On Feb 11, 1:44*pm, riverman wrote:
On Feb 11, 12:39*pm, rb608 wrote:





On Feb 10, 11:22*pm, "Tim J."
wrote:

Depending on how dry the wrapper got while it was in non-storage, they may
not be salvageable. If they're cheap cigars, I'd use 'em for fertilizer. If
they are higher quality, the best thing to do is put them at the bottom of a
good, nearly-full, activated humidor and be patient.

AFAIK, they're not too bad and probably smokeable as is. *We're
talking about young newbies here, humidor is not an option. Just
looking for a "quick" way to rehydrate them so as to burn a bit
cooler. *I used to know a "trick" but can't remember it. *(damp paper
towel in a microwave? *something like that.)

*Tx,
Joe F.

Moist paper towel, put them separately in a ziplock, put it in the
freezer.

The moist towel puts the humidity at 100% in the ziplock, the freezer
causes the cells in the leaves to compromise their cell walls,
allowing the moisture to saturate the internal cell structures.

The wrapper will be extremely fragile after this (think of yellow
cheese that has been frozen), so you will want to be careful as you
smoke it.

--riverman- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

OK, I just made that crap up....sounded good and scientific, no? :-)

In reality, the humidity in a freezer (or even a fridge) is far too
low to revitalize a dry cigar. Don;t do it.

This article has some great tricks;
http://www.guideto.com/cigar/reviving-dry-cigars
I especially like the 'bring it into the bathroom when you take a
shower' method.

The bottom line is to introduce humidity slowly, so the cigar does not
swell faster than the wrapper absorbs moisture and split its wrapping.
Another factor to consider is that cigars do not really go
'stale'....they go 'dry'. You can fix 'dry', as the essential oils and
chemicals in the leaves do not dry out until the cigar is extremely
dry. Nonethless, the roundtrip to desertville does have some
deleterious effects on the stogie, so don't expect them to be as good
as new.

That being said, be sure you are not talking about partially smoked
cigars....that's a whole different animal. The heat and residue that
passes through the unsmoked leaf can chemically change the rest of the
cigar, so they can't be salvaged.

Now that we are on the topic, I have an old Romeo&Juliet at home in
its cylinder that is hard as a rock. I might experiment on it tonight.
Results to follow.

--riverman