How to Store Cigars Without a Humidor (and When to Get One)

My daughter calls my cabinet humidor "the museum." I built it from Spanish cedar in my shop and I'm proud of it. But I'll tell you what I tell Theo, the newest guy at our Thursday table: you don't need a beautiful wooden box to keep a cigar happy. You need the right conditions.

What cigars actually need

A premium cigar is made of leaves that were carefully aged and fermented. Once it leaves the shop's humidor, it starts trading moisture with the air around it. Too dry and it burns hot, tastes harsh, and the wrapper can crack. Too wet and it's hard to draw, hard to keep lit, and prone to mold.

The target most people work from:

• Humidity: roughly 62 to 70 percent relative humidity. The old rule of thumb is 70 percent, but plenty of smokers (me included) prefer the mid-60s for a better burn.
• Temperature: room temperature, roughly the mid-60s to around 70°F. Keep them out of heat.
• Darkness and stability: out of the sun, away from vents, and not bouncing between hot and cold.

Hit those, and a plastic box can do the job as well as a wooden one.

The simple setup: a "tupperdor"

This is what I recommend for anyone holding a handful of cigars for more than a few days.

1. Get an airtight container. A food storage container with a gasketed lid or a large glass jar with a good seal. Wash it with unscented soap and let it dry completely, because smells transfer into tobacco. 2. Add a two-way humidity pack. These are small pouches (Boveda is the best-known brand) that release or absorb moisture to hold a set humidity level. A 65 or 69 percent pack is a good starting point. Use the size and number the maker recommends for your container. 3. Optional: add cedar. A strip of Spanish cedar from an old cigar box adds a nice aroma. Not required. 4. Store it somewhere cool and dark. A closet shelf or cabinet away from the water heater and away from windows. 5. Check it. A small hygrometer or a humidity indicator card tells you if things drift. Replace the pack when it gets stiff and crunchy.

That's the whole system. It costs little, takes five minutes, and it's honestly more airtight than a lot of entry-level wooden humidors.

Short-term options

Zip-top bag with a humidity pack. Fine for a week or two, or for travel. Squeeze out extra air and keep it out of the sun. Anything longer, move to a rigid container so the cigars don't get crushed.

The cellophane they came in. It slows drying a little, but it isn't a long-term plan. Treat cello as a few days of grace, not storage.

A cooler ("coolerdor"). If you end up with a box or two, a clean, unused cooler with the right number of humidity packs works well. It's the same idea as a tupperdor, just bigger.

What not to do

• Don't use the fridge. Refrigerators are dry and full of food smells. Your cigars will taste like last night's leftovers, and they'll dry out.
• Don't leave them in the car. Heat is the fastest way to ruin a cigar. Warm temperatures are also when tobacco beetles, a small pest that can hatch in tobacco, tend to become active.
• Don't soak a sponge in tap water. If you use a sponge instead of a humidity pack, use distilled water, keep it damp rather than dripping, and watch it closely. Too much moisture invites mold, and tap water brings minerals along for the ride.
• Don't overcrowd with other things. No flavored cigars mixed in with your regular ones unless you want everything to taste like vanilla.

How to tell if your cigars are too dry or too wet

Too dry: the wrapper looks dull or cracks when you roll it gently, the cigar burns fast and hot, and the flavor turns sharp.

Too wet: it feels spongy, the draw is tight, it keeps going out, or it burns unevenly and tunnels down the middle. (If one goes out on you mid-smoke, here's how to relight it calmly.)

A cigar that's slightly dry can often be brought back by sealing it with a humidity pack and giving it time, a week or more. Go slowly. Rushing moisture back in can crack the wrapper.

Mold vs. plume

If you see something on a cigar, look closely. Mold tends to be fuzzy or spotty and often blue, green, or gray, and it can come back after you wipe it. Plume (sometimes called bloom) is a fine, whitish powder that brushes off easily, and some smokers see it as a sign of aging. People argue about plume. Nobody argues about mold. If you're not sure, don't smoke it, and check the others in the container.

When it's time for a real humidor

If you're buying more than a handful at a time, or you've started picking up boxes, a proper humidor makes sense. A desktop model that holds 25 to 50 cigars is plenty for most people.

A new wooden humidor has to be seasoned before you put cigars in it. The wood is dry from the factory and will pull moisture out of your cigars if you skip this step. The easiest method is to place seasoning packs made for the job (Boveda makes an 84 percent version) inside the empty humidor, close it for about two weeks without opening it, then switch to your regular humidity packs and move the cigars in. Follow the specific instructions that come with your packs and your humidor.

Whatever you use, the principle is the same one I learned from building cabinets: good results come from stable conditions and patience, not fancy hardware.

Keep track of what's in there

Once you have a few cigars resting, it's easy to forget what you bought and when. I keep my inventory and notes in LongestAsh so I know what's been resting a month and what just came home from the shop. If you're still building that first handful, our best cigars for beginners list is a friendly place to start. When you're ready, log what's in your box there too.