Humidors come in all shapes and sizes and there’s one out there to accommodate any budget. The key is to find what works depending on how many cigars you prefer to keep on hand. In this Etiquette 101 piece, we show you the progression from small travel-sized humidor units for starters, right up to large cabinet style humidors for seasoned veterans (no pun intended), as well as how to season, and then properly maintain your humidor.

Travel Humidors: A Solid Starting Point

As one first gets into the world of cigars, it’s often wise to start out with just a small travel humidor. Resist the urge to splurge and start out small, trust us. Travel humidors are typically low-commitment in terms of cost, size and the amount of cigars in which they store. Travel humidors come in many different styles. Our favorite is a little number made by Xikar that holds up to 15 cigars (I say ‘up to’ because if you choose to put a higher ring-gauge cigar or two in there, you’ll be lucky if you’re able to store 10-11).

Xikar Portable Humidor

Maintaining these travel humidors is a relatively easy task, as all that is required is to routinely (once every two weeks of so depending on your climate) add 10-15 drops of distilled water into a little sponge disc that is conveniently located under the lid. It’s that easy. Of course, you don’t want to use regular water in a humidor of any kind, as it’s bacteria will quickly develop into mold (or at worst, cigar beetles may appear) and destroy your stogies. As the average hand rolled cigar is too expensive to let ruin, we’ll discuss the proper set up and maintenance of your humidor in greater detail further into this article.

The best part is that once it’s time to advance to a larger option, these portable travel humidors will continue to serve for travelling purposes, as you as you now begin to draw cigars out from a larger, stay-in-one-place, home humidor.

Home Humidors: A Home Base For Your Cigars

So you’ve discovered that it’s not just yet another passing phase and you really do love a good cigar – and on the regular too. You’ve maxed out the storage capacity of your trusty little portable humidor and now it’s time to step it up a bit and purchase a solid home model. These humidors are typically (but not always) constructed of quality Spanish cedar and can house anywhere from ten, to hundreds, to 1000+ cigars at once with an often elegant wood such as walnut or birch for the finish. Though it’s enticing to just splurge and buy a larger cabinet-style humidor, again we recommend starting on the more modest end and acquiring a humidor that will comfortably store anywhere between 20-50 cigars. These are often stylish desktop models that feature a Spanish cedar interior and generally have an upper and lower compartment for your beloved cigars to safely rest upon with a tight seal when closed to keep contents fresh. Both ‘old-world’ and modern styles are typically available to choose from.

If you advance further into the hobby – and have the financial means to do so – you may consider yet an even larger option. Larger humidors (500 cigars and up) can come in many different forms: desktop, cabinet style, humidor coffee tables, wall models, etc..

Egoist Cabinet Humidor

Being larger in size, these sizeable humidors can occupy extra living space (desktop, cabinet style), but can sometimes conveniently double as something else (humidor coffee table). Some can even be ensconced within a wall (wall cabinet humidor). Basically, regardless of the depth of your devotion to acquiring and amassing cigars – there’s a humidor for that. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll dedicate an entire room as a proper walk in humidor.

The sky’s the limit my friend.

Humidor Setup: How To Properly Season Your Humidor

Once you’ve settled on a home humidor, it’s time to season it so it’s ready for use (travel humidors generally are not required to be seasoned). To season your humidor, you’ll need the following:

• a clean unused sponge
• some distilled water
• a bowl.
• a digital hygrometer
• a salt shaker
• a Ziploc bag
• a humidor humidifier

First, pour a cup of distilled water into the bowl and then wet the new sponge. Be sure to wring it out so it’s not dripping. Then take the dampened sponge and wipe down the entire cedar interior of your humidor, including the removable shelf (if it has one) and any dividers. Be careful not to soak the wood too much; just a light stroke in the direction of the grain will do. You’ll see what areas have been wet by the darker color it creates, almost like it’s been stained. Wipe down all wooden parts inside the humidor – the shelf (top sides and bottom), dividers, the rim, all corners and underneath the lid; everything.

Next, take the dampened sponge and place it inside the humidor but do not place it directly in contact with the wood. Using the cap of the jug of distilled water (or even a small stand up cigar holder will do) keep the sponge hovering inside the humidor, and not touching any of the surface. After that is done, you can return the contents of a shelf/shelves and/or any wooden dividers back inside the humidor – but not any cigars just yet.

Close the lid and let it sit with the sponge, unopened for 24 hours. Leave the digital hygrometer and humidifier out.

Calibrating The Digital Hygrometer

Though most humidors typically come with a built in analogue hygrometer, they are often found to be inaccurate and unreliable. Thus, opt for a digital one (hey, after all it’s almost the 2020’s). To calibrate it, fill a small shot glass (or distilled water bottle cap) with a teaspoon of distilled water, add a teaspoon of salt and put both the water/salt solution and the hygrometer in the Ziploc bag. Seal it closed and leave it be for 4-6 hours. When this amount of water is added to and equal amount of table salt, it will maintain an exact humidity of 75% when in a sealed environment. Within a 4-6 hour period the hygrometer should read an exact 75%. If ultimately it reads 70%, then the gauge is 5% low and you can manually recalibrate it up 5 percentage points higher and then….you’re all calibrated and ready to go (after 24 hours passes of your closed and seasoned humidor of course).

– Kurt Bradley

Proper Humidor Maintenance

If properly cared for, a good humidor can last a lifetime. Depending on your environment, you’ll need to keep your humidor set somewhere in the range of 65-75% humidity. If you reside in a typically humid environment like New Orleans or Tampa, you won’t need to strive too hard to control the climate of your humidor as cities like these average over 72.5 percent humidity year round. Inversely, cities like Toronto and Los Angeles for example, are typically quite dry due to being generally colder (Toronto) or warmer and arid (LA). Living in cities like these, you’d need to frequently rely a humidifier product to moderate the climate inside your humidor.

Our favorite is Brigham’s gel-crystal-filled humidifiers. Simply pour distilled water (or propylene glycol) into the humidifier and then set it in your humidor to keep your cigars fresh. Keep an eye on your digital hygrometer to periodically top it up with liquid (typically every month or so depending on your climate). Boveda Humidity Paks also work great too. Of course, you must remember to re-season your humidor from time to time when wood has become too dry and is in need of some new moisture.

With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to keeping a caché of well preserved cigars on hand at all times – ready to be fully enjoyed at any given moment.

– Kurt Bradley