Cigar Jar Humidors
Sometimes cigars come packaged in ceramic, glass or porcelain jars that typically end up as decorations in a smoking room. They look good lined up on the shelf in your man cave. But using these containers as ornaments is rather like keeping a classic car as a showpiece and never using it on the open road. It's especially a shame since turning a jar into a working humidor is rather easily done.
Contemporary consumers have the luxury of refilling, and reusing, their cigar jars time and time again, thanks to modern humidification technologies. In transforming your jars into full-fledged humidors, you're actually carrying on an old Cuban cigar tradition that dates back to the early 1900s, when Cuban cigar brand H. Upmann first introduced the glass "Amatista-style" jar to the cigar-smoking public. The jars were lined with Spanish cedar and sealed tight (to block out sunlight and promote ideal humidity for the cigars within) and marketed as "factory fresh" to consumers.
While Spanish cedar inserts and a firm-fitting lid are still important elements of an effective cigar jar, new tools like Boveda packets allow jar owners to create low-maintenance, humidity-controlled environments without any installation or setup. Simply toss a Boveda packet with the desired RH level into your jar and close the lid. Easy.
Another method is to mount a small humidification device to the inner lid of your cigar jar. These devices are a bit less modern, but still effective, and run on distilled water or propylene glycol solution. They come in two types, either filled with silica gel or superabsorbent polymers, and both have the ability to absorb and emit humidity.
Easier still (but more expensive) is to purchase a cigar jar that ships with a humidification device already included. The three jars pictured here—Viaje Skull and Bones Ten Ton Tess ($275, 19 cigars), Warped Jaridor ($150, empty) and Atabey Brujos Porcelain Jar ($625, 25 cigars)—all come with humidification devices preinstalled underneath the lid of the jar.
With all of the options comes the sense of breathing new life into the old by carrying on a legacy of style and elegance that stretches back generations. And besides, now you can hide more cigars around the house.
Visit atabeycigars.com, bovedainc.com, viajecigars.com and warpedcigars.com
