I purchased a digital temeprature/hygrometer from Walmart this weekend, salt checked it per the standard method as detailed on numerous sites along with all of my other hygros and my above numbers stand. I am getting a house RH of 72 as I type this with a humidor RH of 65-67 on the various levels. I also ordered a Humi-Care digital hygro today.
Yet to me, something still isn't right!?!
I'll describe a cigar taken fresh from the humidor as I doubt a picture would tell much. It is a Rocky Patel Sun Grown Torpedo, 7 months in. Squeezing the foot, it sponges in then comes back once I stop squeezing. I squeezed the s**t out of it now to the cap, purposely seeing if the wrapper will crack. Nope. There is a very slight give, but I can tell that the "give" does not go to the filler, if that makes sense (it's a well-packed cigar).There is that slight, light crackling sound as I squeeze it. Running my nail across the open foot, i get the impression of thick paper or heavy yard leaves. A few small bits of tobacco fly off from under my nail.
The twin bands to me seem a little looser than I recall, which says that maybe there was some expansion/contraction at some point (it was definitely over-humidified before I got my humidor's RH down).
I rarely get major burn issues anymore but tunneling does occasionally come up still. To me, the lack of flavour seems reminiscent of when my sticks were too moist. The flavours are still there, just muted and muddied, washed out. Save for the occasional stick, nothing really stands out starkly on the palate. Yet my RH is telling me that over-humidification isn't the problem.
I know no one else who smokes cigars, so the only experience that I have to draw on is from the people on this site.
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I guess I'll try putting a couple sticks in a dry box held at 60 RH and leave a few more out at 72 of the same type and see if either one offers an improvement.
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From the physical description of your cigars, it sounds like they are holding up perfectly. Perhaps the drybox experiment will help to determine if you prefer a drier smoke, however your ambient RH is higher than your humi, so it will be more like wetboxing unless you can get it to hold 60%. :-)
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Yeah, I put a cap of silica gel in the box first and slowly adding distilled water to it a little at a time until I can get 8 hours of 60 RH before I add the sticks.
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