Making Custom Cigars for Aficionados

Items You Will Need:

- Sticky-back Velcro

- A Pocket Knife

- Pellican model 1120 black Camera Case: This comes in various colors. Choose what is to your liking because this will have no effect on your end product

- A small cedar box: The link takes you to cigars that come in a cedar box that is the right size. Any cedar box approximately this size will work for our purposes.

- A Normal Shot Glass

- Bourbon whiskey: Makers Mark is a popular brand but use whatever you want. You may even want to try to using brandy or scotch. Experiment a little but it is not recommended using your expensive cigars.

- Cigars: You can use whatever you prefer. You may like villagers natural wrapper, these are around 80 cents per piece and the size works well the aforementioned parts.

- A Small Humidor: You'll want to get something similar to this. Be sure it has a humidification element.

- Two Extra Humidification Elements - small puck style

- One Hygrometer (preferably digital)

- Except for the top half of the case, remove all foam from the case

- Cut a hole into the middle of foam the size of a humidification puck.

- Affix the puck with sticky-back Velcro


- Using a normal kitchen spoon , wet the humidification puck until it almost overflows with whiskey. This will not need to be refilled.

- Remove the lid and the front panels from the small cedar box


- Trim a quarter to an eighth inch off of one of the longer sides of the lid. It needs to fit back into the box. It will be used as a separator tray for cigars. Also, save the "waste" piece.


- The "waste" piece will be placed inside of the shot glass with the whiskey and will act similar to a wick. It is used to diffuse the whiskey and allow for infusion of the cigar. The end should not stick out of the shot glass. It works best if the end sits about a quarter inch below the rim.

- Pour about a quarter inch of whiskey into the shot glass. Add the piece of cedar you cut into the shot glass. Place the shot glass in the top right corner of the case.

With Cigars about the size of the "Villagers Natural Wrapper" this setup will allow for the infusion of twenty cigars at a time.

- Start off with 5 Cigars in the cedar box. The resized lid should stay at the bottom, below the cigars. Wait a minimum of four weeks to add 5 more.


- When adding 5 more to the infusion chamber, the newly added will always be on the bottom. Using the resized lid as a tray, lift up the cigars inside of the box and slide in the fresh cigars below them (a). Pull out the tray and slide it back on the bottom of all the cigars (b). Repeat this step for each new batch.
a.

b.


- Replace the whiskey with fresh whiskey every two weeks. DO NOT throw out the old whiskey yet, it will be needed to prepare the small humidor. *humidity will be very high in the chamber.

- Each batch should be infused for at least 3 months before moving to the humidor. You cannot "over-infuse" the cigars with this method but they will be very moist. DO NOT attempt to smoke them at this point.

Finished and ready to be infused:

You don't need to get it ready right away. Waiting one or two weeks will give plenty of time to prepare the small humidor for cigar rendering and storage. Also just as a reminder, I would highly recommend never trying to smoke a cigar right out of the infusion chamber. This is because the cigar is too saturated making it impossible to keep it lit. And even if you do successfully get it lit, it will give off very harsh smoke. Only keep the whiskey infused cigars in this humidor to maintain proper infusion.

- Grab some of the whiskey set aside from the shot glass you rotated out (from step 2) and dampen the bottom, all four sides and top of the humidor.

- Add whiskey to one of the extra humidification pucks and place in a corner on the bottom. When you add fresh whiskey to the infusion chamber, put the old stuff in this puck.

- Only use distilled water or a distilled water and ethylene glycol mixture in the humidification puck that is attached to the top.

- Before you add any of the infused cigars, you will need to get the humidor up to the correct humidity. To do so, use the hygrometer to monitor the relative humidity and temperature. This chart will allow you to dial it in correctly.

> Temperature > Water Vapor Pressure > Relative Humidity <
> 66 > 16.37 > 80.33% <
> 67 > 16.95 > 77.58% <
> 68 > 17.55 > 74.93% <
> 69 > 18.17 > 72.37% <
> 70 > 18.79 > 70.00% <
> 71 > 19.45 > 67.61% <
> 72 > 20.11 > 65.39% <
> 73 > 20.81> 63.19% <
> 74 > 21.51 > 61.13% <
> 75 > 22.25 > 59.10% <
> 76 > 23.00 > 57.17% <

- After three or more months you can remove five cigars from the infusion chamber and add them to the prepared humidor. Wait a week before you smoke any of them.

- Add five more to the bottom of the stack in the infusion chamber.

- After smoking one, add one from the infusion chamber to the humidor. When five have been smoked don't forget to add five more to the bottom of the infusion chamber.

- Use the "first in, first out" rule