Storing cigars in their boxes

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Reader’s question: “I have 10 boxes of Cuban cigars that I want to age for at least 2 years. Should I leave them sealed in their boxes as they came or should I take them out of their boxes before storing them in my humidor? Which is the better option?”

What people do differs a good deal, but it depends in part on how long you plan to leave your cigars in the humidor. If you won’t be keeping them in there for all that long (a few weeks or a month), you can probably just pop the box right in and leave them there. It’s highly recommended you take off the outer layer of cello first since this allows more of the humidity to seep into the box. In fact, you don’t need to keep your cigars in the box at all. Some people take them right out and just put them in the humidor individually. The main reason to keep the box in the humidor is simply for organization.

Another option is to keep the cigars in the box (with the cello layer removed), store them in the humidor, and then prop them open, either all the time or once a week or so. You don’t need to prop them open wide, just wide enough for the humidity to seep in. You can use a match or anything else to wedge the boxes open just slightly, and then the humidity from the humidor can easily get inside. You can store your cigars indefinitely this way.

12 thoughts on “Storing cigars in their boxes

  1. Can I store 2 boxes on each other in a humidor and possible leave the cello on as these are for investment. Thank you in advance regarding this matter,
    Regards Vincent

  2. IF there is enough room in the box to put a “single” Boveda Humidipak on top of the cigars or on the side, and you can close the box lid without pressing down on the cigars, then that’s what I do and it works perfectly. Alternatively, what works even better is the little mini Boveda Paks. For my Cubans, the way they stack a box of 25 into a somewhat pyramid stacking, its very easy to place a couple of the mini-paks inside the box.

  3. By side a box many off my cigars have a celofane rapper can i store them like that ?

  4. Now.. one can easily find the beautiful boxes and cigar cases that are even quite handy.But, as suggested into the article above …it is not necessary to store the cigars always into the boxes.

  5. I think the cello question has been covered extensively elsewhere on this site, but correct me if I’m mis-remembering some other site. From what I gather, cello isn’t a solid humidity barrier because it’s porous, but may act to slow the transfer/marriage of flavors somewhat. More than anything else, the cello acts as a bruising/tearing protection during transport, like wrapping paper on a gift.

  6. @Inspector
    That is kind of what I was thinking so that is what I’ve done Happy to see it confirmed.

    Fred G you bring up a good point, Inspector, can you do a write up of removing the cello? I personally can’t stand them. I will give new smokes a week in the humi then slip them out. any thoughts? Keep up the good work!

  7. OH! Important afterthought, I use all spanish cedar boxes and remove all cigars from their cello.

  8. I have a massive store-a-dor in which all of my cigars are in boxes(non-box buys grouped by wrapper/flavor profile). I actually use just a smidgen of hot glue on the side rim by the back corner; it works perfectly to keep the boxes open just enough.

  9. Another great article as always!

  10. I like storing my sticks in the boxes. I’ve gone so far as to collect my individual cigars, put them in inexpensive humidors, and store that in my closet humidor. I think the boxes protect the cigars from temp and humidity fluctuations. But most importantly, in the warm weather, the boxes prevent the spread of the occasional tobacco beetle that happens to crawl out of a cigar. Plus, the cigars stored in boxes seem to always smoke better that the exposed sticks.

  11. @M.Landers
    I usually remove my cigars from cardboard, because if the storing conditions at the shop I bought the cigars from were not optimal (i.e. excessive humidity), cardboard might encourage mold.

  12. Can you store them long term in the cardboard boxes or just wood?

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