Smokes taste "Refrigerated"!!!

[Jason Love III]

Hey guys! I need some serious BOTL help on this one! This is for anybody using a wine-coolidor or other kind of "refrigerated" humidor. I have a Magic Chef 52 bottle WC.

I pulled a Rocky Patel Vintage '90 churchill out of a cigar box in the wine coolidor tonight and right from the first draw I knew something wasn't "right". It tasted weird; cool, plasticy, "refrigerated", terribly flat and bland. I smoked it almost halfway down, still the same - I then tried a RP robusto '92 - same thing. Then it was an Upmann H-2000 robusto and then an Aroma de Cuba robusto, and from the first few puffs, THEY ALL TASTED LIKE $HIT. I wanna say they all tasted like "water-smoke" or something. No depth, flavor or anything. The burn and draw otherwise were great for all the stogs.
I have all my cigars in cigar boxes in the coolidor, and it's set for 70 degrees and it's constant around 66% RH. I use 2 digital hygrometers and they usually both have the same constant readings. I don't know what's going on except to think that maybe the cigars are taking on the "flavor" of the interior plastic when the cooling goes on, even through the cigar boxes.
I ended up putting all my cigars in my old humidor w/ the 65% RH beads and put the humidor back in the cooler. I then turned the temp up 3 degrees, so as not to come quite as frequently.
Has anybody else come across this problem? Are the cigars salvagable? I'm gonna wait for a week or so and see what happens, and if they're still bad I'll take the humidor out and just turn the AC on during the day I guess. As usual, I appreciate all the advice/suggestions I get from you guys!

[Jason Love III]

I just thought about it and maybe the humidity in cigar boxes isn't anywhere near 65% and when the cooling comes on it "dries" 'em out even more....I could be wrong - hell if I know...

[Todd38sd]

never a good idea to put cigars into any kind of refrigerated unit......they kinda get a freon or as you experienced...a plastic refrigerated taste....i learned this early on in my cigar smoking days and have never tried it again.

i may be wrong on this...but i find the rh is much more important than temperature when storing cigars....as long as the humidity is in the 65 to 70 percent range and that is a personal prefference.....whether they are 70 or 75 degrees or so has never made that much of a difference.....i just keep them in regular coolers in boxes with some form of humidification in each cooler.

as you probably know...cigars are very porous and will absorb any odors they are subjected to.....so at all costs keep them away from unpleasant odors.....stick your head in your wine coolerdor and i am sure you will find the smell is exactly what your cigars now taste like.

get the cigars out of there and the smell should eventually go away....

[Danimal]

Yikes. I know how much effort and money you put into that coolador. i hope things turn for the better for you.

[jgrimball]

Crap dude that sucks! I havent noticed any of my smokes tasting or smelling bad. I wonder what the problem is?!?!?!?! Let me know what you figure out.

[Danimal]

What did you wipe your cooler down with prior to installing everything and putting in your smokes?

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by Todd38sd

never a good idea to put cigars into any kind of refrigerated unit......they kinda get a freon or as you experienced...a plastic refrigerated taste....i learned this early on in my cigar smoking days and have never tried it again.

That's pretty much it Todd! They taste like it smells. UGH. I wiped down the cooler with distilled water and that's it DKim. I'm still deciding what to do here. I spent a few bucks on this thing! It's a working piece of art damnit! I'm glad your not having this effect Grim! It sucks.
I might go the regular cooler route like Todd here and then I'll start reading Wine Spectator, pretending I'm into wine so I'll feel better about my wine cooler purchase. I can use the temperature controller I bought to gauge my actual refrigerator, and then all I'll have to do is plug the HOLE I DRILLED in the side of the cooler for the temp. probe with some chewing gum, like it never happened! Yes. I'm starting to feel better now! I guess when I get home today I'll take them out of the cooler and just see how it goes and if I get the proper taste back in my cigars. Thanks, as always my fellow gorillas!

[Danimal]

Try wiping down with Isopropyl Alcohol and possibly putting some baking soda inside for a few days? The alcohol has a very high vapor pressure and will evaporate completely without leaving any odors but it will sanitize and get rid of some odors. The baking soda may help to absorb some funky smells.

[Jason Love III]

I'll try that, THANKS!

[jgrimball]

Originally Posted by jmgcash3

I'll try that, THANKS!

Two questions:
1) What did you light the smokes with?
2) Did you try smokes from different boxes?

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by jgrimball

Two questions:
1) What did you light the smokes with?
2) Did you try smokes from different boxes?

The first three I used my Colibri cigar torch, and the last one I used a match. 3 out of the 4 cigars were from different boxes and different racks(middle and bottom) and as soon as I started the first puff, they all tasted the exact same. I'm now thinking about all my options here...cooler, or Anteitam - I feel like I caught a bad case of food poisoning from a restaurant and now the very thought of eating at that same place is enough to make you gag. The thought of putting my cigars in anything that has plastic in it = .....I don't know if the baking soda idea will get rid of the "smell" or not. I mean, it's a new wine cooler, so it's gonna smell a little "plasticy" I know, but DAMN!

[jgrimball]

Do you have cedar in there?

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by jgrimball

Do you have cedar in there?

No cedar, just about 8 or so cigar boxes...

[IHT]

i've never had that problem.
i know that doesn't help.

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by IHT

i've never had that problem.
i know that doesn't help.

No - It's good to know that my coolidor sucks. Maybe it's a Magic Chef thing....