First Post - Real newbie questions on humidor and storing...

Hi everyone,
As the subject line says this is my first post and I have some basic questions. Is there a cigar FAQ on this site? The only one I could find was a general one for the site.

I recieved a Humidores San Francisco as a birthday gift yesterday, and this is my first humidor. Yesterday I found a web site that I can't locate now. Anyway, the guy was saying something about seasoning new humidors by placing a small tub of water in it - I was having constant interruptions and wasn't able to read it closely. Do you really need to season a humidor? My meter was reading 73%, but I am now doing the salt test on it to verify.

I received two different boxes of cigars with the humidor. One is a box of 25 Brevas. The box is wrapped with plastic, and it looks like the cigars are wrapped as well. Should I place the cigars in the humidor wrapped or unwrapped? Are these good cigars? Yes I know I could just light one and see for myself but I thought it would be nice to hear what ya'all think.

The other cigars are Marevas and they came unwrapped so they will be stored without wrappers. Are they considered any good?

Finally the really dumb question: the humidor has a wooden rack that sits inside of it. I'm assuming that the rack sits in the bottom of the box to allow air flow? Or maybe it is to hold cutting tools and such?

As you can see I am pretty clueless to the cigar world. I've only smoked a few cigars, probably no more than 20 different types, so I have much to learn. I can say that the best cigar that I've had was a cuban given to me by someone that visited relatives in Cuba. I seem to recall that it was a smaller sized H. Uppman - I think I still have the tube it came in.

All advice appreciated!

Hi Tombstone,
The Brevas say Cigarros Extrafinos.

The Marevas came in a blue box, of 5 cigars, with a large C on the box. The ring, not sure of the proper term, on each cigar is simply a gold C with a blue circle around it.

Other than that I'm not seeing anything identifying them. Both boxes say hand made in Columbia, I think - "Cigarros Extrafinos Bien hechos en Columbia". Am now thinking that they might be some generic Columbian brand....

The gift came from my sister in-law who may frequently be making trips to South America due to her new job. I'm going to have to keep reading to find out what to ask her to get.

Thanks for the response.

Macallan said:

Not very many cigars come out of columbia. Typically most cigars rolled and tobacco grown in south america comes from the bahia region of Brazil. You can expect those cigars to have a pretty strong edge to them.

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Keeping in mind I know nothing, would aging cause these cigars to mellow?

Anybody have a link to the proper way of seasoning my humidor? I tried for a half an hour to find that site that said how to do it, but have had zero success. There are probably thousands of sites, but i'm still looking.

My B-day is tomorrow and I bought a 5th of Don Julio tequila, the wife and daughter are leaving town for 10 days tomorrow morning, any guesses as to what I'm doing tomorrow afternoon. :twisted: Even if the cigars are harsh I'm going to mellow them with some sipping tequila. If the wife is going to leave me at home on my birthday what else can I be expected to do? 8)