Bringing'em Back to Life

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Permalink Reply by Tiny Tim on January 9, 2009 at 10:14am

Yep, I've done it.

A friend of mine won a box of cigars in a charity auction. She had me in mind when she won them. Well, when she got home she put them in a drawer and forgot about them. They stayed there for over 6 months! Needless to say, when she gave them to me they were hard as bricks! I brought them back to life but it took a long time. Here's what you do...

They have to be rehumidified very slowly or they will burst. If your humidor is kept at a low humidity you can put them in the very bottom, as far away from the humidification element as possible. Leave them there for several months, then check them. If they are starting to come around you can move them up in the humidor to allow more humidification. The whole process will take around 4 months; maybe even 6!

The key is to rehumidify them slowly.

If they are extremely dry when you start it is doubtful they will regain the full flavor since the oils have dryed up. They will become smokable again but don't expect them to taste the same as fresh ones.

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Permalink Reply by fivebyfifty on January 9, 2009 at 10:15am

slow and steady. Bring them up slow like first at 60% humidy than 65% then 70%. but they will still never taste the same depending on how long they have been out of humid condition.

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Permalink Reply by Trav on January 9, 2009 at 11:47am

That's good info guys. Thanks. Got a co-worker who asked me to revive about 30 or so for him. Didn't really know how to do that, but told him I would give it a shot. Received them today and about half are in bad shape(hard as stone and wrapper in terrible shape). The other half I believe are salvagable. I'll give it a go.

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Permalink Reply by Charming Karl, Cookie King on January 9, 2009 at 12:15pm

I got a box of small Partagas cubans from a former boss a couple of years ago that he said were sitting in his drawer for not 6 months, but 10 years! Of course the oils were gone - the cellophane was stained brown by the oils being leeched from the cigars. He had never even opened the box.

What I did was to put a bunch of them (maybe a half dozen) in a Tupperware container of their own, still in the cellophane. I dampened a sponge and put it in a soapdish next to them, sealed it up, and checked on them every few days.

It took a few weeks, and a few more dampenings of the sponge, but they did come back enough to be smoked. I gave a few to a guy who was really into Cubans after he lost a ton of his cigars due to an accident, and he brought his back and said they weren't bad to smoke. Mine tasted decent, but nothing special. I still have about half the box waiting to be revived, but it's not a high priority right now since I have a couple hundred other cigars waiting to be smoked.

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Permalink Reply by Trav on January 9, 2009 at 1:27pm

Again, thanks for the help and input Karl. Think I'll try this a couple of ways as listed here and see what the results are. I'll keep you all posted.

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