The Final Word on how to Setup your Humidor

Congratulations on the purchase of your new humidor! Your humidor will easily store and properly maintain your cigars for a lifetime with very little maintenance. Simply follow these instructions…

1. The first task is to “Season” your humidor. Soak a new dish sponge in water and wipe down the entire cedar interior (you can also use a spray bottle if you have a larger cabinet humidor). Apply the water liberally as this will ‘kick-start’ the humidor into properly humidifying your cigars by impregnating the wooden interior. Let the cedar dry for only a couple of minutes so that you do not lay your cigars on a wet surface.
2. Submerge the humidifier(s) into a container holding enough water to completely cover the humidifier. Leave it submerged for at least 5-10 minutes. Remove, shake off and wipe excess water away and place into your humidor.
3. Often the humidity level is fine, but the hygrometer isn’t. This is because analog hygrometers (those that come stock) are only accurate to +/-10%, whereas digital hygrometers are highly accurate. These can be purchased on Amazon for under $10 (just search for “digital hygrometer”).
4. Humidity should be at approximately 70%. Anywhere between 65-75% humidity is acceptable. Refill the humidifier once humidity falls below 60-65%.
5. Put your cigars in the humidor, and that’s it, your humidor is now ready!

Frequently asked questions

My humidity will not reach 70%, what can I do?

This is the most common problem with humidors, and most of it can be attributed to extremely dry climates or simple fixes. There are several reasons why this may be happening.

• Your humidifier in insufficient for a dry climate. To remedy this, simple add in another humidifier. This is the problem about 95% of the time. Boveda packs (which we carry) are a simple and effortless way to do this.
• Certain humidifiers take in water more easily than others. This can be resolved by submerging your humidifier for closer to 30 minutes and in a deeper container. This will exert more water pressure on your humidifier-forcing more water into it.
• If you have a cabinet style humidor you should consider installing simple weather stripping available at any hardware store around the edge of the door. This prevents humidity from leaking out.
• If you have a cabinet style humidor it might be time to upgrade your humidifier. The industry standard is made by Cigar Oasis. We sell all of their products at wholesale so let us know if we can help.

Happy selling!

The 3 Best Cigar Humidors for your Business

Deciding on the perfect cigar humidor to display your cigars for a retail presentation can be a bit daunting. The 3 options are to purchase a wholesale cigar humidor, build your own cabinet style humidor, or build a walk-in humidor. We will address the pros and cons of each. 

But first let's define what a cigar humidor even is shall we? A humidor is simply a humidified space. That's it! As long wherever you display your cigars is properly humidified (read more about that here) then that space is technically a humidor!

Purchasing a cigar humidor

This is a great option if you plan on stocking fewer than 100 boxes of cigars. Especially if less than 30 or so. Unless if you know any good, affordable wood workers this will be your most cost effective way to go. They are all lined with Spanish cedar and have tight fitting doors to seal in the humidity. The largest style cases are approximately 6' tall and 4' wide and will hold up to 50 boxes. They are ready to go right out of the box. 

Building a cigar humidor

This is a nice option if you, or someone you know is adept at cabinetry. This allows you to customize the cabinet to your exact specs and colors. All you need to keep in mind is a few items.

1. The interior should ideally be lined in Spanish cedar to get that traditional cedar smell. It's not totally necessary though, it's just customary. You just won't get that nice smell otherwise. 
2. The doors should be tight fitting and have good weather sealing strips applied to any loose areas to keep the humidity sealed in. You don't need to overdo this, just do the best you can.
3. Make sure the shelves angle down so your customers can see your cigars.
4. Adjustable shelves are nice because it allows you to move shelves around for unusual shaped cigar boxes and extra room on the bottom for humidifiers (that can vary quite a bit in size based on what you choose).

Building a walk-in humidor

This can be a very cost effective project if you plan on stocking more than 50 boxes of cigars. It is definitely more cost effective than building or buying individual cases. A walk-in cigar humidor is a fairly simple project. Usually it is placed in the corner of a room and then 2 additional walls are built out with a door for access. Craigslist and Angie's List yields plenty of qualified dry wallers that can handle the entire project. 

