Help! Was this cigar too humidified or too dry?

[Metallifan33]

Yep. I agree with you guys. Basically, the cigar was around 70% when I got it. I put it in my 65% humi for 3 days (not enough to get to 65%), then I left it in a cedar tray for 4 hours in 25% rh (lower as the cedar was sucking moisture off the wrapper).. Wrapper dried out while the inside was still moist.
The wrapper looked ok before I lit it but when I took it outside in the cold dry air and sat next to the hot fire and lit it, it was toast.
I learned a valuable lesson.
I'll still dry box (but just leave it on my counter for an hour or two) before I smoke it. I did that with my LP9 last night that came in the same batch and (although, I could tell it was a little more humid than I liked on the inside), it was just fine.
Getting the right absolute humidity in a cigar (all the way thru), just takes time it seems. Getting it done too fast will leave me with the wrapper, binder, and filler, all with different absolute humidity and that can be a recipe for disaster depending on the ambient conditions.
Thanks guys for all the help! ... I learned a lot.

 

[nayslayer]

Dry outside, wet inside

 

[Metallifan33]

Dry outside, wet inside

That's what she said.

 

[php007]

Agreed, that it was too dry since you left it out for 4 hours. If it truly is kept at 65%, why would you need to dry box it? Your cedar rack looks a lot like an empty Opus 22 tray.

Paul Patel.

 

[sofc]

Agreed, that it was too dry since you left it out for 4 hours. If it truly is kept at 65%, why would you need to dry box it? Your cedar rack looks a lot like an empty Opus 22 tray.

Paul Patel.

I dry box because I like my Liga at a lower rh and don't keep them in different humi any more.

 

[Metallifan33]

Agreed, that it was too dry since you left it out for 4 hours. If it truly is kept at 65%, why would you need to dry box it? Your cedar rack looks a lot like an empty Opus 22 tray.

Paul Patel.

Yeah... the only thing was that I only had the cigar a couple of days and have no idea what RH it was "truly" kept as. It came with a 69% pack and most places keep their cigars at around 70%, so I figured it'd be overhumidified instead of under (I prefer mid to low 60s for taste/burn). It just goes to show, ROTT is like a box of chocolates.
I do believe that it takes a few weeks for the cigar to equalize out all the way through, so I decided that I'm going to let my sticks rest a month before trying one. There's a chance they will be good ROTT, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed.