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Learn · StorageHumidity and RH
Relative humidity, or RH, is how much moisture the air is holding compared to the most it could hold at that temperature... and cigars are generally stored in a 65 to 70 percent band.
The numbers
RH is a percentage of capacity, not an absolute amount. Warm air can carry more moisture than cool air, so the same moisture reads as a lower RH when the temperature rises. That's why humidity and temperature always get discussed together... move one and the other shifts.
The 65-70% band is the commonly used storage range, and both edges exist for a reason. Enough moisture keeps the leaf elastic, so wrappers don't crack in your hand or burn hot and fast. Not too much keeps the cigar from swelling with water until it fights combustion. Different smokers settle at different points in and just under that band... the band matters more than any single number. The old "70/70 rule" (70% RH at 70°F) still circulates; storage habits have mostly drifted a few points drier.
Temperature gets one rule: keep storage below about 70°F. Tobacco beetle eggs are present in most tobacco and stay dormant when cool... sustained warmth can hatch them (most sources put the trigger around 72°F), and beetle larvae ruin cigars fast.
What wrong storage smokes like. Overhumidified: the cigar draws tight (see the draw), the smoke goes steamy and muted, and the burn fights you... classic burn issues territory. Underhumidified: it burns fast and hot, tastes harsh and papery, and the wrapper turns brittle enough to crack.
What actually holds a container at the band... humidors, two-way packs, beads... is covered in storage basics.
Tobacco beetles
The beetles are why the temperature rule exists. The eggs riding in most tobacco stay dormant while storage stays cool, and sustained warmth wakes them... most sources put the trigger around 72°F. The signs are small round pinholes in the wrapper and fine dust in the box; identification and the freeze protocol that stops an outbreak live at tobacco beetles and freezing.
The common mistake
Chasing a perfect number. RH drifts a point or two with the seasons and with every lid opening, and cigars don't care... anywhere in the band is fine. What actually costs cigars is the sustained extremes: weeks wet enough to grow mold, dry enough to crack wrappers, or warm enough to wake beetles. Watch the range, not the decimal.
Keep reading
- Storage basics: humidors, packs, and seasoning
- Packs, gel, and beads
- The draw, explained
- Burn issues glossary
From the humidor I chased this number for a while. Cheap Amazon hygrometers at first, then Govee H5179s in the Herfador so I could pull up humidity graphs from anywhere. I checked twice a day for weeks, then daily for months, and then I looked at the graph and understood what it had been telling me the whole time: it was flat. It was always going to be flat, because a sealed container with the right number of two-way packs in it does not drift. I run 65% and 69% packs depending on the container, and each one reads within a point of its number every time I bother to look... which is now about every few months. The sensor was worth it once, to prove the system works. It was never part of the system.
Reviewed at WSA since this page was written
Boveda One Year Humidor Bag (Large) Review
Verdict: Buy Again. If I'm driving anywhere, this large Boveda bag has taken over from my hard-sided travel case — it holds thirty cigars easy, keeps a steady 69% off one large pack, and I never have to think about it. Not the pick for flying, since nothing in it protects the cig
Boveda Humidity Packs Review
Verdict: Buy Again... and never recharge one. This is the most set-and-forget piece of gear I own. I recharged spent packs for a long time and it seemed to work every single time — right up until it didn't, and a container quietly ran past 76%. Buy the packs. Throw them out when