Seasoning a Humidor
Congratulations you have a brand new humidor! Is it ready for cigars? Probably NOT! It needs to be seasoned in preparation to house your prized cigar collection.
First of all what the heck IS seasoning and why do you need to do it? Your new humidor is likely made of unfinished cedar on the inside. The wood is shipped dry and is unfinished on purpose as it speeds up the aging process of your precious stash. The wood is hydroscopic to a degree and if you don't prepare it, the humidifier will actually dehumidify your cigars; unfinished cedar draws moisture from the cigars into the wood. A good humidor is constructed in such a way that when the wood swells from humidity the seal around the lid will seal more efficiently. Seasoning consists of pre-loading the wood with moisture to ensure the box will gradually release moisture (humidity) for the weeks, months and years to come, providing the perfect storage environment for your cigars.
The easiest way to season your new humidor is to us a Boveda Humidor Seasoning packet. It takes 14 days of exposure to 84% relative humidity to slowly and completely moisturize a wooden humidor. Any other seasoning method has been shown to be riskier and lends mixed results at best. Simply place the correct amount of Boveda seasoning inside your humidor (without cigars) and wait 14 days. Then replace the seasoning Boveda (84% RH) with regular credo or another Boveda pack in the 62%-72% range. I recommend the Boveda because they take the guess work out of the seasoning process. Just use their handy, dandy chart located on their website and follow the steps outlined. Keep in mind you will need to know the size of your humidor; this will determine how many seasoning packets required. Humidor size is measured by capacity, namely in lots of 25 cigars.
What NOT to do: Dampen a cloth and wipe the humidor down. This will create streaking and water stains in your brand new humidor that will never come out. The old fashioned way of doing this is to put a bowl of distilled water in your closed humidor for about a week. While this method is effective you run the risk of spillage and it takes considerably longer as the water is not agitated and will take longer to evaporate within a tightly sealed box.
Seasoning only applies to wooden humidors, where the interior of the humidor is unfinished.
