Freezing cigars

Freezing makes them taste better, and burn cooler.

In fact, if you want a super cool burn, smoke them fresh out of the freezer so you can get those little tobacco flavored ice crystals with each draw. Yum! Don't believe me? Google it.

Same thing as Folgers Crystals, right? Flavor country.

0patience said:

Patrick has one of those cigars. Very limited release.

dirtdude

I take the precaution to freeze as home temps are around 80 in the summertime.

Smart

KenpoKnight

miller65rod

I have never frozen. The only ones I would ever worry about are custom rolled off the island and I have yet to freeze them.

A few years back I left a cigar in my garage for over a year and it was over 100 degrees and never a hatch. I am doing this with a CC currently. No beetles yet.

CC's that are exported are frozen before export, they have been doing this since 2006 or 2008. I worry more about humidity then I do temp. The key IMO is stability in humidity.

I am hoarding over 7200 boxed seegars at last count. I have added more and storage is always the issue. 7 120qt coolers (just bought another) and a very large humi are not cutting it.

Where I am currently it gets over 120+ during the day. My coolers here are in the mid 70's or even higher at times. A/C cannot keep up. Humidity though is in the upper 60's in the coolers. Never once had a problem.

I think many are over doing it. That's just my perspective. Stabilize your humidity and enjoy.

Try some experiments and see. You may be surprised.

https://youtu.be/VPUnO2SlQi4?t=29

We can freeze if we want to,
we can leave your bugs behind
But if you bums don't freeze,
then your bugs don't freeze
well they're, no friends of mine

I say, we can freeze when we want to,
at a temp where bugs die fine
And we can act like we come from a bug-less world
Leave the real one far behind,
And we can freeze

I want some one sign of a beetle hole in a cigar from another brother and another brother saw a beetle hole in a cigar that I sent him oh, but I haven't had any real big problems with beetles.

I did go through all my sticks when it was reported to me that I sent out a stick with a beetle hole in check them all.

Show of hands,........Who has actually had beetles? Confirmed sightings, or undeniable evidence. (One little round hole in a wrapper is not undeniable evidence in my book.)

I've had three separate incidents. These came to me from outside sources. Never cigar.com. And it happened years ago. I froze a lot of cigars. Since that time, no signs of bugs, and I have relaxed my methods.

My advice,.... It's rare, don't worry about it until you have something to worry about.

Never saw a critter, just a suspicious hole.

jd50ae

Tried freezing once. No particular reason. Its just when they defrosted it took days to mop it up.

Many, many years ago, I got some cigars from an island and that island wasn't Cuba. It were an island mon.
And those cigars did have holes and did have beetles.
Fortunately, I didn't have a lot of cigars that I kept on hand at that time, so the loss was insignificant.

But I did learn something.
And while I don't freeze, I don't have problems either and most of that comes from where you purchase from.

Amos_Umwhat

Couple suspicious holes, and one cigar with growing larvae assumed to be the dreaded beetles. Don't remember the cigar brand, probably 2009 or'10. Froze everything that I got between June and October after that for a couple years, then got lazy. er.

YankeeMan

Bob_Luken said:

Show of hands,........Who has actually had beetles? Confirmed sightings, or undeniable evidence. (One little round hole in a wrapper is not undeniable evidence in my book.)

I've had three separate incidents. These came to me from outside sources. Never cigar.com. And it happened years ago. I froze a lot of cigars. Since that time, no signs of bugs, and I have relaxed my methods.

My advice,.... It's rare, don't worry about it until you have something to worry about.

Knocking on my head, I've never even seen one.

VegasFrank

Not sure what a singular round hole would be evidence of if not beetles?

VegasFrank said:

Not sure what a singular round hole would be evidence of if not beetles?

It is from beetles, but because there is a hole there, doesn't necessarily mean the beetle is still there.
And it may have been frozen and the beetle is dormant. In which case, you'll get a little "pop" when it cooks. LOL!

VegasFrank

Ah, I see! I've gotten that pop before. Awesome to know that I smoked a beetle!

jlmarta

I’ve experienced beetles on a couple occasions. Early in my cigar journey I bought a few sticks from a B&M in a nearby college town. A few Partagas and a few of something else. The Partagas had beetles.

Another time, my child bride and I cruised to the Bahamas and I bought some sticks from Greycliff for myself and some for a forum brother. I bought these at the Greycliff hotel and there were beetles in all of them. Plus, Greycliff charged more for their sticks than I would have had to pay for them from CCom.

I didnt notice these beetles until until we got home. Needless to say, I’ve never bought another Greycliff stick. 👎

Rhamlin

I did it at first but stopped which was what 8 years ago. I’ve never had a problem. The main thing is control the humidity and temperature. That’s why the 70/70 standard. Stay below that you’ll be fine.

Many pointed objects will poke a nice, very round hole in a cigar wrapper at some point along the distribution chain, before it gets into our hands. I've seen way more holes that I judged to be accidental damage than holes I considered bug related. There are other, more definitive clues.

Dark_Roast

miller65rod said:

I have never frozen. The only ones I would ever worry about are custom rolled off the island and I have yet to freeze them.

A few years back I left a cigar in my garage for over a year and it was over 100 degrees and never a hatch. I am doing this with a CC currently. No beetles yet.

CC's that are exported are frozen before export, they have been doing this since 2006 or 2008. I worry more about humidity then I do temp. The key IMO is stability in humidity.

I am hoarding over 7200 boxed seegars at last count. I have added more and storage is always the issue. 7 120qt coolers (just bought another) and a very large humi are not cutting it.

Where I am currently it gets over 120+ during the day. My coolers here are in the mid 70's or even higher at times. A/C cannot keep up. Humidity though is in the upper 60's in the coolers. Never once had a problem.

I think many are over doing it. That's just my perspective. Stabilize your humidity and enjoy.

Try some experiments and see. You may be surprised.

Sometimes we underestimate the resilience of tobacco.

EgoBoundary

I think it’s amazing that @miller65rod has never gotten beetles ... I have only bought maybe 15 total boxes , and I ran into beetles with a box of montes open eagles ... suckers tore into my RyJs and punch too... didn’t touch the Fuentes...

deadman

@EgoBoundary said:
I think it’s amazing that @miller65rod has never gotten beetles ... I have only bought maybe 15 total boxes , and I ran into beetles with a box of montes open eagles ... suckers tore into my RyJs and punch too... didn’t touch the Fuentes...

The beetles you had where clearly cigar snobs 😂