So, over the course of my brief cigar smoking journey, I've seen various complaints posted both here and elsewhere about the condition of sticks that come from Cigars International and Cigar Bid, those two outlets being more or less the same place from what I can tell. I've seen mention here that they over-humidify their stuff. I've seen mention elsewhere that they under-humidify and their sticks are "dried out, tasteless crap". When I started this journey about 2 1/2 years ago, i was getting the majority of my sticks from one of them or the other and I did experience a number of burn issues with various sticks back then, which seemed to indicate to me that maybe they were over-humidifying and their sticks were maybe a bit damp ROTT. So, I took to smoking them in chronological order of when I got them in order to give them maximum humidor time at what seemed to be the general consensus here as an optimal humidity - 65 RH. Since doing that, I've had fewer burn issues and better smoking experiences, at least for the most part. OK, that's the back story...
After seeing someone elsewhere complaining recently about what he thought was his "dried out, tasteless crap" issue, I decided to do some actual testing of sticks that were ROTT. I recently received a shipment from C-bid and tested them all with my Cigarmedics Humidimeter, which I've also been using on all the sticks I review. Here are the results as measured at the head and foot of one stick from each five pack, the first number being the head and the second being the foot.
- Laranja Escuro toro - 67, 59
- Manowar Side Project: Legion - 62, 55
- Brick House Mighty Mighty - 66, 61
- Latitude Zero Gordo - 68, 71
- La Perla Habana Classic Cameroon Toro - 72, 71
- Manowar Valkyrie Churchill - 71, 67
- Brick House Maduro robusto - 70, 54
- Macanudo Inspirado Green Robusto - 65, 64
- 5 Vegas Triple A Robusto - 74, 68
- La Palina Regal Reserve Toro - 62, 52
- Ave Maria Dark Knight Robusto - 71, 61
- Zino Platinum Scepter Series Grand Master Robusto - 67, 59
So, I was surprised to find that most of these numbers are right in line with the numbers I've been getting from my review sticks, most of which have been resting in my coolidors and tupper-dors for well over a year now. A few of them are maybe a bit damp and one is maybe a bit dry, but on average those numbers look very typical of my review sticks.
I should note that tightly packed sticks tend to read a bit higher and loosely packed sticks a bit lower, in my experience, which kind of makes sense because you'd expect a tightly packed stick to retain moisture better and longer than a loosely packed stick.
Anyway, just throwing this out there for general information in case anyone cares. Comments welcome... :smoker2:
I love the scientific approach Todd!
Find it very interesting that the RH between the head and foot can vary so much.
Quotenwb - 12/21/2020 7:51 PM
Find it very interesting that the RH between the head and foot can vary so much.
That could be just a difference in the tobacco density, foot vs head.
Quotewescat - 12/22/2020 7:09 AM
Quotenwb - 12/21/2020 7:51 PM
Find it very interesting that the RH between the head and foot can vary so much.
That could be just a difference in the tobacco density, foot vs head.
I've always assumed it's simply because the head is closed, trapping moisture at that end, while the foot is open (normally), allowing moisture to evaporate more quickly. I do still get the odd stick, and there's one in my list above, where the foot number is larger than the head number. No idea what's going on there...