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Cigar World’s Guide to Rehydrating Cigars

Tagged How To, Cigar Care
Posted 5 years ago | 2 Minute(s) to read

Like most good things in life, cigars need a little maintenance occasionally. As you may already know, leaving cigars outside a controlled, properly humidified environment can lead to them drying out and becoming stale. Thankfully, you can still rejuvenate most cigars and restore them to (almost) ideal condition by following a few simple steps.

Let’s break it down.

Rejuvenating Dry Cigars

The most straightforward way to restore a dry or under-humidified cigar is to place it into a properly humidified environment and wait. That’s right — in many cases, simply placing dry cigars into a sealed container, like a Ziploc bag, Tupperware, or a humidor with a humidification pack (or two, depending on the size of the container), and leaving them there for about a month will return the cigar to good smoking condition. Just make sure to monitor the humidity levels inside the container with a working hygrometer.

Pro tip for rehydrating a dry cigar: keep any cigars you’re trying to rejuvenate in a separate container from your other cigars. This will allow you to adjust humidity levels without affecting cigars that are already in good shape.

You can also bring dried-out cigars back to life by gradually increasing the humidity in the controlled environment. So, consider humidifying dry cigars first at 62% before raising the humidity to 65% or 69%, and further if desired. This will allow the cigars to adapt to more humid conditions slowly. We’d recommend this tactic for extremely dry cigars that may need more time to restore fully.

There is one caveat you should know before we go any further. Restoring a dry cigar to proper smoking condition will probably eliminate staleness and prevent major burn issues. However, once a cigar has become under-humidified for a sustained period (more than a couple of days), it’s likely that some of the original flavor profile will be lost for good. This is an unavoidable and unfortunate reality of under-humidification and one of the downfalls of rejuvenating a dry cigar.

Tips for Fixing a Cracked Wrapper

One tell-tale sign of a too-dry cigar is a cracked or frayed wrapper. While re-humidifying a cigar won’t fix an issue like this, you can attempt to patch a cracked cigar wrapper using a substance like pectin. Since pectin is a natural, tasteless, odorless, and sticky substance, it’s uniquely suited for cigar wrapper repair!

What are the Signs of a Dry Cigar

Not sure if your cigar needs extra humidification? Here are a few signs that indicate a cigar has become too dry.

Faded or wrinkled appearance
Cracked or frayed wrapper
Stale, bitter taste
Overly firm to the touch
Excessively hot and inconsistent burn.

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Previous Article: 15 Best Humidors For Home or Travel Humidors

For anyone new to cigars or even for the seasoned cigar expert, one of the key accessories to complete any cigar collection is a great humidor. Without storing your cigars at the proper temperature and humidity, they are certain to end up dry and anything but what the cigar artisan who rolled them intended them to be.

Next Article: 5 Top-Rated High-Tech Large Humidors

Keep your cigars fresh & make a statement with the best high-tech large humidors!

Comment (6)

Comments

2 NavyGunner
(9 months ago)

I have an older humidor so my % is around 60 most of the time. If I need to rehydrate I use my travel humidor which has a great seal and leave the cigars there for around a week to a week and a half. I will do the distilled water trick on the desktop humidor. Also I use “cigar juice” humidifying liquid. Most local retailers carry this and it can also be purchased online or at Amazon. Been using Joe Cool Cigar liquid and crystal gel humidifiers. Plan or ordering some new ones to replace the worn out ones. Great article BTW.
2 BenjaminsEO
(2 years ago)

I have also purchased a humidor bag from Bovena and it worked wonderfully.
- 3 SolracEscobar
  (2 years ago)
  
  I was about to suggest this. Did the same.
- 2 NavyGunner
  (9 months ago)
  
  Bóveda packs are great but can get expensive. Try the crystal gel humidifiers. They come in various sizes and shapes to fit your humidor. I use cigar humidifier liquid in mine, but you can use distilled water. Never use tap water.
2 Ahoyoboyo96
(2 years ago)
8 jamoose
(4 years ago)