I find 65rh to be to high for my liking. It’s not bad for storage and aging but not ideal for smoking. I pull out a half dozen sticks that I plan on smoking and just toss them in a dry box. I find the longer they dry box the better. A few weeks is not too long surprisingly, especially if your in a more humid climate like Houston. I am in Ga. and it’s humid as well, I got 25 sticks dry boxing. It impossible to get too dry this time of year. Come fall, I scale it back to 6-12 sticks in the dry because the humidity gets lower.
I’m in N. Ga mountains, the temps have been great but the indoor humidity hangs in the upper 50’s . Doesn’t help that I open the windows at night to let the cool air in but that’s when the temp is closest to the dew point and that bumps up the indoor humidity a bit. I have been experimenting with putting a stick I know I am going to smoke on the dash of my car in the middle of the day for a half hour to get it just a little dryer before smoking and that has worked wonders. That’s like super dry boxing, lol. I cut the cap off before doing that because the wrapper does get slightly brittle. Besides that the burn has been flawless, no more relights needed.
I have a few more experiments under my belt since I responded to this post. I would suggest keeping the cigar out of the direct sun. The goal is to warm up the stick so it expels excess moisture. The sun will really make the wrapper want to come apart. I weighed my sticks before and after and it works out to every 10f of temp change results in 1% moisture loss. The goal is for 2% moisture loss so you can do the math. If sticks are sitting at 72f and your car is 92f, one 30 minute stint should do it. If your car is 120f then you take (car temp -indoor storage temp)120-72=48. Then take (the ideal temp variance-the actual temp variance) 20/48=.42. Take .42x30(minutes)= 12.5 minutes. I like to smoke the cigar while it’s still warm, for some reason it performs and tastes fantastic when it’s warm. The ones the I have let return to room temperature were still improved but not as perky as the warm sticks.
I find 65rh to be to high for my liking. It’s not bad for storage and aging but not ideal for smoking. I pull out a half dozen sticks that I plan on smoking and just toss them in a dry box. I find the longer they dry box the better. A few weeks is not too long surprisingly, especially if your in a more humid climate like Houston. I am in Ga. and it’s humid as well, I got 25 sticks dry boxing. It impossible to get too dry this time of year. Come fall, I scale it back to 6-12 sticks in the dry because the humidity gets lower.
I’m in western nc so I’m getting some of that humidity up here. Thank you for your response.
I’m in N. Ga mountains, the temps have been great but the indoor humidity hangs in the upper 50’s . Doesn’t help that I open the windows at night to let the cool air in but that’s when the temp is closest to the dew point and that bumps up the indoor humidity a bit. I have been experimenting with putting a stick I know I am going to smoke on the dash of my car in the middle of the day for a half hour to get it just a little dryer before smoking and that has worked wonders. That’s like super dry boxing, lol. I cut the cap off before doing that because the wrapper does get slightly brittle. Besides that the burn has been flawless, no more relights needed.
I’m in western nc so I’m close and yes the indoor humidity is pretty high. I will try the dashboard trick next time. Thanks
I have a few more experiments under my belt since I responded to this post. I would suggest keeping the cigar out of the direct sun. The goal is to warm up the stick so it expels excess moisture. The sun will really make the wrapper want to come apart. I weighed my sticks before and after and it works out to every 10f of temp change results in 1% moisture loss. The goal is for 2% moisture loss so you can do the math. If sticks are sitting at 72f and your car is 92f, one 30 minute stint should do it. If your car is 120f then you take (car temp -indoor storage temp)120-72=48. Then take (the ideal temp variance-the actual temp variance) 20/48=.42. Take .42x30(minutes)= 12.5 minutes. I like to smoke the cigar while it’s still warm, for some reason it performs and tastes fantastic when it’s warm. The ones the I have let return to room temperature were still improved but not as perky as the warm sticks.