Ask halfwheel: Should I Drybox Wet Cigars?

It’s Friday, Friday, Fri—and time for Ask halfwheel, our weekly segment where we answer one question from a reader.

Today’s question comes from Jacob:

Can smoking a nice, exquisite cigar fresh out of the humidor make it taste bitter if it is too wet or moist? I know this can also cause a wrapper to fall off due to the moisture expansion as it evaporates. Letting them breathe for a bit seems to be worthwhile.

Smoking a cigar that is too wet certainly is not a good idea, but that doesn’t mean that every cigar one takes out of their humidor needs to sit before being smoked.

If the cigar went into your humidor very wet and still has more moisture than you think is comfortable, dryboxing, the process where one lets a cigar sit outside of a humidor, might be a good idea. However, dryboxing doesn’t always work. For me, living in Texas can oftentimes mean the relative humidity in the air outside of the humidor is between 60-70 percent if not higher, that’s not exactly going to be productive for the cigar drying out.

I have a few humidors that I keep right around 60 percent relative humidity and that serves as a dry box humidor when needed. Of course, if you live in the desert, this is not an issue.

For the vast majority of cigars I smoke, dryboxing does not happen. Every once in a while, despite my best efforts to appropriately humidify cigars, I will run across certain cigars that are too wet likely from storage and/or shipping by the manufacturer and retailer.

The scenario Jacob is describing where wrappers might break because of humidity is cause for concern. This likely means the humidor is way too humid or the cigars were very dry and then exposed quickly to a high humidity environment.

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