How to Rehydrate Dried-Out Cigars

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: March 10, 2023 References

Storing Cigars in a Humid Place

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Creating a Makeshift Humidor

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Using Your Shower

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Video

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Tips

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Warnings

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Things You'll Need

Because of the natural moisture and aromatic oils they contain, cigars can be very temperamental to store and maintain properly. If you don’t have a humidor to provide a moisture-regulated environment, you might find yourself with dry, brittle cigars that have lost their smoothness and complex flavors. Once the tobacco in a cigar becomes dried out, it can be tough to salvage, but there are a few tricks you can use to bring a dry cigar back from the brink that only require basic materials and a little patience.

Things You Should Know

Store cigars in a damp place, like a cellar or greenhouse, with the cigar box lid open for a month. Turn the cigars every 2-3 days.
Alternatively, store your cigars in a plastic bag with holes poked in it. Place that bag and a damp sponge inside a second, larger bag for about a week.
Keep your cigars in your bathroom and prop open the box lid whenever you take a hot shower.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Storing Cigars in a Humid Place

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Find a suitably humid environment to store the cigars. Store the cigars somewhere with abundant natural moisture in the atmosphere. Damp or humid places like cellars and greenhouses make ideal environments for exposing dried out cigars to constant, steady levels of humidity.^{[1]
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- Be sure that the place you choose is room temperature, or only slightly warmer or cooler. Never leave cigars in places that receive direct sunlight or are near any kind of heat source.
2
Leave the cigars inside the box with the lid open. Crack open or remove the lid of the cigar box and make sure the cigars are evenly distributed inside. Leaving the top of the box open will allow moisture to more easily infiltrate the box and penetrate through to the tobacco inside the cigars.
- If the cigars aren’t completely dried out, leaving the lid propped open will be sufficient for allowing moisture to enter the box. For thoroughly desiccated cigars, leave the lid off.
- A warm, damp towel can be folded and placed beneath the stored cigar box to provide an extra boost of moisture for especially dry cigars. Just be careful to change the towel out frequently, or it might mildew.^{[3]
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Allow cigars to sit for up to a month. Leave the cigars in the humid location for a couple weeks to a month. Make sure the cigars are situated where they won’t be knocked over, become wet or be exposed to direct heat or cold. This is the simplest method of rehydrating dry cigars, but also the slowest, as rehydration will occur at a very gradual rate.
- Though it takes time, slow rehydration works best, as moisture is returned to the cigars little by little, which keeps the cigars from becoming overhydrated.^{[4]
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- Overhydration is essentially irreversible, and can result in deadening the cigar’s flavor, making it difficult to keep lit and even causing mold to grow on the tobacco.
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Rotate the cigars every 2-3 days. Check back on the progress of the cigars regularly. Rotate each cigar a quarter turn inside the box every few days; this will ensure that the entire outer edge of each cigar receives the same amount of moisture so that they hydrate evenly.^{[5]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Creating a Makeshift Humidor

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Poke holes in a large Ziploc bag and place the cigar box inside. Take a Ziploc bag spacious enough to fit the entire cigar box inside and poke small holes in both sides of the bag to ventilate it. Insert the open cigar box inside the bag and seal it.^{[6]
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- A quart-sized bag will probably be sufficient for most smaller cigar boxes; anything bigger will likely require a gallon-sized bag.
- Don’t make the holes too large, or the cigars may become oversaturated as they sit. A paperclip or the point of a knife should work fine for poking small holes.
2
Take a second bag and place a damp sponge inside. Wet a sponge and ring out the excess water. Place the sponge at the bottom of a second, larger Ziploc bag. This will provide an artificial source of moisture from which the cigars can be revived.
- Make sure to use a new sponge, and, if possible, wet it with bottled or distilled water. Old, used sponges and tap water are filled with bacteria and chemicals that can cause your cigars to mold.^{[7]
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- Re-wet the sponge every couple of days when you rotate the cigars.
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Seal the bag with the cigars inside the second bag. Slide the ventilated bag containing the open cigar box into the second bag containing the sponge. Seal the second bag to lock in the moisture of the sponge, which will slowly diffuse through the ventilated bag and into the dry cigars. Rehydration with this method will probably take a week or longer.
- Don’t let the cigars become wet. A wet cigar is a separate problem.
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Find an out of the way place to leave the two bags to take effect. Take a look at the bags every couple of days to re-wet the sponge and test to see if the cigars are absorbing moisture. Rotate each cigar a quarter turn for even moisture distribution; switch up their positions inside the box if necessary.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Using Your Shower

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Leave the cigar box in your bathroom. Store the cigar box on a shelf or inside a cabinet in the bathroom where you take your daily shower. The cigars will become a fixture in your bathroom for a week or two while they undergo the rehydration process.^{[8]
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- If you prefer, you can store the box of cigars out in the open. Many cigar boxes are of rich, ornate construction and will just look like eye-catching decorative pieces while they’re being salvaged.
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Take the box out and open the lid while you shower. Every day before showering, take the cigars box out and open the lid. Place the box on the sink or toilet seat somewhere within a few feet of the shower. Once you’re done showering, close the lid of the box and return it to where it’s being stored. The humidity from the shower will be trapped inside the box and begin seeping into the cigars.^{[9]
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- Be extremely careful not to let the cigars get wet.
- It may be best to keep especially hot showers down to 10-20 minutes, as the temperature of the water will produce a higher concentration of steam.
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Turn the cigars intermittently. Every other day when you bring the cigar box out before your shower, rotate the cigars. As you do, take note of the appearance and feel of the cigars. Shuffle them around in the box every 3-4 days so that any layer or section of the box doesn’t receive more or less moisture than another.^{[10]
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- As they soak up moisture, most cigars will feel supple and slightly sticky to the touch, and may darken in color somewhat.
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Be careful not to overhydrate the cigars. It’s important not to allow them to remain in the exceptionally humid bathroom environment for long than necessary, as an overhydrated cigar is an equally difficult and time-consuming fix. Inspect the cigars regularly to see how they’re coming along. If storing the cigars near your shower seems to be hydrating them too rapidly, employ an alternate method, like leaving them open in a damp cellar.
- You should check on the cigars and their rehydration environment frequently to make sure that storage conditions haven’t changed unexpectedly.
- Once cigars are rehydrated, they should be moved to humidity-controlled storage or smoked right away.

Warnings

Failure to rotate cigars at regular intervals will result in one side of the tobacco being drier than the other. This may give you trouble keeping the cigar lit and can cause it to drag poorly.

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Don't smoke a cigar if it has accidentally become overhydrated or you suspect that mold has set up in the tobacco.

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