So you just got your beautiful new Spanish cedar lined humidor delivered to your doorstep and you’re sitting there wondering “what now?”.  Well look no further.  Your friends at HumidorWarehouse.com have put together this simple guide to seasoning your cigar humidor.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  Don’t put your precious stogies into the humidor until AFTER the humidor has been seasoned.  Otherwise the Spanish cedar acts as a sponge and will rob your cigars of any and all humidity stored in the tobacco.

Step 1 – Go down to your local grocery store and get a gallon of distilled water.  We’ve heard a lot of people that say this isn’t necessary but we know one cigar shop that failed to use distilled water in their large capacity humidor only to find a thin layer of calcium on their $20,000 stock of cigars 6 months later.  There are innumerable impurities in the water that come out of your tap that can flavor or harm your stash.

Step 2 – Open your humidor and thoroughly wipe down all the cedar with a sponge moistened with the distilled water.  You may need to re-soak your sponge several times during this process.  You don’t want the wood to be dripping wet, just a bit damp.  The idea behind this is that if you don’t moisten the cedar first, then the cedar will be super-absorbent when you put your humidifier into the humidor.  This will cause you to have to fill your humidifier time after time for a few weeks until the cedar is fully saturated.

Step 3 – After the wood is thoroughly moistened, take the sponge you used to wipe the humidor and wring it out real good and rinse to get rid of any cedar dust it may have picked up.  Re-wet the sponge with distilled water and place it in an open plastic sandwich baggie. Leave the bag open and place in your humidor, shut the top of the humidor and wait overnight.

Step 4 – In the morning check the hygrometer to see if it’s reading between 68%-75%.  If it is then congratulations, you’ve seasoned your humidor properly.  If not, repeat steps 2-3 again until the humidity is at the proper level.

Step 5 – Time to charge up your cigar humidifier.  Using a large bowl filled with distilled water, place your foam humidifier into the bowl and place a heavy object on it so it’s immersed.  After about 10 minutes take the humidifier out of the bowl and shake out the excess water.  Wipe the remaining water off the humidifier with a paper towel or dry cloth and mount or place the humidor into the humidor.

Step 6 – Your humidor is now ready for your cigar stash.  Keep a close eye on the hygrometer in the next 24 hours to be sure it’s maintaining a proper level.  If it’s fluctuating a lot then it may be that your humidor has a bad seal.  A good test for this is to lift the lid on your humidor a few inches and let it fall (obviously use caution with glass top humidors).  If the lid falls and comes to a slower stop (due to air being pushed out the humidor) you have a good seal.  If not then your seal is most likely bad and you should look into buying a new humidor.

We recommend checking your humidity level every few days, especially if you’re in an area that is prone to dry air (Think Arizona or dry winter weather in the North East).  Many areas such as Southern Florida the humidity in the air will be right around 70% so you’ll have to refill your humidification unit much less often.  Good Luck and may the stogie gods be with you!