately noticed that the draw was awful. I began to think that it was the cigar. I pulled hard and got barely a mouthful of hot nasty tasting smoke. Then I noticed the cigar was burning in weird patches and canoeing like mad. I began to get really disappointed. I love Rocky Patel cigars. I felt like I was let down by an old friend. How could they do this to me? I tossed it into my ashtray and went back in for the reliable, cheap M1 ($3.39). I sat down and lit up. I was just about to swear off Rockys for good when I noticed the same hot nasty taste coming out of the M1. I looked at the end to see the same patchy burn.

I started to investigate a little further. I started to examine the cigar to see if anything was different. I noticed that it seemed a little more "squishy" for lack of a better word. I pulled the Rocky Patel out of the ashtray and found similar squishyness. Finding the common factors I immediately went for the humidor. I noticed the hygrometer was dead center in the middle of the clearly marked "ideal" range. These results were anything but ideal. I pulled the hygrometer out to see that it has a screw in the back of it. This led me to believe that these things are not an exact science.

I turned to Google for my answers and I quickly found a way to test your hygrometer. Take a bottle cap and fill it with salt. Then drop some water on the salt (only enough to saturate, not enough to dissolve the salt). Then place your hygrometer and the bottle cap in a plastic bag. Leave it for 6 hours. The reading should be 75%. If your hygrometer is not at 75% use the screw on the back to adjust the reading accordingly. If you are in some kind of humidor emergency and need it to be perfect right now there is a less accurate but faster way to test. Remove your hygrometer and place it in the middle of a very damp paper towel. If your hygrometer is not reading 100% use the screw to adjust accordingly. After you return the hygrometer to your humidor you should be able to rest assured that your cigars are safe.

I tested mine using the salt method. The hygrometer was at 70% but dropped once it was in the plastic bag with the salt. My hygrometer was reading about 10% or more lower than it should have been. So my cigars were at 80% - 85% when they should have been at 70%. Just for reference mold is pretty much guaranteed at 90%+. So for those of you keeping track my faulty hygrometer cost me $15.38 plus tax by ruining two cigars. Now imagine if I had just bought that box of Rocky Vintage for $120+.

Now I'm left with a humidor that is at 80%. What do I do? It may take some time to get your humidor back down to an ideal reading. I left mine open for a little while to let it drop. How fast it drops depends on the environment. After it drops theres no guarantee that it wont go farther up or down. Keep an eye on it for a few days. You may have to repeat the initial humidor setup tasks.

The moral of the story is test your hygrometer before you put any cigars in your humidor. This goes double if you just bought your first humidor. If your cigars don't burn right or they taste awful this may be your problem.

You mean I've been doing it wrong all this time?

Many people have many different opinions on how to best taste a cigar. Whether you take a few puffs to first heat the oils of a cigar before that long puff to truly taste it.... or if you "swish" the smoke around in your mouth like you would with wine. Everyone has there own method. Recently a Rocky Patel representative rocked my world with some knowledge he was kind enough to pass on.

He began by telling me a story about a trip he took to the Dominican. While sitting around with some locals having a smoke he noticed that they weren't smoking the same way he was. While he had been smoking for quite some time he had never seen anyone take in cigar smoke and blow it out their nose. With cigarettes yes but you don't inhale cigars. He quickly asked the locals what exactly they were doing. They told him that you cant get the full flavor out of a cigar until you use your entire palette to taste it. You don't inhale the cigar but simply use your nose to blow out the smoke. Since your nose is the home to the majority of taste and odor receptors this is where you taste 80 to 90 percent of the cigars real flavor. While it is hard to master this without inhaling it does pay off.

I was skeptical. How could I have been missing something for all this time I had been smoking cigars? He made it sound like there was some elusive hidden flavor in every cigar that could only be revealed this way. He was persistent so I gave it a shot.

The first try was an utter disaster. I pretty much inhaled everything. After the burning sensation left my lungs and I stopped coughing I got back on the horse and tried again. He said to roll the smoke to the back of your mouth and push it out your nose. I got it partially right the second time. The cigar I had been smoking for twenty minutes or so suddenly had flavors that seemed to spring out of nowhere. I could pick out certain tastes that were previously completely dormant. I couldn't believe it. I thanked him and practiced the technique so that I didn't look like the idiot coughing and hacking up a lung because he didn't realize you weren't supposed to inhale. After I got the technique down it made me appreciate cigars that much more. This includes the ones that I didn't necessarily like the first time around.

