Hi all new member from NYC: Help with my bitter cigars?!

[ledelman]

Hi everyone,
I found this amazing community while troubleshooting a bitter cigar problem I've been worried about. This seems to be the most knowledgeable group out there judging from the pages and pages I've read about storage, maintenance, dry-boxing, etc. So nice to have access to all this cigar wisdom.

Let me get to it. I went from buying cigars at local BMs and smoking immediately, to guying a few and keeping them in Boveda ziplocs at home, to buying boxes and keeping them in a humidor I bought years ago and haven't used in years. All of a sudden, each cigar I smoked was crazy bitter. The internal temp of the humidor got up to 80f. I totally underestimated the importance of proper storage, and I thought that I had ruined hundreds of dollars worth of cigars.

After reading here a bunch, I think my issue is that the temps were too high in my humidor (80f), and that I have no patience and was smoking sticks form new boxes ROTT. I'm not smoking too fast, I;m sure of that. I use 69rh boveda, three packs in a 25 stick sized Savoy humidor. I calibrated a Boveda sensor hygrometer in one of their 75rh calibration packs for 24 hours and it came out perfect. Now that the weather has cooled down a bit, the internal temp is 73f, and the rh is 67-68% (with the 3 69% rh bovedas).

Can anyone think of a reason that I'm having this issue beyond what I've written? And importantly, will my cigars recover given better conditions????!!

Thanks everyone. Glad to have found you. There are not a lot of people in my day to day that I can have this conversation with. They'd be like, "What?".

 

[ApeSmokes]

Hi from Arizona. Welcome.

Couple of questions to help some of the smart guys (that will hopefully chime in later)
Are all of them bitter?
Did the bitterness only start after the temps went up?
How long were the temps elevated?
Have you purchased any new since then? Are new purchases bitter too, or just the ones that were part of your cigar broiling experiment?
How long are you letting your cigars rest after purchase?
How are you lighting them?
What's your smoking pace?
What kind of cigars are you experiencing this with?
Any other issues with the cigars that taste bitter? Tunneling, canoeing, relights, etc?

So without any of the above info, bitter usually comes from the cigars being wet, smoked too fast, scorched upon lighting, or being lousy cigars.
If your sure about the RH you're storing them in, and your sure you aren't smoking too fast, and you're lighting correctly... then maybe your BMs are storing too high (RH), and you're not letting them dry out long enough.

But my very first advice: 69% is right up where burn issues and bitterness start (for me). Try dry-boxing a couple for a day or two, and see if the bitterness persists.

-Ape

 

[ledelman]

Hi from Arizona. Welcome.

Couple of questions to help some of the smart guys (that will hopefully chime in later)
Are all of them bitter?
Did the bitterness only start after the temps went up?
How long were the temps elevated?
Have you purchased any new since then? Are new purchases bitter too, or just the ones that were part of your cigar broiling experiment?
How long are you letting your cigars rest after purchase?
How are you lighting them?
What's your smoking pace?
What kind of cigars are you experiencing this with?
Any other issues with the cigars that taste bitter? Tunneling, canoeing, relights, etc?

So without any of the above info, bitter usually comes from the cigars being wet, smoked too fast, scorched upon lighting, or being lousy cigars.
If your sure about the RH you're storing them in, and your sure you aren't smoking too fast, and you're lighting correctly... then maybe your BMs are storing too high (RH), and you're not letting them dry out long enough.

But my very first advice: 69% is right up where burn issues and bitterness start (for me). Try dry-boxing a couple for a day or two, and see if the bitterness persists.

-Ape

Thanks for the help Ape! Well, I had a bunch of singles and 5 packs that I bought from different online sources and BMs. Everything was fine in the boveda packs. Then I bought boxes of Roma Craft, Warped and La Gran Llave... quality cigars. They are spread out among the humidor that I resurrected, a tupperdore, and a large boveda bag. Then it got crazy hot and they are all bitter from the first light.

There have been some burn issues now that you mention it. 2 Roma Craft has identical issues where a channel would burn down one side of the stick.

I have been using a bic lighter, and I have to admit I’m not the most patient toaster. But that’s nothing new and the bitterness is.

I have other sticks too but don’t want to bother lighting them up until I solve this issue.

I have 3 sticks in a dry box. So we’ll see. I’m just glad there seems to be hope.

Also, what would you or anyone recommend as a temperature spectrum. Obviously 89 is too high. (Was at 80f for probably a week)

Thanks again!
L

 

[ApeSmokes]

The bitterness, combined with the burn issues, combined with the temp you had them screams "too wet" to me.
Remember, the "R" in RH stands for relative.
68% at 89℉ is too wet, imho.
Dryboxing should help.
Wouldn't worry too much about the temperature spike... Cigars routinely see higher than 89 in storage/transit, and Cuba and Central America aren't exactly cold locales.
See what happens after they dry out a bit.

As for temps, I'd say 65-70 is pretty standard recommendation for storage.

Good luck

 

[Boudie]

You know if you are worried about the 80+ temps during the summer you can always double or triple ziplock them with some boveda's and place em in your refrigerator. ApeSmokes covered just about everything I can think of. Once it cools off and you start running your heater you'll need to keep a close eye on your RH. Welcome to the forum!

