help for a noob

klemme

hello

 

i am new to cigar smoking and i recently picked up a few cigars from cigar.com, as well as the cigar.com humidor. (i realize i will have to get a bigger one later, but i am just starting) 

being totally new to this, and i have a few questions:

1. what do i do with the humidor? it came with a black thing, (humidifier i'm guessing) but i don't know how to use it. do i just put the sticky tape on it and tape it to the top of the humidor?

 

2. i took the plastic off the cigars, is that a problem? a got a few cuban labels, a couple pardon 1926 #6s, and some Sol Cubanos. The pardons didn't even have a wrapper, so i assume it can't be too bad?

 

thanks for any help, i am looking forward to getting into this art.  

j0z3r

You need to season your humidor first. The way I usually recommend is to first get some distilled water, don't use tap or drinking water as it has minerals which can build up over time, not to mention the chlorine factor. OK so you've got your distilled water, what now? If you want to speed the process up a bit, you can get a cloth rag and get it damp, not wet, with distilled water and wipe down the interior of the humidor, to actually season it you should put a small saucer of distilled water in the humidor and leave it alone with the lid closed for 2-3 days. It is also ok to charge your humidifier with distilled water and install it at this time. An important note that I should have already mentioned is that you don't want cigars in the humidor while you are going through this process, keep them in a sealed container of some sort, the bag they came in or a small tupperware type container will do just fine.

As far as taking the cellophane off of the cigars, it is ok to do so, but be careful when handling them, because it will be easier to damage the wrapper of the cigar now. The cellophane serves as a protective layer on the cigar. Something that you should know is that cellophane is not plastic, unlike plastic it breathes, so keeping the cellophane on your cigars will not hurt them, and many people prefer to keep the cello on for the reason I mentioned before.