How to properly freeze cigars?

[Golfman]

Due to the amount of responses that my previous post has recieved, the one about humidors and the high temp that is present in it, i feel its necesary to follow up with a post that explains how to properly freeze cigars.

I have heard rumors that freezing cigars in a home freezer doesnt do the job and can ruin the cigar. I have also heard that freezing at home works to kill possible beetles and beetle eggs. I need to know the facts.. cigars are just to precious to take the chance. If anyone can give me some solid advice for freezing cigars that would great. I think a lot of people are in the same boat as i am, possibly in a worse situation. Thanks for the imput cigar aficionados!

[Ermo]

I have never done it, but there are many posts about it. All I can offer is a "search" response. sorry.

[icehog3]

From CW:

Cigar Beetle eggs can be killed by exposure to temperatures easily obtainable by home refrigerators/freezers. An industrial deep freeze is not required, as rumor has indicated.

There is a direct correlation between the time it takes to kill and temperature. The colder the temp, the shorter it takes to kill eggs.

The figures below are time to kill 95% (abbreviated LT95) of eggs exposed to the environment. Keep this in mind when applying these figures to cigars because 1) we want to kill 100% of eggs and 2) any eggs inside our cigars have a thick layer of insulating tobacco that must be cooled before the eggs will reach that temperature.

5c (41f) requires ~12 days (275 hours)
0c (32f) requires ~9 days (220 hours)
-5c (23f) requires ~4 days (100 hours)
-10c (14f) requires less than 24 hours
-15c (5f) requires less than 24 hours
-20c (-4f) requires less than 24 hours


The length of time you should freeze your cigars depends on the temperature your freezer is at. I highly recommend that everyone using their freezer to treat cigars keeps a fridge/freezer thermometer in there so they know roughly what temp range their freezer runs at. These are available at most grocery stores, usually with baking supplies. From experience I have seen home freezers that run anywhere from 1 degree below freezing to as low as -25c.
Right now I am trying to get data on how long it takes a cigar to go from room temp to 5c, and from 5c to -20c. Based on data from other consumables I estimate it would take a cigar at least 24 hours to reach the same temperature as the freezer (equilibrium) when it is moved into the freezer from the refrigerator. Based on this alone one should add 24 hours to amount of time cigars are kept in the freezer.
The times given above are to kill 95% of eggs. I have not found times required to kill 99.9% of eggs but doubling the LT95 for that temperature should be more than sufficient.

IN SUMMARY

Double bag your cigars and let them spend 24 hours in the refrigerator. I think everyone agrees that this gives the cigars a safe transition from room temp to near freezing. Move the cigars into the freezer. How long they should stay there depends on your freezer temp. If it is below -10c 72 hours in the freezer should be sufficient. That's 24 hours to get the cigars to -10c, 24 hours to kill 95% of eggs, and an extra 24 hours for good measure. When coming out of the freezer it is a good idea to let the cigars spend 24 hours in the fridge, and another 24 hours at room temp STILL SEALED IN THE BAGS. This protects the cigars from rapid changes in temp/humidity.

I know there are some out there who prefer to avoid freezing because of potential damage to cigars and the rest period required afterwards. The time required will vary greatly based upon the temp of your fridge. Keep in mind the temp will also fluctuate based on door opening/closing etc. (Although this occurs in the freezer, it is less of an issue due to the comparatively short time required) With an LT95 of 12 days at 5c I would personally keep cigars in there for at least 3 weeks.

This information should be applied to uninfested cigars for prevention of a beetle outbreak. If you have cigars that are infested or you know have been exposed to beetles they should be subjected to more lengthy treatment because they will presumably have far more eggs present than any uninfested cigars that picked up some eggs during manufacture.

[Golfman]

thanks thats exactly what i needed to know

[Twill413]

ran across something interesting at CI in their cigars 101 link.

"Up until recently, the attempt was to destroy the beetle and the larvae of the infested cigars by shock-freezing them at the temperature of minus 20 to 22 degrees centigrade. Tobacco importers, though not all of them, are deep-freezing their tobaccos, as well as their cigars, for up to 14 days.

