How to season a humidor

Does a new humidor need seasoning?

Yes, if it has an unfinished wood interior. Wooden humidors are traditionally lined with Spanish cedar, and a new box arrives with that wood dry. Until the cedar has taken on moisture, it pulls moisture from the cigars, and they dry out even with a full humidifier sitting next to them.

Seasoning is bringing that dry wood up to moisture before cigars go in. The cedar's habit of taking on moisture and giving it back is part of how a humidor works, and it's why a box that dries out later has to be seasoned again.

Which humidors don't need seasoning

Boveda lists acrylic humidors, tupperdors (a lidded plastic food container with a humidity source inside), coolidors (a cooler kept only for cigars) and its own Humidor Bag as needing none. Hard plastic travel cases are in the same group. The Xikar 60 Ct Travel Humidor, for one, is an ABS plastic shell with a foam interior, so you charge its humidifier and use it.

Some wooden humidors have varnished or finished interiors that don't need seasoning either. And one humidor maker said in 2020 that its humidors don't need seasoning.

Otherwise, go by the wood. A cedar-lined travel humidor needs seasoning the same as a desktop box, and the same pack maker says so of electric humidors and wineadors (wine fridges set up for cigars) with wood shelves or trays.

Method 1: seasoning packs

Seasoning packs are two-way humidity packs (sealed pouches that give off or take up moisture to hold one humidity), made for this one job. Boveda's are rated 84% relative humidity (RH), well above where you'd keep cigars. The pack maker's explanation is that the box is empty the whole time, so no cigar ever sits at 84%.

1. Take any cigars out. They'll need a place to sit for two weeks, and where cigars wait while it seasons covers sealed containers and bags.
2. Count the packs. The pack maker says to use one Size 60 pack for every 25 cigars the humidor is built to hold. J.C. Newman's product page listed the Craftsman's Bench Laredo at up to 90 cigars, so it takes four packs if you round up.
3. Take the clear wrapper off each pack, set the packs in the empty box and close the lid.
4. Leave it shut for 14 days, whatever the hygrometer says; it reads the air, and the moisture is going into the wood.
5. After 14 days, throw the seasoning packs away; they aren't reusable.
6. Switch to your regular pack or charge the humidifier, then add your cigars. Our guide to the humidity to hold covers which pack number to choose.

Method 2: distilled water

This is the way to go if your humidor came with a humidifier and you'd rather not buy packs.

1. Mount the hygrometer and humidifier while the wood is still dry. Adhesive magnets and pads bond better to a dry surface. Test the hygrometer before you trust its reading: how to check one.
2. Fill the humidifier with distilled water, or the solution its maker calls for. Tap water leaves minerals behind that clog it.
3. Add a second water source: a sponge sitting in a small plastic container half full of distilled water. Keep it off the bare wood, and use a container that won't tip, since water pooled on the cedar is the thing to avoid.
4. Close the lid. Open it once a day to check the sponge and the humidifier, top up whichever is getting dry, and close it again.
5. Keep at it until the reading settles. The sections below cover how long that usually takes and how to tell.

Can you season a humidor faster?

Older advice sped it up by wiping the wood. A 1998 cigar-magazine storage guide wiped the inside with a sponge damp with distilled water, left the damp sponge inside, and called the box ready after a second night.

Advice on wiping the wood has changed since. Later advice from the same magazine, in 2017, says not to wipe the cedar, because it can shock the wood and lead to warping, which affects the humidor's seal. Tobacconist University says the same: don't wipe or saturate the wood, because wood that takes on water too fast can swell, warp or strain the joints. And that humidor maker said in 2020 that its humidors shouldn't be wiped with water, because water lifts the sanded grain.

So follow your own humidor maker's instructions. If they don't tell you to wipe, don't. Use packs or the water method and give it the days.

How long does it take to season a humidor?

With seasoning packs, 14 days, by the instructions for 84% packs. With distilled water, several days or longer. How much longer depends on the humidor, the humidifier, how dry the wood was to start and the room the box sits in. The two-night figure you'll see quoted belongs to the wipe-down method above. In the shop, we season a new humidor with distilled water, without wiping the wood, and give it a week to 10 days before cigars go in. Yours may take more or less time, so go by the reading, as the next section explains.

The air inside the box moves much faster than the wood. In one reviewer's test of an inexpensive desktop humidor, a sponge took the air from about 44% to 75% within 36 hours. Over two weeks of seasoning, moisture-meter readings on the wood barely moved. The reviewer said the meter wasn't very precise and judged that the box probably still needed a lot more seasoning.

How do I know my humidor is seasoned?

With packs, the 14 days are the answer. The pack maker says to ignore the hygrometer until they're up.

With water, it's seasoned once the reading holds reasonably steady, generally in the 65–70% range. Don't add cigars just because the hygrometer briefly reaches the number you want. Give the box time to settle.

Once the cigars go in, the reading may shift for a while. Cigars take up and give off moisture too, so let the cigars, wood and air settle before you adjust anything. A reading that keeps falling is different. The pack maker's signs of a box that needs more seasoning are that it can't hold its humidity, or that its packs don't last their full three months. A humidifier that keeps running dry points the same way.

Re-seasoning a humidor that dried out

A humidor that has dried out needs seasoning again. Take the cigars out first.

Either method works the second time. With packs, it's the same 84% packs for 14 days. With water, put a sponge in a plastic container half full of distilled water inside the box and close it for a day. Then add the charged humidifier and keep the lid shut for three days, checking with a digital hygrometer. If it's still low, refill and give it another day.

Some boxes need this more than others. The pack maker says a humidor may need re-seasoning once or twice a year in a very dry climate or at high altitude, through dry seasons, or if the box is drafty or has a glass top.