people have been smoking and enjoying cigars for hundred of years. sometime in the 1930's ways were developed to encourage the sale of cigars by the box. they included a sealed box and a device that held water and released it into the box.

eventually a guage was invented and PG was discovered to have, when mixed with water, the characteristic of maintaining 70% humidity in a closed enviornment.

over the years, cigar makers found out that mixing certain leaves with other leaves changed the "flavor" of the smoke.

before the people realized you could smoke cocaine, they chewed the seed, but i digress.

my sugestion is enjoy the cigars and play with the toys, humidor, guage, humidifier, (credo is just a brand name of a humidifier that cost too much, and rarely works well because it has so little oasis, it won't hold enough of the PG and and water solution.)
if you take the credo apart you will see the oasis about the size of a stack of 3 or 4 silver dollars.

make your own and give the inside of the box and the cigars a fighting chance to balance the humidity properly.

if cigars are too dry they tend to smoke hotter because they draw so quickly. but they taste the same.

cold coffee tastes the same as hot coffee, it just is more enjoyable to drink hot coffee and more enjoyable to smoke a cigar that is not all dried out and cracking. if it is too wet, like some of the cigars coming out of an ISOM you have to let them sit for a long time before they will dry enough to catch fire.

i believe the point if my little story is don't fuss so much over the minutia, don't sweat the small stuff.

enjoy your cigars watch the smoke drift into the walls, the fabric of your furniture and your dog or cat's fur, or in my case my birds feathers.

if you don't know how to make a humidifier, contact me and i will be glad to send you an article written by someone who knows more about the subject then i do.

RICKAMAVEN
HOTMAIL
COM

INCLUDE THE @ AND . AS NEEDED.

Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff...

Hey Rick-- great of you to take the time and effort to post this kind of info to beginners.

I've been smoking cigars a LONG time, but am new to these forums, and it is great to find helpful, friendly people like you here.

Koodos, RM! Thanks for the info! 18 months for me but never hurts to get more input... ; )

Good on ya Rick!

Robby- sometimes it's FUN to pet the sweaty stuff LOL

Thanks, Rick! email sent (sure, I'm still a newbie!)

Thanks for posting this, Rick. I'm a newbie to serious cigar smoking, but I know enough to recognize the wisdom in what you say. I obsessed over humidity, temperature, and just about everything else when I started. Now I have a desktop humidor for daily smokes, a coolerdor for aging, and a few gadgets that I find fun (a wireless-remote hygrometer for the coolerdor, for example); but I no long worry about maintaining an exact 70 percent RH and I don't panic if the 'dors are slightly warmer than the optimum 70 degrees F. Both 'dors get enough air exchange when I open them in add or remove cigars, a few cigar boxes storing cigars inside the cooler are a reasonable substitute for a full Spanish cedar lining, and my homemade credos are completely adequate. I have more time to actually enjoy the cigars, and even time left over for my non-cigar interests.