The Virtue of Dry?

[tolstoyevsky]

With my Doctor's emphatic blessing (don't ask) I have returned to tobacco after a 16-year pause. Back then, it was cigarettes and the occasional $10 cigar. Dry was something to be avoided. They sold me expensive wood boxes to ensure my cigars wouldn't be dry. I now gather the mention of pipe tobacco in a humidor would get me banished. So, why humidified cigars and not humidified pipe tobacco?

 

[Sigmund]

Pipe tobacco is sold in sealed containers. Cigars are not

Pipe tobacco is moist and stays so…often too moist. Storage of pipe tobacco is in sealed jars.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Pipe tobacco is a totally different thing than cigar tobacco. Pipe tobacco is more processed and has more moisture added to it.

In my experience pipe tobacco burns way better and taste better once it's really dry.

It has something to do with how your climate is, where you live. In my humid climate tobacco pretty much never dries out too much. I often resort to drying it on a paper plate in the microwave.

But even cigars taste better on the dry side, to me.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Humidors do too things, reduces excess moisture and adds moisture when in too dry of a climate.

I like mine dry, as Funk mentions also. But, many don't. As to the moisture level of pipe tobacco, it is totally subjective.

So too are cigars. I like mine on the dry side also.

 

[proteus]

As I see it the long hollow tube form of tobacco causes the tobacco to burn hotter with more air. In this form, dry tobacco burns even hotter running the taste. In the form of flakes ribbons and cubes the air flow is less and burns cooler so drier tobacco in these forms burns at the correct temperature. Adding humectants and casings adds to the moisture level and then drying or packing lighter to allow more air to increase burn temperature becomes more useful.

 

[anotherbob]

Don't forget there are dry cigars too. Why when you order chicken at a restaurant do they ask you how you'd like it done? But with steak they do. It's like that.
Hey thanks next time someone asks about how dry people like their pipe tobacco I'll compare it to how people like steak extra rare and some like it burnt and terrible.

 

[BingBong]

Some pipe tobaccos need to be humidified, really. Gawith blends especially.

 

[dottlejockey]

I keep all my cigars in a homemade tower-of-power style humidor for long term aging at 68-70% and dry box them in a sealed cigar travel case for smoking. This humidor has cigars that go back 20 yrs and are in great shape. For smoking, a wee bit of drying time is good, too. They can be in the dry box for up to a week (or sometimes more) and smoke perfectly.

Pipe tobacco, on the other hand, i keep in mason jars - typically without humidification biscuits (depending on surveillance over time) - and will smoke them on the drier side. But this requires a little experimentation on your part to see just how dry you like each blend. If you compare some fresh SG 1792 to fresh Semois, for instance, the former will require a little time on the table while the latter is already as dry as it gets.

 

[RPK]

I keep my modest amount of tobacco (10 tins) in a humidifier and it seem to keep them in the same state as when I opened the tins. So that works for me as I don't really cellar or age my tobacco.

I remember reading when questioning about keeping your pipe tobacco in a humidifier that someone said that if you had a cedar lined humidifier the cedar wold permeate your tobacco.. which made me wonder why that then wouldn't apply to cigars?

 

[anotherbob]

if you had a cedar lined humidifier the cedar wold permeate your tobacco.. which made me wonder why that then wouldn't apply to cigars?

I've seen that as a selling point for humidors before. Cedar and tobacco is a match made in heaven if you ask me and many others.

 

[Pipeh]

I feel that some tobacco loses the taste when it becomes dry, so I prefer moist.

 

[sablebrush52]

I now gather the mention of pipe tobacco in a humidor would get me banished.

Why? I cellar my tobaccos with moisture in them. I'm not interested in smoking mummy dust or stale tobacco. I dry my tobacco for smoking so that I get more flavor and a more controllable smoke. But drying my tobacco, at least for me, doesn't mean completely dried out, but just short of bone dry, still pliant, but dry to the touch when squeezed, no sense of moisture welling up against my skin when squeezed.
That applies to Virginias. English blends can be moister and lose flavor, same with aromatics. Nonetheless, too much moisture masks flavors, and most tobaccos are tinned with excess moisture.

 

[bullet08]

Simple. Sometimes in the past, some pipe smokers looked at a humidor then at a mason jar. They collectively screamed "that damned pine box is more expensive than our pipes? Fuck that. We are using a mason jar." Which lead to better seal for the pipe tobacco, and more moisture in them. Where as that other expensive "pine box" needs constant/occasional fidgeting and some source of moisture.

 

[NookersTheCat]

I feel that some tobacco loses the taste when it becomes dry, so I prefer moist.

This is actually technically true. One of the reasons we keep both cigars and pipe tobaccos moist and sealed is because it protects the volatile essential oils, terpenes, and any added flavours, within the leaf. The lack of oxygen movement from the seal and higher humidity both help keep these flavour-makers sealed in the leaf rather than evaporating away.

