Keep Your Cigars Smoking RIGHT in the Summer Months, by Tommy Zman
You guys know how much I bitch, whine, & complain about cold weather, waiting for what seems like an eternity to smoke cigars outside again here in northern New Jersey. Now, obviously intense heat makes things difficult on us lovers of the leaf, as well, and you guys in the southwest & southeast sure as hell know all about it. While it can get pretty hot here in Jersey, too, it’s the humidity that can make things tough on our beloved stoags.
Ideally, in the late spring and summer months you want to keep the temperature in your home 70 – 72 degrees and the same goes for your gars. Letting it get too hot in the house is going to make those cigars get overheated and dry cigars are just awful to smoke. And the same goes for the humidity. Those of us who live in more humid climates REALLY have to watch it because too wet, too moist can make a cigar unsmokable. In just the past couple of weeks here in the northeast, it has been hot and overly humid and I couldn’t keep my cigar lit for the life of me. After re-lighting a thousand times, I switched to smaller robusto sizes as the larger sticks had too much time to absorb the moisture in the air.
When it’s humid out, it’s humid in your home, too, and in order to keep your cigars around the 70-70 mark you unfortunately need to keep the air conditioning cranking. Hey, I know all about high electric bills, but it’s your precious, hand rolled babies we’re talking about, here! Conditioning the air in your humidor is equally as important (although my wife seems to have slightly different thoughts about this.)
Here’s something important to know – the reason why we season or toast a cigar (holding a flame to the head for ten seconds or so before smoking) is to let your puro acclimate to the high heat it is about to experience. Remember that you’re taking a wickedly searing hot fire and injecting it into moistened tobacco leaves that have been sitting in a much lower temperature and a much wetter environment. Ever have a good cigar swell up and split on you? Sucks, right? Generally that happens because your cigar was either over humidified or you just rammed a flame up it’s keester without first giving it a little tender love and care. When it’s hot and humid outside, you need to really take your time toasting your smokes, letting the moisture and oils warm up within the leaves so you can experience a nice, evenly burning 
smoke.
Now something REALLY EVIL that can happen when your cigars get both too humid and too hot… TOBACCO BEETLES! Even though today’s cigar makers take many precautions in eliminating unwanted bugs in your churchills and figurados, tobacco beetle eggs are microscopic and naturally live in the leaves. I know that sounds gross, but if they are there, they burn and you’ll never ever notice them. But when your humidor gets to be around 80/80, those pesky little bastids can hatch and THAT is a bad deal for the other inhabitants of your cedar box. When you see pin holes in your cigar, you know the s.o.b. ate his way out and is onto the remaining smorgasbord of premium aged goodness. Beetles can ruin a lot of expensive smokes so you really need to watch your humidor everyday during the summer months and regulate the conditions the best that you can.
So, there you go, a little bit of important cigar-stuff to think about during the season of barbecues, baseball, and burning your Belindas! Be oh-so kind to those beauteous smokes of yours and they are sure to be kind right back at cha!
PLEASE SUPPORT Cigar Rights of America as they continue to deal with congress, the senate, and all US legislators who need to be made aware that our cigars are the best friends we know of and we will fight like hell to keep them in our lives! >>http://cigarrrights.org
JR Cigars Blog with the Zman
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