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Yet ANOTHER Humidor Question

maymgmaymg Posts: 47
I have a humidor from ccom. It is the Southport Large. I have upgraded to the Xikar round digital hygrometer and Xikar 70% crystals. I was looking for a cigar to smoke last night, and I noticed that a few cigars on the bottom of the humi were kind of soft... Is this how certain cigars are or is something wrong? My humidity is at 70% and the temp. is 70-71 degrees F. Some cigars are softer and some are harder? Is this normal??

Comments

  • The_KidThe_Kid Posts: 7,869 ✭✭✭
    how many cigars in the humi, and what's the names of the cigars that were soft?
  • maymgmaymg Posts: 47
    The Kid:
    how many cigars in the humi, and what's the names of the cigars that were soft?
    It is a 120 cigar capacity humidor, and I probably have about 50 in there. The one in particular that was really soft was a Gurkha Centurian. I grabbed a Cohiba Puro Dominicano out from the same spot and it was fine. I ended up smoking the Cohiba, and it was fine...
  • maymg:
    The Kid:
    how many cigars in the humi, and what's the names of the cigars that were soft?
    It is a 120 cigar capacity humidor, and I probably have about 50 in there. The one in particular that was really soft was a Gurkha Centurian. I grabbed a Cohiba Puro Dominicano out from the same spot and it was fine. I ended up smoking the Cohiba, and it was fine...
    It was the Gurkha. You're fine.
  • maymgmaymg Posts: 47
    StrongStyle:
    maymg:
    The Kid:
    how many cigars in the humi, and what's the names of the cigars that were soft?
    It is a 120 cigar capacity humidor, and I probably have about 50 in there. The one in particular that was really soft was a Gurkha Centurian. I grabbed a Cohiba Puro Dominicano out from the same spot and it was fine. I ended up smoking the Cohiba, and it was fine...
    It was the Gurkha. You're fine.
    Is it just a soft cigar in general or what?
  • The_KidThe_Kid Posts: 7,869 ✭✭✭
    K with only 50 Id say its probably not anything your doing. You could put your hygrometer down at that level, give it 5, and see what its reading.. Some cigars are softer than others, Gurkhas are ones that comes to mind not sure bout the centurians, but it seems SS has some experience with that one. Any others? 70 % humidity may be a touch too much, but that is the industry standard. I like to keep mine around 65 but it fluctuates. Some cigars smoke better drier while others taste better with a little more moisture,, will have to experiment and see which one works best for you.
  • maymgmaymg Posts: 47
    The Kid:
    K with only 50 Id say its probably not anything your doing. You could put your hygrometer down at that level, give it 5, and see what its reading.. Some cigars are softer than others, Gurkhas are ones that comes to mind not sure bout the centurians, but it seems SS has some experience with that one. Any others? 70 % humidity may be a touch too much, but that is the industry standard. I like to keep mine around 65 but it fluctuates. Some cigars smoke better drier while others taste better with a little more moisture,, will have to experiment and see which one works best for you.
    I will check tonight for some more if they are soft... Thanks for the help! How would you suggest lowering the RH with the Xikar crystal jar that i have since it is 70%?
  • CigaryCigary Posts: 630
    Gurkhas are notorious for soft spots and the Centurian is one of those I actually like...and the tobacco is not packed tight enough and at times it's like smoking a paper towel. If you want to get your RH down in a hurry throw in one of those small silica paks and it will do the trick. I advise keeping your sticks at 65% as well but that's JMHO.
  • maymgmaymg Posts: 47
    Cigary:
    Gurkhas are notorious for soft spots and the Centurian is one of those I actually like...and the tobacco is not packed tight enough and at times it's like smoking a paper towel. If you want to get your RH down in a hurry throw in one of those small silica paks and it will do the trick. I advise keeping your sticks at 65% as well but that's JMHO.
    Thanks for the advice! Why do you prefer sticks at 65% rather than 70%, just out of curiousity?
  • RhamlinRhamlin Posts: 9,010 ✭✭✭✭✭
    maymg:
    Cigary:
    Gurkhas are notorious for soft spots and the Centurian is one of those I actually like...and the tobacco is not packed tight enough and at times it's like smoking a paper towel. If you want to get your RH down in a hurry throw in one of those small silica paks and it will do the trick. I advise keeping your sticks at 65% as well but that's JMHO.
    Thanks for the advice! Why do you prefer sticks at 65% rather than 70%, just out of curiousity?
    They burn differently and have an easier draw at 65 vs 70 because there's less moisture in the cigar.
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    StrongStyle:
    It was the Gurkha. You're fine.
    exactly. dont be taken in by gurkha dont waste the money. they have so many issues its not worth sifting through the crap ones to find the ok ones.
  • edelrionycedelrionyc Posts: 361 ✭✭✭
    Some cigars are rolled and packed tighter than others hence giving a softer squishy feel to some cigars and a hard firm feel on others.... Just smoke those bad boys and if it burns good then there's nothing wrong.
  • CigaryCigary Posts: 630
    Keeping cigars at a certain RH is one of those topics that people have according to their own experiences and the 'book' says to keep them between 62-70% which is accurate...anything over 70% encourages beetles to hatch...they hatch in tobacco over 70% but that's another topic altogether. Some cigars smoke better at different relative humidity but that is something you'll know from experience as you smoke more cigars. I know cigars that don't really come into their "own" until they are rested at 70% for a few months while others are great at 65%. What you'll find with tobacco is the rate of combustion to which they burn...the more dense the tobacco is the longer they burn but you want to ensure that it's not packed so tight you can't draw from it. Expert rollers know how to pack a cigar just right so that you won't be fighting the effects of a cigar you can draw on. Too much RH will also make a draw that much harder which is why so many of us will store their sticks at 65%...it gives you a margin of error high or low.
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