On a personal note, one of the biggest things I love about pipes vs cigars is how it's literally 1000x easier to keep pipe baccy. Take sealed tin/mason jarred bulk, put in cool dark place, done. Enjoy for the next 0-100 years.
Cigars? Buy hundreds of dollars of humidors, humidfying devices, and humidity measurement devices. Maintain sterile, near surgical conditions when handling, be sure to check humidity levels and devices/replace/fill at least once per week... then even if kept perfectly still risk mold growth if one pesky spore gets in on the air or from a new stick brought in. Complete pain in the ass.

 

[Hillcrest]

I use an old cedar lined cigar box to dry my moister pipe tobacco for a day or two before smoking.

 

[BenMN]

With my Doctor's emphatic blessing (don't ask) I have returned to tobacco after a 16-year pause. Back then, it was cigarettes and the occasional $10 cigar. Dry was something to be avoided. They sold me expensive wood boxes to ensure my cigars wouldn't be dry. I now gather the mention of pipe tobacco in a humidor would get me banished. So, why humidified cigars and not humidified pipe tobacco?

Hey, welcome (back)!

Moisture content is of course important for both.

It might be useful to think about the question in terms of stability and evenness. I think some parallels can be drawn

We let our Pipe tobacco age in tins or jars. Very stable (hopefully, no pinhole, bad seal, etc.). Zero (or very close to zero) air exchange with "the outside world. " Similar, people will take an unopened box of cigars and put it in a cooler for years. Sure, they'll use humi packs or whatever, but they deplete very slowly. Very stable, little air exchange, although more so than a sealed tin or jar (cooler opened periodically, etc.).

We open that tin of pipe tobacco and let it breathe (destabilize). It changes as we smoke the container down. Maybe we dry it a bit on purpose. But the pieces remain relatively stable (as moisture declines, however fast) because they are small.

Breathe time can be important. People sometimes say they didn't like a blend, jarred it for X, came back to it and "wow." This is why. Air exchange destabilized the environment, and evenness of moisture content is basically a non-issue. Same reason many feel that the best few smokes come from the end of the tin

Cigars too can benefit from breathe time. I buy a fiver, pull the cellos, and into the box they go for ?? time. Box is unstable (relative to a sealed tin), open, shut, drafty... guys with airtight Tupperware etc. should open them periodically. What we are looking for here is even moisture content, all the way through. Achieved by managing humidity in an environment with some air exchange over months, while your cigars both open up and settle in to a stable moisture content all the way through. This takes way more time than shreds of pipe tobacco

At the end of the day, your open tin or jar is slowly drying down, but it doesn't really matter. You're smoking away at it, it's mostly even, and will likely be gone before it's too dry. If we held a cigar in a non-humidified environment, not only would it slowly dry down, but it would be doing so unevenly. And we don't smoke them bit by bit... ("dryboxing" = the art of doing this on purpose and "catching" the cigar at just the right time for your conditions and preference)

Exceptions abound (of course), but hopefully these ideas add to your enjoyment

 

[anotherbob]

Why? I cellar my tobaccos with moisture in them. I'm not interested in smoking mummy dust or stale tobacco. I dry my tobacco for smoking so that I get more flavor and a more controllable smoke.

It is simply easier to smoke drier tobacco. And personally I think that a percentage of lost flavor is people smoking it faster then needed because it's dry. Dry tobacco practically smokes its self.

But drying my tobacco, at least for me, doesn't mean completely dried out, but just short of bone dry, still pliant, but dry to the touch when squeezed, no sense of moisture welling up against my skin when squeezed.
That applies to Virginias. English blends can be moister and lose flavor, same with aromatics. Nonetheless, too much moisture masks flavors, and most tobaccos are tinned with excess moisture.

Also recently found out that human taste buds can't register many flavors unless in a small window of temperature close to body temp.

 

[sardonicus87]

I tried, but can't resist... have to post it. This damn video gets stuck in my head every time people start talking about drying their tobacco.

"How dry do you want it? I'm gonna make it so dry for you... it's going to be like a desert in my mouth..."

 

[sablebrush52]

It is simply easier to smoke drier tobacco. And personally I think that a percentage of lost flavor is people smoking it faster then needed because it's dry. Dry tobacco practically smokes its self.

Also recently found out that human taste buds can't register many flavors unless in a small window of temperature close to body temp.

Your nose has more receptors than your mouth, which is why you can pick up more notes if you snork or smoke indoors. I've experimented with moisture levels for years and always go for what gives me the most intense flavors.
Also, when I wrote what I wrote I didn't proofread carefully enough. What I meant to write about English blends is that they can be moister than Virginias with NO loss of flavor because the orientals and Latakia are flavor bombs, so the moisture doesn't mute them like it does Virginias.

 

[NookersTheCat]

I tried, but can't resist... have to post it. This damn video gets stuck in my head every time people start talking about drying their tobacco.

"How dry do you want it? I'm gonna make it so dry for you... it's going to be like a desert in my mouth..."

"I don't like sand... it's coarse. And rough. And irritating. And it gets everywhere..."