A humidor is usually used to take care of tobacco products that need to stay moist, such as cigars or pipe tobacco. They can be very simple or quite complex depending on your budget and needs. At the most complex, you wouldn’t have many concerns about actual care since those would be basically built-in. An entire room can be set up as one large humidor with wall materials made to withstand and assist with humidity, such as cedar. In this case, it would probably also be equipped with an automatic humidifier, air movement controls, etc. You will see large humidor rooms in many specialty tobacco stores and in a wealthy area a store may have a tobacco storage area so large that you can dance in it. Some convenience stores also have walk-in humidor rooms of varying sizes. If you are a major enthusiast you may want to view some of these places for inspiration though it would be beyond the resources of this article to go into something of that nature. For the purposes of this article, though, we are talking about a small portable humidor for personal use that can be made or purchased at low cost. It is very risky business to make an attempt at a full-room humidor without the proper resources.
Before you even begin, you want to take care about how you go about this process. If you just drop a stack of lovely cigars into a new box and add humidifying agents, you are asking for trouble. Most boxes are quite dried out when you purchase or build them, and even with a dish or sponge inside the wood itself needs to reach a certain level of humidity. If you don’t allow for this, the wood will suck the moisture out of your tobacco instead of preserving it! Instead, you want to prepare your chosen container by allowing the humidifying agent to sit in the box for several days and hydrate the wood. I will go into more detail shortly about ways to monitor this. Once you have your humidor prepared, you are in good shape.
For a small humidor, most people will prefer to still purchase a box that was designed for this kind of use. Then you will be sure that the wood is of a proper type and that your tobacco will be as safe as possible. Technically, though, if you wish to use your own container you can do so. Any container will technically work if it is of the proper size and doesn’t allow too much moisture to escape but also doesn’t hold so much moisture that you may have problems with fungus or mold. For the simplest humidor, all you need is a container of this type and a small dish of distilled water inside to maintain humidity. You will need to monitor it very closely with a setup like this. Change the water daily and remove it altogether for a day or two if too much moisture accumulates.
For a more elaborate but still inexpensive setup, choose a pre-made container that was designed for this purpose. Some will have a special container inside with a special type of sponge. If not, you can still use the ordinary dish of either distilled water or (better yet) moisturizing products that are made for humidors. I have also found that in some cases, the containers that come with a sponge do not provide enough humidity in a very dry environment so you may have to add the dish or an additional sponge regardless.
Ideally, the average humidor should be approximately 70F/70% humidity and this can be monitored manually if you watch and learn. If your cigars have a bit of give and spring back to their original shape, they are probably good. Of course- any sign of mold or other growth indicates too much humidity. Be SURE to discard any tobacco or products that have mold or growth on them! If you want to make this humidifying process a lot easier, though, you can purchase an inexpensive device that will measure relative humidity in your humidor and you can find them easily on the internet or in most quality tobacco specialty stores. One device like this is called a hygrometer. Placement of a hygrometer within your small humidor is not critical so you can attach it where you wish. Use caution on the temperature of your humidor. While you can drift a bit from the 70F range, you don’t want to let your cigars get above 80 degrees. This can allow tobacco beetle eggs that are found in many good cigars to hatch. Once you have your humidor wood hydrated and your temperature and humidity settings are good, you are well on your way. If you have a good source of a moderate amount of moisture in your humidor, you are as footloose and fancy free as someone with a much more elaborate setup!
Even so, there are still some things you can do to improve just a little bit more if you wish. Learn what humidity zone is really ideal to you. Some people like their tobacco products very moist and others like them a little more dry. Different climates sometimes call for slight adjustments. One of the neatest things you can do with your humidor is to change your moisturizing solution from plain distilled water to a mix of propylene glycol and distilled water. This stuff is marvelous since it releases more evenly and has much less propensity for cultivating mold crops in your humidor! You can buy it pre-mixed from many humidor manufacturers and from some tobacco stores. My hometown is fairly small, but I have spotted these humidor pre-mixes in more than one location. You can also get the propylene glycol at some pharmacies and make your own 50/50 mix with distilled water if you are so inclined.
Generally speaking, you are good to go once you have your humidor set up with these specifications. Keep it out of direct sunlight. Take care about using cleaning products on your humidor as some can damage the wood itself or can harm the finish if you’ve purchased a nice humidor box. Other than that- having a nice small humidor of your own really isn’t too difficult. Enjoy!
