How to select a humidor

Humidors can be different: large or small, wooden or glass, colored or black-and-white, expensive or very expensive. Which one should you choose? Hopefully, our advice will be helpful.

Humidors are made of solid wood or another material, such as plywood. The former one is, of course, preferable, but it calls for thorough maturation of raw materials and more laborintensive production.

Accordingly, a solid wood humidor will be much more expensive. That's why attention should be paid to the internal finish. It should be made of cedar veneer sheet (not to be mistaken for conifers) or another varieties of redwood that absorb, retain and give away moisture. If you see a humidor with a varnished interior, walk out of the shop.

There are almost no limitations on external finishing. Everything depends on the manufacturer's fantasy and reputation. Humidors may be of ascetic solid color with only five layers of lacquer; but there are also others encrusted with a motley veneer sheet and covered with up to fifty layers of lacquer. You can look in this cap as though in a mirror. Select the humidor depending on the depth of your pockets and your esthetic whims. The humidor that comes with a glass lid is intended, first of all, for restaurants, but is also quite suitable for home use.

A humidor's ability to maintain cigars in their proper condition depends on how well the internal finish retains moisture and also on the air-tightness of the entire structure. It can be checked as follows. Lift and release the lid. If, when the llid hits the box, you hear a dull sound of impacted air rather than a blow of wood against the wood, the item is good. There is another method. Take a strip of thin paper, put it on the edge of one of the humidor walls and close the lid. Now try to pull the paper out. If you can pull it even a little, pass on this humidor.

The humidity sensor is a device measuring the humidity level. You should check out its readings to monitor the cigar status. Humidity sensors may be mechanical (hair) and electronic. The latter provides more accurate measurements.

The most appropriate humidity level is 65-75 percent. These conditions are maintained using a device called a humidifier. They may be of different degrees of sophistication and differ in price, but their structure is almost the same: a porous water-absorbing material that soaks up moisture and then gives it back gradually is placed into a casing (plastic or metal).

For convenience of storage, virtually any humidor (except for, perhaps, travel-size versions designed for five to seven cigars) is outfitted with separators. They can be moved around, and thus allow regulation of sections for cigars of different sizes. Larger and deeper humidors (for 100-200 cigars) are invariably outfitted with an additional upper drawer, which divides the storage area into two parts (albeit of unequal size) horizontally and help to maintain order.

Please check if the bottom that comes in contact with the table surface is lined with soft fabric. It would be a shame, if the polish on your table or commode gets scratched when you move the humidor. Velvet is normally used for this purpose.

Before you buy a humidor, please think about the size that you want. If you smoke one or two cigars a month, a small one, for ten to twenty cigars, will do. If you smoke once a week, you'll need a larger storage for twenty to fifty pieces. If you are an inveterate aficionado and smoke every day, then we don't need to explain anything to you, since you have surely bought a humidor long ago, and maybe now own more than one. A piece of advice for the rest of the crowd: once you have decided on the size of your future humidor, go ahead and buy one that's twice as large: cigar smoking is addictive and appetite comes with the eating.

Cigar Clan 6'2008 vol.1.  Sergey Drozdov