Living in Caribbean

[Rudy]

If you live in Caribbean and store cigars, you only need a quality cigar box, ideally tropical cedar but many tropical hardwoods, properly aged and constructed, are fine.
I store cigars (all grown here) for personal use in Haiti and DR with no problems. They smoke and age quite well, despite ambient fluctuations in humidity and temperatures in 80s.

 

[multi-useless]

Welcome to BOTL?

 

[Boudie]

With the average summer time humidity and temperatures of lets say Haiti (convenient to look up) your probably fine.

 

[sonarman]

Sticky this...

 

[apaniagua]

I live in the DR and honestly the only issue is humidity. I use boveda packs and they last a whole lot of time but too high humidity is awful for cigars.

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[mi000ke]

I live part of the year on Grand Cayman - similar humidity - and I keep my cigars in a humidor at 65%. I suppose it would be Ok for some folks to leave them out in the typical 70-80% humidity but that's way too high for my tastes.

 

[Cigary43]

I don't know what to be jealous about first....great RH area....Caribbean....cigars....enough Rum to kill a person 100 times over.....?????

 

[apaniagua]

I don't know what to be jealous about first....great RH area....Caribbean....cigars....enough Rum to kill a person 100 times over.....?????

Haha dude, I loved living in the US but the DR is cigar paradise. Drive 2 hours, and you are at Santiago (the city of cigars). Beach is close to the city, and rum is everywhere. I love rum with passion fruit + a good cigar.

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[Rudy]

I imagine that RH consistently above 80 would have a negative impact, but living on North Coast of DR (50 yards from ocean) and south coast of Haiti has rarely seen such conditions for more than 12 hours and never (for me) hurt the flavor and/or functioning of my exclusively Dominican cigars.
I think the 70/70 recommendation may be good for those experiencing winter, and the "humidor industry", but is irrelevant for many locations.

 

[Cigary43]

Haha dude, I loved living in the US but the DR is cigar paradise. Drive 2 hours, and you are at Santiago (the city of cigars). Beach is close to the city, and rum is everywhere. I love rum with passion fruit + a good cigar.

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You poor man....I'll pray for you!!

 

[apaniagua]

I imagine that RH consistently above 80 would have a negative impact, but living on North Coast of DR (50 yards from ocean) and south coast of Haiti has rarely seen such conditions for more than 12 hours and never (for me) hurt the flavor and/or functioning of my exclusively Dominican cigars.
I think the 70/70 recommendation may be good for those experiencing winter, and the "humidor industry", but is irrelevant for many locations.

North coast? Puerto Plata? Samaná? You don't get RH 80? Well, lucky you. Santo Domingo is always 80+.

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[Boudie]

I imagine that RH consistently above 80 would have a negative impact, but living on North Coast of DR (50 yards from ocean) and south coast of Haiti has rarely seen such conditions for more than 12 hours and never (for me) hurt the flavor and/or functioning of my exclusively Dominican cigars.
I think the 70/70 recommendation may be good for those experiencing winter, and the "humidor industry", but is irrelevant for many locations.

Just curious do you keep your cigars for any length of time or since you have such easy access to factory fresh do you just pick them up as you need them?

 

[Rudy]

Just curious do you keep your cigars for any length of time or since you have such easy access to factory fresh do you just pick them up as you need them?

Good cigars are everywhere in the Santiago/Puerto Plata region (if you like Dominicans) but I have never stored cigars for more than a year and a half. The local stuff is great and sometimes as cheap as 100 pesos/stick ($2). But I have had no humidity problems and most improve with age. Despite being on the same island, I have yet to encounter quality cigar-making in Haiti, certainly not on a commercial scale. One small operation - Yaquiba - is based in Jacmel and has some tasty product, but the last box I bought turned out to have cigars full of holes.

 

[Boudie]

Holes? Small pin prick holes in the wrapper?

 

[apaniagua]

Probably beetles. That's a problem in our weather.

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[Boudie]

One reason to keep cigars below 70/70 no matter where you live.

 

[apaniagua]

One reason to keep cigars below 70/70 no matter where you live.

Hard when the country is constantly around 80-90F.

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[Rudy]

Tobacco beetle as responsible for the "holes". I don't think that a consistently high (80-90) temperature is as much a factor as the growing conditions and care given to the plants and the cigar-making process. And the tobacco beetle has the potential to infect all cigars in its vicinity. I keep cigars in a cedar box for months at a time at temps normally above 80F, with ambient RH usually between 68 and 78. I have never seen signs of beetles, mold (bad/darkish, not white "plume") or swelling due to excessive moisture. No bragging here, just an observation.

 

[Boudie]

White plume is mold. I live in SE Louisiana (semi tropical) and keeping my cigars in the 60s, both temp and humidity is essential. It's common practice to freeze Cubans to prevent, delay the onset of beetles even at the lower temps and humidity they are stored at.

You may be interested in this thread https://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/topic/131757-foh-mould-study/

 

[Rudy]

Last I knew, a little white dusting, which I have rarely seen, is a sign of aging not rotting. But, I agree, if you live in a swamp, you need to watch things a bit more carefully.