Keeping a few sticks healthy while seasoning a humidor

[QWKDTSN]

Hi all, I have about six or seven good cigars sealed up in a ziploc baggie. Five of them were just purchased a couple of days ago while the other two are about a week old. All of them are in their cellophane wrappers.

I have my first humidor on order and it should be arriving in a couple of days. I know it will take 2-5 days longer to get the humi seasoned before I can transfer the cigars into it. At that point I am worried that the cigars will be so dried out that I won't be able to enjoy them for several weeks or months!

Has anyone been in this pickle before? Should I add a bit of moist paper towel to the baggie to get a little more humidity into their environment in the time being or do I run the risk of over-saturating them? Should I just take my medicine and order some more cigars to smoke in the time being while these ones are re-humidifying?

Thanks!

[Baldyisme]

Ziplock should be fine as long as you don't have them sitting out in the sun or someplace hot. Having said that, in your shoes, I transfer everything to a tupperdor. It'll have higher capacity, provide better protection and should maintain a better and more constant humidity. Make sure you pay attention to the temperature too.

[Oxman]

Boveda packets work well here...in fact, they are awesome for this sort of thing.

[Mustard]

Smoke the 6-7 cigars before your humidor arrives and order more cigars .Your cigars will be fine in a ziploc bag.

[Jack Straw]

They should be fine, especially this time of year when it is more naturally humid outside.

[QWKDTSN]

Thanks guys! Hearing that they should be fine is a big relief. I live in a humid area (right now it's supposedly 82%) but i had a couple of cigars go dry and crack on me before I really knew about proper storage and I don't want the same fate to befall these ones.

[guy g]

Like the tupperdore idea,you might get an acrylic jar from walmart, add a humidifier and you have instant backup and add'l storage.

[Cigar Man Andy]

Why not just use a cigar box. A good box like a Casa Magna or a Feunte 8-5-8. If not the Tupperware is the best idea, but either way use a water pillow.

[Mustard]

Just don't mix the Acids with the regular cigars. Unless you want all your cigars and your humidor to have the Acid aroma.

[QWKDTSN]

Thanks, not sure if I can buy any water pillows, beads, or other humidifying agents locally. My humidor should be here tomorrow and my cigars still seem to be healthy in their ziploc (although I am every inexperienced with the squeeze test).

I had one Acid and smoked it the same day I bought it, pretty fun and tasty, although I will probably smoke traditional cigars most of the time. I will be sure to keep them seperate if I buy some more.

[QWKDTSN]

Humidor came in safe and sound along with a Palio cutter (seems phenomenal as tested on a few old stogie butts but I wish it were a bit bigger ring gauge - should work fine for most caps though) and a nice lighter - not a bad deal online - especially with digital hygrometer.

The humi is about 6 hours into the seasoning process with a shot glass of distilled water only. The urge to keep opening the lid to check the meter is overwhelming. I have another 15 sticks coming in the mail in a couple of days, I want this thing fully seasoned and ready to go!

[QWKDTSN]

Update - prepare to cringe!

After a full 24 hours with just a shot glass of distilled water in the humidor, the RH actually went down from 62% at 12 hours to only 58% at 24 hours.

I thought about it a bit, did some research, and decided to be a bit more aggressive. There seems to be about a 50/50 split on whether wiping down the interior is a good idea or not. Cigar Aficionado recommends it which is good enough for me. This box is solid cedar and only a 25 count, so it's very small.

I wiped down the interior with a new sponge and distilled water, filled up the humidifier with DW, and left the moist sponge on a piece of plastic inside.

I let it sit for 24 hours and very dilligently did not open it.

When I did open it I knew I'd gone a bit too far!! The digital hygrometer read 89%!

I removed the sponge and let the humi sit open for about an hour, then closed it long enough for the hygrometer to get a good reading. 76%. I figured that would be OK as my cigars have probably been drying out over the past week, even in their ziplock baggie.

I put the stogies in the box to let them start soaking up the leftover humidity and have been checking the hygrometer every couple of hours. Since I woke up this morning the meter has been reading a solid 70-71 % RH.

So all in all, I think I balanced things out well! I know this is a very noob approach, but I think the RH should be good from here on out.

BTW, the box is solid cedar and no warping or raising of the grain occured from lightly wiping down the interior. It seals on a cushion of air.