Melding Flavors In The Humidor

Does leaving the cellophane on the various sticks ensure the flavors cannot meld together? Is it a matter of them touching?

I won't be dealing with flavored sticks unless, maybe, I find something interesting enough that is whiskey or other liquor infused. If I find something like that how would I store them with the others?

Right now I am using a Tupperware container that holds them upright. I'd like to get a nice looking desktop humidor eventually, but do like that I easily store my tupperdore in my fermentation chamber keeping them at 64* unlike the house (72-75*). I have a 5 stick herf on the way too...

Personally, I think the melding of flavors thing may be a myth...or it takes years for this to happen. A handful of months or even a couple of years will likely have no effects cello on or off for normal cigars. Infused is a different story IMO, and regardless of cello on or off, should be stored in a separate container. Go ahead and get that desktop, but your non-infused stogies in there, and keep the tupperdor for the infused sticks you may get is my two cents.

I'm curious. I have noticed many of my cigars are sharing a doughy/oatmeal/cedar trait that have been aged together for over a year and suspect this over my buds changing.

Yeah I'm not sure man the Jury is still out for me. I keep a 50 count humidor at 62% RH and CELLO off. These are generally my "on deck and ready to smoke" cigars. I am by far an expert on flavors but if they meld in there...Its been a GOOD thing! Because I really really like how they have been smoking and the flavors I have been getting. Now that said I don't really taste any different flavors from exact same cigar pulled out of my storage box...
Now I know you asked about CELLO ON but I guess if my CELLO OFF no problem is any indication I think you are going to be hard pressed to get any cross flavors with them on. UNLESS maybe you are dealing with, smoke cured or infused where the flavors are really pronounced..


Cheers
Jay

Hmmm... I don't see any reason to take the cellophane off, but I won't be too concerned if they come naked. I'm looking for a nice cheaper cigar(s) for <$100 shipped that would compliment an Avo Classic, and some day I'll look for some higher quality cigars >$12/stick, but would be quite disappointed if mixing them would deplete the flavor of my nicer sticks.

Ive never stored cigars with the cello on and Ive yet to notice any difference. I have some RASS that I store in their original box and some that I have mixed with other CCs in a tupperdor. Ive had them close to 3 years now and they both smoke the same IMO.

Why do some of you leave the cellophane on? And why do you others pull them off? Curious the reasons...

I really did think there was reason to be concerned with melding flavors. Outside of flavored cigars I won't concern myself.

Cello on adds a little protection to the cigar from handling them etc. I understand cello on will also help combat beetles and help contain them a little if you end up with some but I don't know that to be absolutely true.

Cheers
Jay

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Originally Posted by Jaybird

I understand cello on will also help combat beetles and help contain them a little

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100% false. they will easily eat thru cello.

Also, it's the beetle larva that eat the tobacco. So if you have eggs, and the temp raises above 72 F they will hatch. Cellophane or no cellophane.

Cellophane doesn't breathe well, so if I want the cigar to acclimate to my OXOdor I take them off.

I just leave mine the way God made'm.

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Originally Posted by Zeede

Cellophane doesn't breathe well,

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again 100% false.

why would 97% of all cigar makers put their cigars in Cellos if they weren't permeable??

cello on here

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Originally Posted by Zeede

Also, it's the beetle larva that eat the tobacco. So if you have eggs, and the temp raises above 72 F they will hatch. Cellophane or no cellophane.

Cellophane doesn't breathe well, so if I want the cigar to acclimate to my OXOdor I take them off.

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That is 100% incorrect. Ask anyone in the cigar industry. Cellophane does breath very well. Also, no flavors do not blend when cigars are mixed in a humidor box.

Cellophane will not prevent "marrying" of flavors. Real cello is made of plant emulsion and is therefore quite porous. It allows for air exchange and mostly adds a layer of protection against damage during rigorous storage. It does however slow the process markedly, since flavor exchange occurs mostly in the form of oils passing from cigar to cigar. As air is exchanged by moist gasses escaping from the cigar, since there's not direct contact leaf-to-leaf, it's slowed. There is alway a little bit of oil attached to the gas exchange, so it does happen; just to a far lesser extent.

Naked cigars laying next to/on top of one another is the primary way flavors become exchanged. Over the years, there's been some debate on how extensive this process is. On the extreme end of the debate is Carlito Fuente, who holds that laying cigars of different types together will result in rapid and negative marrying. I've read where others have said that it's negligible. Personally I've never really worried about it much and have yet to experience any real effect. As my cigars grow older and older, I expect I will eventually begin to.

I don't think there's any way to do away with it completely. Even in a well ventilated walk-in, you'll still get some oils flying around in the air. The best we can do is minimize it to the greatest extent by segregating wrapper styles. Maduro with maduro, natural with natural, strong with strong and so on. Leaving the cello on will also help, but not much. Keeping them in original boxes works even better.

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Originally Posted by Shemp Jizzle

100% false. they will easily eat thru cello.

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Ohh I am sure they can eat through them for sure. But I was under the impression that CELLO would HELP contain that..Not stop it.

Cheers
Jay

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Originally Posted by Herf N Turf

The best we can do is minimize it to the greatest extent by segregating wrapper styles. Maduro with maduro, natural with natural, strong with strong and so on. Leaving the cello on will also help, but not much. Keeping them in original boxes works even better.

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Great advice either cello on or off. Early on in my cigar smoking I just kept everything out of box in 1 humi on shelves. Do to the amount of cigars I quickly acquired that initial stock lasted several years. The natural's basically lost all their flavor and end up tasting just like maduros they sat next too. Now what I do is box all cigars by type and size. This works well if you have a large cooler. I found I prefer removing the cello now only because after say 7-8 years most the cello turn dark yellow and start to fall apart around the cigar and ends up just making a mess in the box anyway.