Otherwise, there are a couple things to address when building a walk-in cigar humidor.

1. Refer above to items 1, 3 and 4.
2. Understand how best to humidify your walk-in humidor (read more about that here)
3. Don't build shelves too low as customers won't want to bend all the way to look at those cigars. Try to keep the shelves all higher than your waist. You can use shelves lower than that to hold back-up cigar boxes so you can sell full boxes of cigars.
4. Build an island in the middle of your room that has a top large enough to display stuff. This is a great place to promote other items, events, complimentary items like humidors, ashtrays, hats, etc.
5. Make your walk-in well designed with nice design elements like well chosen art on a wall or two. You want your walk-in cigar humidor to be a place where people want to linger. 

If you need any more advise or want to bounce ideas off of us feel free to give us a call any time!

How many boxes of cigars you should start with

Knowing how many boxes to start with can seem like the ultimate question when you're getting started. While the answer depends on many variables, hopefully this article will help at least guide you in the right direction. Let us answer this question by addressing each type of business that carries cigars...

Small business and cigars are small part of your business:

If you're a small neighborhood liquor store or convenience store you're probably thinking you want to start off small - and that's ok! To make it simple, 12 boxes of cigars makes for the perfect starter selection (hint: read this short article to find out why 12 boxes is the magical number that always yields the greatest success.) It's a small investment, the humidor itself looks attractive and is easily spotted from around your store, and there is exactly the correct amount of inventory to make sure you always have something to suit everyone's tastes. It's really a no-brainer selection. 

Cigars are a more prominent part of your business: Mid-Large liquor store, hotel/resort, smoke shop, etc

Now you need to appeal to a more serious caliber of cigar buyer - the aficionado. These people know their stuff, respect a nice selection, and will become a loyal customer if your selection looks right. First of all, you need the right brands. That's our specialty and we will help you with that - so you're not alone! Second, you need the right amount. A small countertop humidor won't cut it because it looks too amateurish. Loyal cigar customers only become loyal when if you pass their test of looking like a respectable cigar establishment. Having too few cigars on display will fail that test. You will want to have a floor display humidor like the Barbatus. That humidor holds anywhere from 20-35 boxes and is a good start if you want to look respectable but cigars are not your primary product. 

If you're ready to go beyond that then you can go for a double door commercial display humidor like the Bermuda. It holds around 40-80 boxes and your sales can easily be 2-3 times that of a smaller humidor. A larger selection simply attracts a larger crowd of customers and makes them that much more loyal. But most importantly, having that larger selection gives each customer a good reason to come back to try new cigars.  

Cigars are you primary product: Cigar shop, cigar bar, etc.

At this point you will need at least 2 of the Bermuda humidors, or you may want to just build out a walk-in humidor. Read this article for more info about that. If cigars are you primary product then you need to be prepared to look like it too. You can't cheat your way into impressing discerning cigar aficionados. Even a small cigar store will carry 50 boxes of cigars (and that is a truly small cigar store). Whereas the average cigar store will carry around 200 boxes. And a larger cigar store will have over 400 boxes. You can always start with 100 and slowly work your way up if finances are an issue. 

How many cigars can I fit on shelves? And how much money should I budget for?

Here's an easy way to determine your cigar budget and how many can fit on your shelves. It's actually quite easy to do the math. First, you'll just need to know the approximate dimensions of your display area. All you need to know is that average width of a box of cigars is 6 inches. This way you can determine how many can fit across easily.  The average depth is 7 inches. That way if your shelves are around 14 inches or more deep, then you can actually double your inventory by displaying one box in front of the other. You would just simple tear the lid off the box in the front. This is great because you can always start small by only starting with 1 box deep and then slowly expanding your inventory by going 2 boxes deep. 

Now that's how you impress those cigar aficionados!