delta1 wrote:Most of the vets here find that optimal RH is between 60-65...ymmv...
Nope, 68-70 is my standard, and my other cigar pals with substantial collections agree.
60-65% is too dry for me, the cigars don't smoke as well. Also I worry about the vital flavor-giving oils evaporating/disappearing over the very long term, because I do such very long-term aging (with how many I have, most will hit 10+ years and many will hit 20+ years before I smoke them).
If a substantial part of the flavorful oils start disappearing in, say:
* 1 year at 40-50% RH (e.g. a cigar left out in the open)
* ?????? at 60-65% RH
* Never at 70% RH
...then interpolating the ??????, we arrive at "somewhere between 1 year and never". Could this be never? Possibly. It's certainly more than 2, 3, or 5 years, because lots of guys keep stuff at 60-65% for that timeframe and they seem fine. So it's probably between 5 years and never. However I really don't want to keep cigars for 10-20 years at 60-65% RH and find out. Over a very very long term, it seems like there might be loss, and I don't want to end up with "flat", lifeless-tasting cigars.
And before anyone says
"age them that long and they WILL be flat and lifeless anyway!", I have never experienced any cigar LOSING quality due to age. Strength gets converted into complexity, but in my experience it's always been a fair trade, regardless of timeframe. If somebody judges "quality" mostly as just strength, then yes they "lose quality", but if you also include (as you should!) complexity and richness of "married" flavors, and not just strength alone, they don't ever lose overall quality in my experience.
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