Palama wrote:I’m a 3-4-3 guy.
Is there a length of time that would work?
The refrigerator steps don't really gain you much of anything. It's not really cold enough to damage the eggs and tobacco has a very low moisture content compared to other commonly frozen items, it's not like it needs the long cool down.
Home freezers cycle up and down in temp continuously. They also tend to be uneven, some areas are colder, some are warmer. Ideally, make the calculation based on the warmest spot in the freezer, with accounting for the extra time needed for the insulating factor provided by the box and the cigars in a bundle so that one is basing the time on the center cigars in a bundle or box. IMO and based on a few simple tests I ran, I would say that anything less than 5-6 days in the freezer is not sufficient.
For me I found that straight to the freezer for about 8-10 days works. A few extra days don't hurt things and just give you a larger margin of safety. Come out of the freezer to atmospheric long enough for the excess condensation to evaporate and it's done.
Passed around some cigars at a herf once, all originally from the same box, some were right out of a 10 day freeze, some were week or two out of a freeze, the others were never frozen. No one could tell the difference in flavor.
I've even accidentally left stuff in the freezer for longer, a lot longer, about a month actually. It was fine. Note though, that they were still in the vendor applied heat sealed plastic bags.