A quick question of restoring dried cigars..

[erab]

The general consensus seems to be that you can't just shock them back to life by placing them in an established humidor.

My question is -- can you gradually bring them up to humidity, and back to life, by leaving in a humi as it seasons?

I have a friend that let his humi go and allowed about 8-10 cigars in it to dry out. He's getting back on the slope, and I've volunteered to re-season his humi for him. Can I simply leave his dried out cigars in there while I go through the process of re-seasoning it with a small cup of distilled water and some beads? Will that kill two birds with one stone?

[RGD]

None of this is going to be what you want to hear -

If you leave the smokes in there while you season the humi - they will most likely split the wrappers.
You can try to bring them back very slowly over a period of several months - but what will you end up with? Some very large cigarettes is what. Once a cigar dries out and loses its oils - it's pretty much done for. And yes - I have done it before.

It's tough sometimes - but best bet is just to toss them and start over.


Ron

[Liquidtensi0n]

How long a period of dryness would you say would be needed to completely kill a cigar (i.e., all oils gone)?

[erab]

Originally Posted by RGD

It's tough sometimes - but best bet is just to toss them and start over.

That's kind of what I thought, just wanted to make sure.

We're only talking about less than a dozen sticks, with none of them too rare nor expensive... no big loss -- but if they can be saved, I would have definitely tried.