Cigar Advisor Guide to Seasoning a Humidor with Boveda

How to Season Your Humidor Quickly and Easily with Boveda

We’ve all had to prep a new humidor before filling it. Or re-season an old humidor. And frankly, it’s quite a chore. Not one that I look forward to anyways.

By now, I have the routine committed to memory. Collect your tools—distilled water, shot glass, and an un-used sponge with no cleaning products or a non-fibrous cloth. Then basically, wipe and wait. I don’t know about you, but I don’t keep these products handy, which means an extra trip to the store and even more time until I can fill my new humidor.

The old way of seasoning a humidor is quite an ordeal and can become messy if you’re not careful. Luckily, there’s an answer in the Boveda Humidor Starter Kit—a simple, one step, goof proof, no-wipe solution that even a career C student like me can get right.

Boveda Humidor Starter Kit

We’re showing the 69% Starter Kit, Boveda’s most popular. But depending on your preferences, they also offer 65% and 72% options. No matter percentage you choose, your cigars will stay in prime condition.

Do You Have to Season a Humidor?

Why do we even season our wooden humidors? Think of it as protection for your cigar collection. Left unseasoned, the Spanish cedar lining—found  nearly universally in good quality wood humidors—will quickly draw all the moisture from your premium cigars. Spanish cedar is the most common lining you’ll see used in premium desktop humidors. It’s primarily favored because of its ability to absorb and store moisture and release it when conditions are too dry. Not only that, but it smells great and helps protect your sticks from tobacco beetles—who aren’t particularly fond of it.

For a visual guide, our very own John Pullo has a detailed video on how to season your humidor with Boveda’s handy kit. Written instructions can be found at the end of the article:

Do You Have to Season a Wineador?

What if you’ve grown beyond keeping a selection of smaller desktop humidors and moved your cigar collection ‘on up’ to a Wineador? If it’s like many of the more common models—with Spanish cedar shelving and drawers—you’ll have to rely on the same, old, tired process of distilled water, shot glass, and sponge or non-fibrous cloth for seasoning.

That is, unless you use a Boveda Humidor Starter Kit.

Seasoning a Humidor with Boveda

To quote the great Tom Petty, ‘waiting is the hardest part.’

The Boveda Humidor Starter Kit is as simple as set it and forget it. Just place the right pack size or number of packs in your empty humidor, close the lid, and wait. The Boveda 84 Seasoning packs come in either size 60—for every 25 cigars your humidor can hold, or size 320—for every 100 total cigars your humidor can hold.

It bears repeating—the number of packs used is based on overall humidor capacity and not the number of premium cigars you’re storing.  

Now you’ve got the right amount of Boveda 84 Seasoning packs and an empty humidor, just follow the 4-step process below:

1. If you have any cigars in your humidor (in the case of re-seasoning), remove them and place them in another humidor, a closed Tupperware® container, or cooler, that’s already properly set-up and humidified.
2. Place the Boveda 84% seasoning pack(s) inside your empty humidor or Wineador.
3. Close the lid and don’t open it for 14 days—don’t look at your hygrometer readings. In fact, ignore them completely.
4. After 2 weeks, open your humidor, remove the Boveda seasoning pack(s) and toss them.  

Can you believe that’s all there is? If you’ve used a Boveda Humidor Starter Kit—and followed the no mess, no stress instructions to a ‘T’—you can rest easy knowing your job is done. Just add humidification—maybe a Boveda Humidity Pack—and your humidor is ready to accept, protect, and keep your prized premium cigars in prime smoking condition.