Cusano M1

There are normally two criteria that I think about when I buy a cigar. The quality of the smoke and the price I pay to get that quality. I look at some of the more expensive sticks and wonder if they are really worth it. On the other hand I look at the cheap ones and think "wow I bet those are crap". Ultimately I'm looking for something that I will not only like but also something that I will ad to my rotation of frequent smokes. Most of the time the only real way to tell is to just walk around the shop, grab a little bit of everything, smoke them all and filter out the bad.

After reading a post on The Humidor (danshumidor.blogspot.com) about the quality of the Cusano C10, I decided I'd give them a try myself. I picked up the Cusano M1 Robusto for $3.39.

One thing I like about Cusano is that they try and make quality cigars affordable. They are often half the price of most "Brand Name" cigars and from what I've seen there is little sacrifice in quality. This cigar uses Dominican binder and filler with a Connecticut shade wrapper.

The cut and light were easy. I hate cigars that don't stay lit. When I'm playing cards or drinking scotch I like to be able to set my cigar down for a minute and come back to it fully lit and ready to go. This cigar stayed lit perfectly. This surprised me since I've smoked $18 cigars that I've had to relight more than a few times in a sitting. The draw was very nice producing mouthfuls of smoke with ease. The taste was smooth somewhere between mild and medium. No flavor transitions. Just an easy consistent creamy smoothness.

In the end I definitely recommend the Cusano M1 as an inexpensive, enjoyable. everyday cigar.

Great for the money.

Have I smoked better? Yes.

Have I paid a lot more for something a lot worse? Definitely.

Would I smoke it again? Absolutely... (In fact I bought 2 more this afternoon).

ACID / Drew Estate Cigars

For my first cigar post I'd like to choose a whole line of cigars that deserves some attention for it's unique flavors and ingenuity. The ACID line by Drew Estate is an acquired taste but I do believe that everyone should try them.


The company was started about eight years ago by two lawyers that gave up their careers for a shot in the cigar industry. It began with one cigar roller making their "house brand" for the shop they owned in Manhattan and grew to having their own factory in Nicaragua just a few years later.


They use a blend of tobacco from 12 different countries. This however is not what makes them unique. What makes them unique is that they "infuse" the tobacco with herbs, spices, oils, tea, coffee, rose petals, and anything else they believe will be good in a cigar. This infusion process gives their cigars enough flavor to be noticed but not enough so that it overpowers the taste of the tobacco. These are completely unlike any other cigars I have ever had.


There are a couple of standouts in their lineup. The most peculiar one is a cigar called the "Wafe". This cigar is the only cigar to ever have a patented shape. It is very flat, thin and a good for a quick smoke. The Kuba Kuba is one of their much more popular cigars with a much bigger (54 gauge Robusto) and more natural shape.

I have tried two of their cigars. I picked the most popular ones to try (mentioned above).

We'll start with the Wafe. This cigar was pitched to me as "Something that definitely shouldn't be a good smoke but somehow it just works". The light was fine and took quickly. The draw was surprisingly good and the ash lasted for a while falling at about 1 + inches. In the end however it began to burn unevenly and I became rather disappointed. I attributed this to the strange shape. Less than half and inch thick and flat is not how a cigar should be. The taste however was pretty incredible. Smooth with an odd sweet taste that never went away. I came to find out through some research that the cigar is infused with honey and cream.


The second was the 54 gauge Kuba Kuba. This smoke smelled a bit like incense to me but I was not disappointed. The light was nice and the draw was pretty good. Long lasting with no real flavor transitions. I honestly cannot tell you what makes this cigar taste the way it does. It is sweet and smooth but more earthy than the Wafe. Definitely the better of the two.

I have heard good things about the Earth and Spice cigars as well.

Bottom line: It is something different. I consider myself pretty new to the hobby but I recognize that these are not your typical cigars. If you try these and hate the cigars completely then I apologize. Smooth with enough flavor that your girlfriend might like them but strong and earthy enough so that you don't feel like a complete pansy. Worth trying.


They range from about $3.95 and up.