I'm sure you're all keeping in mind that the water vapor permeability of cellophane, as measured over adsorption-desorption cycles, parallels the sorption isotherm. And when a constant vapor pressure is applied on the low pressure side of the membrane, the mass flow rate is independent of the vapor pressure used, and shows hysteresis on desorption. This physical property of cellophane may have implications for what you want to achieve with your cigar storage, or it may not be meaningful, depending on what those specific needs are.
I understand that cello protects cigars from handling. That, to me, is the #1 selling point for keeping cello on.
However, I don't understand when people say that leaving the cellophane on "retards aging" of the cigar. Because nobody ever defines exactly what cigar "aging" is, nor the physical processes that give rise to it. Only if you can determine what specific chemical changes constitute the "aging" of a cigar, and what in the environment in and around the cigar causes them or at least affects them, can you determine whether cellophane (or anything else) will accelerate, retard, or have no effect whatsoever on a cigar's aging.
So to those people who say that leaving cello on slows aging, please answer the following questions for a dummy like myself:
1) What specific chemical changes take place in a cigar to constitute aging, and what brings them about?
2) How are those changes altered by cellophane?
3) Could cellophane's impact impart other chemical changes that could offset those alterations?
4) What other variables impact the aging process, and in what circumstances would those overshadow cellophane's effect so as to make the question essentially moot?
