Cigar Q&A: Rotating Cigars

Q. Is it true that rotating your cigars from top to bottom in your humidor ages them more evenly, or is this a myth?

A. From my personal experience, as well as from others who’ve told me they do this, I believe rotating your cigars does help them age more consistently. Depending on the growth-rate of your collection, your humidor can get pretty jammed-up and the humidity can vary in spots. That’s why it’s also good to have some space between the cigars for airflow. I rotate my cigars from top to bottom every few months, if only to see what’s on the bottom. More often than not, there’s a great cigar down there that I forgot about. ;-)

If your cigars feel as supple on the bottom row as the top and sides, your humidor is well-seasoned and doing a good job, so you probably needn’t worry about such things. Cigar smokers who may be more obsessive about their collections are more likely to rotate them religiously.

Whether or not you feel this practice is worth the time and effort, I believe there is some validity to rotating cigars. The only thing I can add is, if you remove the cello from your cigars, you just need to be careful that you don’t tear any wrappers while you’re rotating them.