Humidity Shock

[Smashraj84]

Anyone wanna clue me in on what exactly this is and what I should do to combat it?  I just got a whole bunch of new ma'assell in the mail, how do I know if it is suffering from humidity shock?  Thanks.

[pavlakos_politakos]

eric/tang  should be able to provide a detailed answer.

[Smashraj84]

[quote name='pavlakos_politakos']eric/tang  should be able to provide a detailed answer.[/quote]I shall wait then.

[yashman19]

I don't know all the scientific details, but it has to do with the
ma'assel being produced in an area/location with a varying humidity
level from the humidity in your current location. Once your tobacco
moves from one humidty level to another and you open it, something
negative happens (this is the part I don't know about).

To combat this, Tangiers reccomends opening your tub of ma'assel 1-2
hours before your session to let your ma'assel adjust to the new
humidity level.

This is just what I got out of the whole humidity thing, so Tangiers can correct me where he needs to

[JByer323]

This concept was totally unheard of by me until I hit these boards, but it makes sense. My question is, has anyone ever played with a cigar humidor to try and reach the ideal level?

[aronparsons]

I would take a guess that since we're actually smoking the molasses/glycerin and it's evaporating (right?), humidity plays a huge role.  

[yashman19]

[quote name='JByer323']This concept was totally unheard of by me until I hit these boards, but it  
makes sense.  My question is, has anyone ever played with a cigar  
humidor to try and reach the ideal level?[/quote]

I dabble in cigars..but I don't have a massive collection quite yet
(still waiting to get a job). But I do have a humidor (75-100ct). I'm
not a big fan of the traditional humidifiers, having to deal with
properly filling it with distilled water and stuff, so I like to use
the heartfeld beads which can be found here:

[url="http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/beads_1.html"]http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/beads_1.html[/url]

They come in either 65% or 70%. Just spray them with some distilled
water, and you just leave them in the 'dor, and your stogies are set..
Very simple.

My only problem is that my only humidor doesn't seal worth a damn, so
once I get some extra money I'm going to invest in a nicer, properly
sealing humidor..

Also if you do get a humidor, throw out the typical analog hygrometers
that come with them. You can calibrate them all you want, but they will
give sh*tty readings more than half the time. Invest in a 20buck
digital hygrometer and you will be a happy camper

[ghunfrytimma]

i was wondering if i product is packaged in a specific degree of humidity and is then shipped to a shop and sits in that store still air tight packaged can u still suffer from humidiy shock?

[Sariél]

Yes, because it would react to the humidity of the room when you open it.

[Sonthert]

Right now, my theory goes like this:The tobacco becomes accustomed to the amount of humidity in the air, and is sensitive to changes in that humidity, similar to a blanket. Ever noticed when its damp, the blanket "feels" damp? When its dry, the blanket feels dry. Many people out there live in completely climate controlled homes. In San Diego, we just let nature take her course. When making the tobacco, I will noticed unflavored foundation will feel damper or drier, depending on the humidity in the air. When the tobacco comes into contact with air that has different humidity, the tobacco will attempt to get damper or drier. Tobacco that is trying to get moisture will leach the nicotine out of the tobacco, since nicotine is water soluble. People smoking "washed" tobacco (tobacco processed by washing with water to remove almost all of the nicotine) will have little problem and find keeping their tobacco in the refrigerator or freezer often will help the tobacco smoke well all of the time. Tobacco that is trying to dry out has too much moisture and will "Sweat" like a glass of ice-water on a hot day. This excess moisture will remove more nicotine, but also thin the tobacco juice, so the juice runs off faster (and into the jar) making the flavor weaker and die faster. One time, the humidity increased drastically. I was still developing my tobacco, at the time. I tried smoking something. It smoked weakly for a few minutes and then the flavor disappeared. I tried with a different flavor and the same thing happened. I thought it might be my tobacco's fault specifically so I tried smoking Nahkla Double Apple, and it did the same thing! A similar theory that I haven't completely ruled out runs along the lines of the cigar humidor theory. There is one "perfect" humidity to smoke in, humidities higher or lower will make the smoking more poor. I have noticed that tobacco accimates after some time in the new air which lends support to the first theory. If the second theory was true, the tobacco would smoke badly all the time in adverse weather conditions. Some flavors are less concentrated or more water soluble than others in which the humidity level may tend to affect them as well. Flavors that are potent and insoluble in water (like mint) always seems to smoke well whereas berry flavors with their water soluble esters seem to be more supceptible. Remember, everytime you "seal" the tobacco , the air from right now gets sealed in, too. If the weather changes, while the container is closed, acclimating to the humidity will be difficult. When we manufacture tobacco, for your enjoyment, whatever the humidity is on the day its sealed, is the humidity level the tobacco will be used to when it gets to you. I have had a problem with ZAP having continual humidity shock problems with his Tangiers, but we're trying to work it out. For almost everybody else, humidity shock is curable, that I know of, anyways.