How to Season a Humidor: 5 Honest Steps That Actually Work Leave a comment

How to season a humidor, short answer: put a humidification source at 84% inside the empty, closed box for about two weeks, until the cedar has drunk enough moisture to hold a steady 65 to 70% on its own. A new cedar humidor is bone dry from the factory, and if you put cigars in it on day one the wood pulls the moisture out of them instead of protecting it. This guide covers how to season a humidor the slow, reliable way, the quick way that risks cracking the lid, how to know it is done, and the three mistakes that ruin the first box of cigars.

The box this guide is written for

Personalized Cedar Humidor — glass top, built-in hygrometer, holds 20–25 cigars

$59.95View ↗

Why a humidor needs seasoning at all

Cedar is used inside humidors because it absorbs and releases moisture slowly, which is what keeps cigars at a steady humidity through a dry week or a damp one. That same property is the problem on day one: a humidor that has sat in a warehouse and a delivery van is far drier than a cigar, so the wood takes moisture from the cigars until the two are level. Seasoning is simply raising the wood to the humidity you want the cigars kept at, before the cigars go in. Skip it, and the question of how to season a humidor answers itself the hard way: the first box smokes harsh and burns fast, and no amount of humidifier fixes it afterwards, because the wood keeps drinking.

1. Calibrate the hygrometer before anything else

Every step of how to season a humidor depends on one reading, so check the instrument first. Digital hygrometers, including the ones built into the lid, can be off by five points out of the box. The salt test takes a night: a bottle cap of table salt wetted to a paste, sealed in a zip bag with the hygrometer for eight hours, should read 75%. Whatever it reads instead is the offset to remember, or to correct if the unit has a calibration button. A two-way calibration pack sold for the purpose does the same job with less mess. An uncalibrated hygrometer that reads 70% when the box is really at 62% is the reason a lot of “seasoned” humidors dry out cigars.

2. How to season a humidor the slow, reliable way

Buy two-way humidity packs made for seasoning; they are sold at 84% for exactly this purpose and are the same technology as the 69% packs used for storage afterwards. Put them in the empty humidor, close the lid, and leave it alone for fourteen days. Do not open it to check every day; every opening lets the moisture out and adds a day. After two weeks, take the packs out, put in the calibrated hygrometer, and watch it for twenty-four hours. If it holds 65 to 70%, the wood is ready. If it drops into the fifties, the cedar is still thirsty: put the packs back for another week.

The slow way costs a few dollars in packs and two weeks of patience. It cannot crack the wood, warp the lid or grow mould, which is why it is the method to recommend to anyone opening their first humidor, and the one we recommend for ours.

Season it once, then it looks after itself

Personalized Cedar Cigar Humidor — Glass Top & Hygrometer

• Cedar interior that holds humidity once seasoned; glass top so you see the cigars without opening the lid
• Built-in hygrometer — calibrate it once with the salt test above and it reads true
• Laser engraved with a name or monogram; holds 20–25 cigars

$59.95See the humidor ↗

Engraved to order · Fast USA shipping · Gift wrapping available

3. The old way: distilled water, and why it is riskier

Before humidity packs, people seasoned a humidor with a shallow dish or a shot glass of distilled water left inside the closed box for a week, sometimes with a new sponge soaked in distilled water as well. It still works, and it is cheaper, but it needs two cautions. Use distilled water only: tap water carries minerals that leave marks on the cedar and, worse, whatever spores it carries, and a warm humid box is where mould likes to start. And do not wipe the cedar down with a wet cloth, whatever the older guides say. Cedar swells when it is soaked, and a lid that was flat on Monday can warp by Friday so it never seals properly again. Moisture in the air, slowly, is the way; water on the wood is not.

4. How to know a humidor is seasoned

The last step of how to season a humidor is the test. Remove every humidity source, close the lid with only the calibrated hygrometer inside, and wait a day. A seasoned humidor holds 65 to 70% on its own for that day, because the wood is now giving moisture back to the air instead of taking it. If the reading falls more than four or five points in twenty-four hours, it is not done. There is no shortcut through this check; it is the only test that measures the wood rather than the packs.

5. Loading the first cigars

Once it passes, put in storage packs at 69% (or a filled humidifier), then the cigars, with a little space between rows so the air moves. Leave the box closed for a week before judging the first smoke; cigars that were dry in the shop need a few days to come back. Keep the humidor out of sunlight and away from a heat vent, at room temperature; humidity is only half of it, and a box at 80 degrees will grow beetles at any humidity. Our guide to what a humidor is covers the day-to-day after this, and cigar gifts for men covers the cutter, the lighter and the rest.

Three mistakes that ruin the first box

• Cigars in on day one. The most common one. The wood takes their moisture and the first box smokes like cardboard. Two weeks of patience is cheaper than a box of cigars.
• Tap water anywhere near it. Minerals stain the cedar and spores start mould. Distilled only, and in the air rather than on the wood.
• Trusting the hygrometer. Five points off is normal from the factory. Calibrate before you season, or every reading after is a guess.

The physics behind all of this — cedar as a moisture buffer and the 65 to 72% target — is set out plainly on the humidor page at Wikipedia; the practice above is the same, just in the order that works.

When to season a humidor again

A humidor that sits empty for a month or more dries back out and needs the two-week treatment again before cigars go in. So does one that has been through a move, a winter next to a radiator, or a summer in a garage. The tell is the same as the finish test: if the box cannot hold 65% for a day with the packs out, the wood is thirsty again. A humidor in regular use, refilled and kept closed, does not need re-seasoning; the storage packs keep the wood topped up as they keep the cigars.

Setting up the room the cigars get smoked in? See the man cave essentials list, and our gifts for bourbon lovers guide for what to pour with them.

For the pour that goes with the cigar

Personalized Whiskey Decanter Set — decanter and two glasses, all engraved

$95.85View ↗

How to season a humidor: FAQ

Engraved cedar humidors, made to order

Still choosing the box? Our guide to how to choose a humidor covers what to check before you buy the one you will season.

Want one with his name on it? Our custom cigar humidor is cedar with a glass top and a front hygrometer, engraved to order.