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Originally Posted by Jaybird

Ohh I am sure they can eat through them for sure. But I was under the impression that CELLO would HELP contain that..Not stop it.

Cheers
Jay

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It's just more food for the little buggers :) Cellophane is plant based. It's gas permeable, but will not allow liquid water to pass through it.

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Originally Posted by LGHT

Great advice either cello on or off. Early on in my cigar smoking I just kept everything out of box in 1 humi on shelves. Do to the amount of cigars I quickly acquired that initial stock lasted several years. The natural's basically lost all their flavor and end up tasting just like maduros they sat next too. Now what I do is box all cigars by type and size. This works well if you have a large cooler. I found I prefer removing the cello now only because after say 7-8 years most the cello turn dark yellow and start to fall apart around the cigar and ends up just making a mess in the box anyway.

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Cello turns yellow over time in a humidor because the gas/air exchanged from the cigar to the humidor contains little droplets of oil from the cigar. In that respect, cigars are swapping bits of themselves in your humidor.

I haven't noticed any kind of "generalizing" of flavors of my sticks, they all remain unique in their own respect. However, the oldest I have are around - 4 years old or so.

The only way to really tell would be to keep a control humidor and then put sticks in another, mixed with others. Then after a set time, see how they compare. That would be kind of a fun experiment actually :)

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Originally Posted by stonecutter2

The only way to really tell would be to keep a control humidor and then put sticks in another, mixed with others. Then after a set time, see how they compare. That would be kind of a fun experiment actually :)

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Thanks for volunteering! :)

So then it would seem that it's a time issue, that after several years it may begin to meld slightly? If there are oils floating around in the humidor like a mist it would seem inevitable that they meld to some degree. And if the oils are floating around on the gasses I'd suspect that even separate trays wouldn't be enough, though much better, to stave off this melding.

At this stage I'm uncertain if/when I'd get to the point of having sticks for several years, and if I did they'd likely be the nicer ones.

As it seems just about everyone here has eventually run out of the room they felt they needed multiple times and have purchased additional humidors, and I shouldn't be any different. That being the case I can easily keep longer term and nicer sticks separated... Funny as I was just looking over humidors between 100-200 count thinking that ought to be plenty of storage with my tupperdore as backup.

As my go to homebrew store has been out of various British ingredients keeping me from making an ESB I may very well end up with a humidor soon enough (it's been 3 months now). I've mostly been looking over CI and wonder about the quality of their glass top humidors. Is $1/stick storage a fair enough indicator of quality, ie a 100 ct box for $100? I don't care much about fancy, but do want something nice enough to set on the desk.

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Originally Posted by LGHT

Great advice either cello on or off. Early on in my cigar smoking I just kept everything out of box in 1 humi on shelves. Do to the amount of cigars I quickly acquired that initial stock lasted several years. The natural's basically lost all their flavor and end up tasting just like maduros they sat next too. Now what I do is box all cigars by type and size. This works well if you have a large cooler. I found I prefer removing the cello now only because after say 7-8 years most the cello turn dark yellow and start to fall apart around the cigar and ends up just making a mess in the box anyway.

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I sure do love me some yellow cello.

at first I took all the cellos off my cigars, today I put into cellos if they don't come with them and I plan on sitting on them.

gives them more protection when they get bumped around.

edit to add I don't smoke Infused cigars so that is not an issue for me. :stogie:

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Originally Posted by rodwha

As my go to homebrew store has been out of various British ingredients keeping me from making an ESB I may very well end up with a humidor soon enough (it's been 3 months now).

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Just out of curiosity are you talking about Austin Homebrew? They should have all the stuff you'd need except British crystal malts. You can get by subbing for American crystal or I know MoreBeer carries Bairds. They have British Kent Goldings too. Sorry to be off topic just trying to help.... 3 months is a long time to wait on an ESB!!!

I just deal with MoreBeer as they give free shipping on larger orders. Despite signing up for email notification when ingredients came in I had none and see they now have what they didn't but are lacking something else.

For this one (something similar to Old Speckled Hen) I wanted it to be as British as possible. I even ordered a couple of cans of Lyle's Golden Syrup from England. I also want to make a biscuity flavored ESB similar to Foster's Premium Ale, and that I wouldn't mind using American specialty grains (Briess).

There is no way this is a thing...The flavor of a cigar is contained totally within it and influencing the flavor externally in a passive manner is virtually impossible.

You could surround a single [generic cigar] with a hundred of [best cigar you can think of] for a decade, and it will never acquire the qualities/flavor profile of [best cigar you can think of] .

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Originally Posted by Herf N Turf

I sure do love me some yellow cello.

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hahah I don't mind yellow either, but it's the next phase when the cello starts to break down crack and disintegrate!

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Originally Posted by LGHT

hahah I don't mind yellow either, but it's the next phase when the cello starts to break down crack and disintegrate!

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Oh the little details that make us love these things...

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Originally Posted by LGHT

hahah I don't mind yellow either, but it's the next phase when the cello starts to break down crack and disintegrate!

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How long does that take? I doubt I have that many years left to find out.

I was really anal about this when I first started out. I'd organize my sticks by wrapper and keep all of my maduros on one side of the box, and keep all of the full bodies on another. Now, it's just one big cigar orgy.

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Originally Posted by Old Smokey

How long does that take? I doubt I have that many years left to find out.

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Hard to say. I have some sticks that had that problem after 10 or so years, but I was digging in the humi last night for the wife and recall seeing sticks still in the cello and pretty good shaped (dark yellow) that had to be from the mid to late 90's (she doesn't smoke as much so her stock is pretty old). I guess not all cello is created equal or maybe just the oil release on some cigars caused the cello to breakdown faster??