When starting your cigar journey, you may wonder about storage options and what is best for your chosen smokes.

Generally, we all know the best place for premium cigars is inside a humidor with a perfectly calibrated hygrometer. A humidor ensures cigars are stored in ultimate humidity for aging and helps provide a flawless smoking experience.

However, there may be times in your smoking journey when you find yourself in a situation without your trusty humidor and looking for other options. If vacuum sealing your cigars is an option you’re considering, let’s explore if this is a good place for your premium smokes.

Proper cigar storage and care is essential, as it can impact your smoking experience in many ways. Cigars are hygroscopic, meaning they must be stored in a temperature-controlled environment with the perfect humidity.

Cigars are also incredibly sensitive to the environment they’re stored in. If the climate is too dry, the cigar will dry out and provide stale smoke, which will burn very hot too fast and completely ruin your smoking experience.

Thankfully, if you accidentally dry out a cigar, you can save it. The key to this is a Boveda pack.

A cigar’s ideal relative humidity (RH) corresponds to approximately 70% humidity at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. When rehydrating your cigar, you also want to aim for a darkened environment, perhaps storing it in a cupboard or drawer.

After a month of storing your cigar with the Boveda pack, you can check on it and see if it’s rehydrated and ready to be smoked. If it’s not ready, keep hydrating the cigar for another two weeks, as it may need longer to recover.

Once you’ve followed the proper steps and stored the cigar well enough, you can expect an even draw, steady burn, and optimum flavor for your palate to enjoy as if nothing happened.

Having the correct cigar storage is essential to the care of your premium smoke. Cigars are carefully constructed with a delicious tobacco blend, and once wrapped fully, the outer layers contain the perfect moisture level for a hearty smoke.

The cigars’ moisture is essential — it contributes to the aging process and allows the cigars in your storage to ‘marry.’ This is when the cigars absorb each other’s oils and create one unique flavor profile.

When you store cigars in a humidor, the primary purpose of it is to recreate the mild, humid climate of the Caribbean—the place where many cigars are made.

With all this information in mind, can you really vacuum seal cigars? The idea of vacuum packing a cigar seems excellent if you’re away from your humidor and need a temporary solution, but it carries risks.

When you vacuum seal a cigar, the environment it’s locked into will devoid the cigar of air, which it needs to thrive.

Another thing to consider is when your cigars begin to age (in the best way), they need to ‘breathe’. When they’re sealed into a vac-seal, this will not allow your sticks to age as they would in a humidor and runs the risk of them accidentally drying out.

 The aroma of cigars changes when they dry and they can lose their delicious smell, taste and flavour.

Due to the sensitive nature of cigars, we wouldn’t recommend a vacuum seal as a long-term solution to cigar storage. It’s best to invest in a humidor.

A vacuum-sealed bag doesn’t carry any clear benefits, as cigars would be devoid of air which is something they really need.

If you do vacuum seal a cigar as a temporary solution, this may be a way to protect your cigar from the outside elements if you’re somewhere in a colder environment. It wouldn’t protect them from potentially being damaged though, which should be bared in mind.

However, we’d always recommend storing your cigars correctly in a humidor and monitoring your hygrometer to ensure the perfect environment for your cigars to age.

When cigars are cared for in the right way, you can expect an extraordinary smoking experience and clouds of flavor with every puff.