I just received a shipment from an auction that went out via UPS ground. It took 9 days and when I got the sticks, I didn't unwrap the box for a week. I went to smoke my first one today and it was as dry as tree bark. What is the quickest/best way to repair these? Thanks.

Put them in the humidor and forget them for a while. Quick fix is buy some cigars to smoke while these are healing.

Agreed with Eleltea: patience is important in restoring dry cigars.
Ed

dorloff

i have boxes that are over two weeks sitting on the table waiting to be opened.

they should not have dried out so fast. call customer service

what rick said.. most of the time they ship "wet" they should have been fine for longer than that


martini

Well, you two probably have more experience than I do, but, as I am very absent minded, I have left bags of cigars recieved from both cbid and stores and both times I tried one and it was also dry as tree bark. I've found that I can't leave them out more than a day or so and the "wetness" that they ship out varies. Always a good rule of thumb to stick 'em in the humi for at least a week or two. I once tried to humidify them quickly by soaking a sponge and then placing the cigar really close to it - it burst, so that's prob. not a good idea. I echo the "patience" suggestion

How long does it take to restore them in the humi? Do they ever really come back to "normal"?

I'm attempting to rehydrate some ISOMs I brought back from Germany, they are a bit dry. I've placed them in a Tupperwear container with a sponge (in an open plastic bag) that is 'damp' (not soaked), and every few days rotate the sticks about a 1/4 turn, plus add drop(s) of water if the sponge is dry...A good sign is that the sponge is drying out. This takes about 30 days. By the way, I'm following advice I read from a book on Cigars. But these guys on this board are very smart on this kind of stuff, you may just want to put them in your humidor, and perform a squeeze test on them every now and then.

Good Luck-Joel

this sounds like a good method, but I was just reminded of a "revitalization project" that I had about 6 months ago. I was gifted a couple isoms that had been in a dry box for 6 months. I placed these in my humidor as far away from the credo as possible. after a month I moved them closer and closer to the credo. after 3 months - these babies felt perfect- soft and spongy and very smokeable!- never had any sign of cracking, bursting, rotting, etc.

Good advice. I would like to say that some packages from Cbid can be smoked immediately while some have been quoite dry. I am guessing they are not all stored the same.