Reviving old, dried out cigars.

[Johnny Thunder]

I'm looking for suggestions for trying to save some old cigars I have been given.
Could you suggest various materials I can use to bring the RH up slowly, in stages?
Whether that be beads, bovedas, cat litter or any materials.


Cheers.

[TonyN]

It can be done johnny if you have the patience it's a slow process, in your shoes this is what i'd do
other members might do it differently

The idea is to recondition the cigars slowly: Place them as far away as possible from the humidification device for the first couple of weeks, and then move them closer over a period of six weeks. Or, you might place the dry cigars in a box that has lower humidity for a week, and then put them in a box with slightly higher humidity for a week or two, and finally in a box with the proper 70 to 72 percent humidity. Again, the entire process might take up to six weeks

[Joss]

I'm looking for suggestions for trying to save some old cigars I have been given.
Could you suggest various materials I can use to bring the RH up slowly, in stages?
Whether that be beads, bovedas, cat litter or any materials.


Cheers.

Never tried this but the staged approach is often discussed as a way to bring back moisture. Please post your results on here, would be interesting to see how you get on. Good luck- hope you get success.

[jerryr]

I am new to the forum, but I've used the following method to "'re-hydrate" a box of old cigars although it takes about a month to get them in a reasonable condition.

1 wrap the box on a dampish towel (dampen with distilled water) for a couple of weeks. I kept them in a cupboard and checked every few days to make sure the towel remained damp. this allows the wooden box to absorb moisture and start the 're-hidifaction.

2 After a couple of weeks I removed the damp towel and placed the whole box in a ziplock bag with a hygrometer and a humidifaction pack, I used a bovega 65% for 2-3 weeks, after which the cigars felt firm but spongy. At this point I moved them I to my humi.

I I haven't tried one ye,t they're sitting in the humidity a bit longer.

Hope this is of some help.

[cj121]

The thing, IMO, regarding rehydration is that whilst we can get a cigar to a 'smokeabe' condition, they'll never be back to what they were as the oils will have dried up and flavour lost. Of course we'll hear stories of 'success' but I personally question how good the cigar will be comparing it to what it actually was. Length of time being dried out will ultimately impact, but I don't have any empirical evidence to support how long is too long.

Give it a go and please let us know how you get on.

As a footnote, I once went to purchase a large collection years ago, only to find the cigars were dried up. I grabbed a few dozen as an experiment to look at rehydration. They are smokeable, but never anything I'll reach for. They taste acrid and pretty crap if I'm honest. If memory serves me right, they'd been dried out for a year at least.

[Johnny Thunder]

I think these may well have been lacking the love for a lot longer than a year [MENTION=201]cj121[/MENTION].
I will split them into smaller batches and give it a try.
I will let you know how things turn out.

[cj121]

I think these may well have been lacking the love for a lot longer than a year @cj121.
I will split them into smaller batches and give it a try.
I will let you know how things turn out.

Yeah, give them a go Johnny
You've nothing to lose and I hope that I didn't give the impression I was putting a downer on things

[Johnny Thunder]

Yeah, give them a go Johnny
You've nothing to lose and I hope that I didn't give the impression I was putting a downer on things

Not at all mate. I am not expecting to make them anything other than a cheap smoke for fishing.
Anything better than that is a real bonus. These sticks are solid. Rock hard.

[Simon Bolivar]

I would aim at preparing them even slower & once spent 6month + brings some Cuban Davidoff No1's back to life. As CJ said waste of time, apart from being able to say I have smoked one.

[tommy]

I did have some success rehydrating some smokes, the problem is that as CJ and Simon said they rehydrated without splitting but tasted poo. What are the smokes JT?

[jerryr]

I must concure, this evening tried one of the Cohiba exquisitos I was given and dehydrated and they were nothing special, in fact they taste pretty cheep and nasty.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[Undercover]

I had better luck, though perhaps I'm not that discerning. I had some Monte 1s, Sancho Panza Sanchos and a few Boli PCs which had been 'abandoned' in a humidor in the attic for 13 years til I returned to cigars last year. I followed the advice for gradual rehydration and found the Monte 1 and Boli PC smoked ok. In fact, I got a new Monte 1 and Boli PC to try and my resurrected sticks seem to smoke comparably well.
Maybe the house being naturally damp helped preserve them? My bovedas have yet to go crispy after 10 months presumably because of the ambient humidity in the house. So, unless you know they've been totally dried out, it's worth giving it a try.

[Johnny Thunder]

Thanks everyone. I will certainly smoke a few samples to see how this goes.

[Nick2021]

The thing, IMO, regarding rehydration is that whilst we can get a cigar to a 'smokeabe' condition, they'll never be back to what they were as the oils will have dried up and flavour lost. Of course we'll hear stories of 'success' but I personally question how good the cigar will be comparing it to what it actually was. Length of time being dried out will ultimately impact, but I don't have any empirical evidence to support how long is too long.

Give it a go and please let us know how you get on.

As a footnote, I once went to purchase a large collection years ago, only to find the cigars were dried up. I grabbed a few dozen as an experiment to look at rehydration. They are smokeable, but never anything I'll reach for. They taste acrid and pretty crap if I'm honest. If memory serves me right, they'd been dried out for a year at least.

I have not had much luck either for the same reasons listed above. I do believe the cigars are smokeable, but they were not the same and I never reached for them again. It was a shame too as it was a nice box of Mag50s from 09. Same thing happened to other friends who had dried out cigars....