Tobacco importers like Philipp Schuster of August Schuster Cigarrenfabrik in Bünde, fared very well with this method - however at a freezing temperature of minus 28 degrees centigrade! "At higher freezing temperatures, the larvae and eggs of the to-bacco beetle can still survive, even if the moths themselves die". This is exactly the point. Botanists also admit the survivability, even at low temperatures."

http://www.cigarsinternational.com/h...g101_14ymt.asp

So, I guess the effect that freezing in a home freezer is debatable and varies greatly depending upon where you go for info, but if it makes you feel better about the little buggers, by all means go ahead. It can't really hurt if you do it right.

[smokinpoke]

i read somewhere...don't know if it was on this site or not that some of the larger cuban companies are going to freeze the cigars before they start shipping them hopefully this is true and the rest of the large manufacturers will catch on.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by smokinpoke

i read somewhere...don't know if it was on this site or not that some of the larger cuban companies are going to freeze the cigars before they start shipping them hopefully this is true and the rest of the large manufacturers will catch on.

I believe I read that Habanos SA was going to freeze all their cigars now, good news for smokers. Still need to keep an eye on them though.

[galaga]

Here's my personal expeireince with the beetles. I run a coolerdor and had some beetles. I got a block of dry ice from work. I put some cardboard over the top of the cigars to protect the cigars from condensation and then put the dry ice over the top of that. Over the next day the temp got down to -15/20 and stayed there for at least 3-4 hours. It was at least 12 hours before it got above freezing. Not only did I freeze those suckas but I also suffocated them. I let the condensation evaporate back into the cigars and everything seemed fine. IMHO.

[CrazyFool]

all i can say is dont panic. im not saying you are but i did. then i learned that most of the factories pre-freeze (to kill the eggs as well) anyway so my left-feild fear of 'freezing the oils' or flavors away was silly.

[Blaylock]

"This information should be applied to uninfested cigars for prevention of a beetle outbreak." Icehog3

This statement leads me to think that cigars should be frozen when they are first purchased in order to prevent beetle outbreaks.

I am now wondering if this is common practice among fellow BOTLs?

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by Blake Lockhart

"This information should be applied to uninfested cigars for prevention of a beetle outbreak." Icehog3

This statement leads me to think that cigars should be frozen when they are first purchased in order to prevent beetle outbreaks.

I am now wondering if this is common practice among fellow BOTLs?

Sounds like more and more people are doing this....

P.S....the quote is actually CW's, not mine.

[Baric]

Just remember to get all the air out of the double bags before you freeze as if you have quite humid air [like we do here] and you leave air in it bad frost can develop which is not good. also, it seems the trend nwadays is for vendors and producers to freezxe their cigars anyway, but its always best to be sure and do it yourself!

[ColdCuts]

Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that I found this thread nearly two hours after thrusting over a dozen vacuum-sealed cigars directly into the freezer without an initial 24-hour layover in the refrigerator. How bad is that? After reading this thread, I yanked 'em out of the freezer and put 'em in the fridge. Should I panic, or am I all right? TIA. I've never frozen cigars before, and was never very comfortable with the idea. Now, I'm worried that I've done my precious smokes irreparable damage. What say you?

Man, I thought this hobby was supposed to be relaxing!

[montecristo#2]

Originally Posted by ColdCuts

Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that I found this thread nearly two hours after thrusting over a dozen vacuum-sealed cigars directly into the freezer without an initial 24-hour layover in the refrigerator. How bad is that? After reading this thread, I yanked 'em out of the freezer and put 'em in the fridge. Should I panic, or am I all right? TIA. I've never frozen cigars before, and was never very comfortable with the idea. Now, I'm worried that I've done my precious smokes irreparable damage. What say you?

Man, I thought this hobby was supposed to be relaxing!

Personally, I do not put them into the fridge before I put them in the freezer. Almost everything I read said put them straight in to the freezer, I only heard about the fridge part from reading some posts here on cs. I have not had any problems with directly into the freezer.

Assuming the cigars didn't freeze in those two hours you should probably be fine. I am not sure about freeze/thaw, freeze/thaw - you might get some cracking of the wrapper, but nothing too serious. From what I have read, you cannot tell the difference between frozen and unfrozen cigars.

Hope this helps, but I doubt it will calm your nerves any. Just freeze them and don't worry about it.

[BigBen2]

I freeze everything. I usually get multiple shipments a week whether through trades,samplers,boxes etc... I constantly swap from fridge to freezer and get confused sometimes. I have frozen some without sticking them in the fridge first, and haven't noticed anything different. Just a precaution to keep wrappers from cracking from rapid temp change.