 

[ledelman]

The bitterness, combined with the burn issues, combined with the temp you had them screams "too wet" to me.
Remember, the "R" in RH stands for relative.
68% at 89℉ is too wet, imho.
Dryboxing should help.
Wouldn't worry too much about the temperature spike... Cigars routinely see higher than 89 in storage/transit, and Cuba and Central America aren't exactly cold locales.
See what happens after they dry out a bit.

As for temps, I'd say 65-70 is pretty standard recommendation for storage.

Good luck

Thanks again. I’ll work on getting the temp down.

 

[ledelman]

You know if you are worried about the 80+ temps during the summer you can always double or triple ziplock them with some boveda's and place em in your refrigerator. ApeSmokes covered just about everything I can think of. Once it cools off and you start running your heater you'll need to keep a close eye on your RH. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the reply and the welcome. Happy to be here!

 

[GWBowman]

Welcome from southwest Virginia.

 

[multi-useless]

Welcome from stl! I will add, get a torch lighter.

 

[D.L.Ruth]

Welcome from norther NY!

 

[Nacho Daddy]

" three packs in a 25 stick sized Savoy humidor."
too much.
"I think my issue is that the temps were too high in my humidor (80f)"
is this humi outside ?

since your cigars have been over moist, it will take weeks to dry them down (assuming they are in cello).
You can speed this up by opening the foot of the cello and letting them sit out in a dryer place.
check then every few days.

 

[Yakcraz]

Welcome from Alabama

 

[Opie]

I’ll be in the minority here, but during the summer, my tuppers routinely see 80 degrees. I use 65%bovedas for my NC’s.

Id try lowering RH and giving the sticks a little more time to acclimate.

 

[ledelman]

Welcome from stl! I will add, get a torch lighter.

Thank you. Noted. I shall.

 

[Glassman]

Concur with these guys good advice.

Get yourself some 65 boveda as well.

2 other potentialities.

First and most likely is palate. If you're sick or have changed anything with time of smoking or medications it can affect perceived flavor. Sometimes palates go through burnt out faze. Sometimes changing drink or snack pairings can help. Others find that switching to biotene or other non sls containing Toothpaste and mouthwash can help dramatically.

The other being that if they were too warm and moist for too long it could have caused another fermentation phase to set in, causing a "sick period" to set in. Which could take six months to pass. If you're getting severe acridity and ammonia aromas, then that could be the problem. If so, let the humis breathe daily.

 

[ledelman]

I’ll be in the minority here, but during the summer, my tuppers routinely see 80 degrees. I use 65%bovedas for my NC’s.

Id try lowering RH and giving the sticks a little more time to acclimate.

Hmm. I’m hoping it won’t be an issue again until next summer. But I’ll keep that in mind. Lowering the RH...

I had thought that 70/70 was a the goal, and honestly I kind of ignored that anyway. Now I’m seeing all over the place that people are shooting for 65%RH, and that 70% is too high.

 

[Opie]

Hmm. I’m hoping it won’t be an issue again until next summer. But I’ll keep that in mind. Lowering the RH...

I had thought that 70/70 was a the goal, and honestly I kind of ignored that anyway. Now I’m seeing all over the place that people are shooting for 65%RH, and that 70% is too high.

It’s all personal preference, you can find tons of threads where this gets argued to death. Experiment and find what you like.

 

[ledelman]

Concur with these guys good advice.

Get yourself some 65 boveda as well.

2 other potentialities.

First and most likely is palate. If you're sick or have changed anything with time of smoking or medications it can affect perceived flavor. Sometimes palates go through burnt out faze. Sometimes changing drink or snack pairings can help. Others find that switching to biotene or other non sls containing Toothpaste and mouthwash can help dramatically.

The other being that if they were too warm and moist for too long it could have caused another fermentation phase to set in, causing a "sick period" to set in. Which could take six months to pass. If you're getting severe acridity and ammonia aromas, then that could be the problem. If so, let the humis breathe daily.

Thanks. If I get a cigar at a b&m it’s fine, so I think I can rule out myself here. The prospect of having to wait 6 months for healthy cigars is double edged. A: I spent the money and now have to wait! B: I get to buy more cigars now!

For now I have a few in a dry box so I’m a day or two I’ll have a better idea of the issue.

 

[ledelman]

Well everyone, I stashed 4 cigars in a dry box for a few days and just lit one. Happily I can say that it lost it's bitterness. Actually it was a little dry. I'm going to take the other 3 and put them back in the humi to regulate. I'll let them sit there for a week or so. The sticks that I never took out should be fine in a few weeks. The hygrometer is reading 63%-68% RH, and 68-71 degrees F. The weather has cooled, and I moved the box to a cooler place in the house. I'll continue to monitor... I'm not totally out of the woods yet but this experience has taught me a thing or two about troubleshooting and the importance of the the correct conditions.

Thanks!

 

[Boudie]

Just curious what you used for a dry box.

I generally keep a couple of dozen cigars I intend to smoke in traveldores with 62% Bovedas. Solves a couple of problems, I'm not constantly opening my large tupperdores and cigar cooler for a daily smoke and a couple of weeks at 62% seems to have solved my burn issues.

I think drastic changes in humidity can cause cracking in the wrapper.