So two weeks ago, I posted a question about freezing cigars. I was met with a ton of great advice and two other guides written by users. One was /u/mahstahblahstah's guide which can be read HERE. The other was /u/cavejohnson84's guide which can be read HERE. I took both of their guides, some other research, and my own personal touch to make my own guide.
I also posted it on my review site http://ift.tt/1KZ3OeW
With the threat of cigar beetles destroying your investment of cigars, it is now standard practice to freeze cigars to kill all cigar beetle eggs and larva. Most if not all companies will freeze their cigars before sent out to you. However, this does not guarantee death to all cigar beetles and Cuban cigars are especially prone to cigar beetles. I will take you through the process I use to kill cigar beetles.
About cigar beetles:
Cigar beetles (Lasioderma serricorne) are a pest that attack the tobacco plant. They lay microscopic eggs into the tobacco leaves and hatch at certain temperatures. Generally, 64°F and below is considered a safe temperature that cigar beetles will not hatch at. This number varies person to person as some people have had cigar beetles hatch at temperatures below 64°F. When the cigar beetle eggs hatch, the larva will eat its way through the cigar and will leave behind a pin sized hole in its wake. They then turn into adults which will burrow their way back into the cigar and lay more eggs. This cycle will continue to happen as the cigar beetles move to each neighboring cigar.
Cold temperatures and pesticides are the only 100% sure way to kill the beetles and their eggs.
Summarized process:
- Wrap cigars in zipper bag
- Place cigars in refrigerator for a period of time
- Place cigars in freezer or deep freezer for a period of time
- Place cigars in refrigerator for a period of time
- Take cigars out and place them in a quarantine humidor for a week
What You’ll Need:
- Cigars to freeze
- Saran wrap
- Freezer zipper bags
- Refrigerator
- Freezer/deep freezer
Wrap in a zipper bag:
This step ensures that the cigars will be able to withstand the freezer and will not get damaged while in your freezer. I took my cigars and wrapped them in saran wrap. This protects the cigars from each other by reducing the chance of two cigars rubbing up against each other or becoming frozen to each other.
Once the cigars are all wrapped up, I put them into a zipper freezer bag. I then took a straw and sucked all of the air possible out of the bag. You can also use a vacuum sealer to seal the cigars, but you have to be extra careful. I repeated this process so the cigars are wrapped in three bags then I put both bags into another bag. I have a total of 4 bags protecting the cigars from any damage that might occur during its stay in the deep freezer.
Place cigars in the refrigerator for a period of time:
By putting the cigars into the refrigerator, you are reducing the amount of shock the cigars will feel. A straight transition from 65°F to 3°F may crack the wrapper of the cigar, so many people take a precautionary step of refrigerating the cigars for a few hours. For this batch of cigars, I put them into my 37°F refrigerator for a period of 3 hours.
Place cigars in the freezer for a period of time:
From the refrigerator, we will take the cigars and place them into a freezer for a period of time. This period of time all depends on how cold your freezer is and how badly you want to kill the beetles. Below is a table obtained from the “Low-temperature as an alternative to fumigation to disinfest stored tobacco of the cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae)” a 2005 study done by the Leaf Tobacco Research Center in Japan. All times are the minimum required time to reach the 100% mortality rates for the cigar beetle.
Egg
-20°C (-4°F) Time to 100% mortality 1 hr -15°C (5°F) Time to 100% mortality 4 hr -10°C (14°F) Time to 100% mortality 12 hr -5°C (23°F) Time to 100% mortality 48 hr 0°C (32°F) Time to 100% mortality 240 hr 5°C (41°F) Time to 100% mortality 336 hr Larval
-20°C (-4°F) Time to 100% mortality 1 hr -15°C (5°F) Time to 100% mortality 3 hr -10°C (14°F) Time to 100% mortality 12 hr -5°C (23°F) Time to 100% mortality 96 hr 0°C (32°F) Time to 100% mortality 288 hr 5°C (41°F) Time to 100% mortality 336 hr Acclimated Larval (acclimated at 15 Celsius for 3 months to determine acclimation impact if any)
-20°C (-4°F) Time to 100% mortality 1 hr -15°C (5°F) Time to 100% mortality 6 hr -10°C (14°F) Time to 100% mortality 24 hr -5°C (23°F) Time to 100% mortality 504 hr 0°C (32°F) Time to 100% mortality 1176 hr 5°C (41°F) Time to 100% mortality 1680 hr Pupal
-20°C (-4°F) Time to 100% mortality 1 hr -15°C (5°F) Time to 100% mortality 4 hr -10°C (14°F) Time to 100% mortality 48 hr -5°C (23°F) Time to 100% mortality 288 hr 0°C (32°F) Time to 100% mortality 840 hr Adult
-20°C (-4°F) Time to 100% mortality 1 hr -15°C (5°F) Time to 100% mortality 2 hr -10°C (14°F) Time to 100% mortality 2 hr -5°C (23°F) Time to 100% mortality 72 hr 0°C (32°F)Time to 100% mortality 288 hr 5°C (41°F)Time to 100% mortality 840 hr
From this data, I have chosen to use my deep freezer to freeze the cigars for a total of 24 hours. My deep freezer hovers around -14°C (2°F), so I added a factor of safety of 4 to my calculations. If I have any hatched larvae (I hope I don’t), then I need to freeze my cigars for 6 hours. 24 hours should be more than enough to kill off any eggs or larvae that have hatched.
Place cigars in refrigerator for a period of time:
Once you have froze your cigars for a period of time, you should take the cigars out of the freezer and put them into the refrigerator for a few hours. This allows the cigars to unfreeze slowly and not to shock them too much. This is an optional step, but I don’t want any of my cigars to crack or explode. I will be putting my cigars into the refrigerator overnight.
Take cigars out and place them into a quarantine humidor for a week:
After taking your cigars out of the freezer or refrigerator, you will want to acclimate to normal room temperatures away from your other cigars. For this step you may want to just to use an unused tupperware container to hold them in for a week or so. During this time, humidity and temperature are slowly readjusting to normal levels. You can smoke a cigar during this resting period, but they may have some burning issues or construction issues.
By following this guide, you can cut down your chances of having a cigar beetle outbreak. As a precautionary measure, most cigar enthusiasts keep their Cuban and non-Cuban cigars in separate humidors since Cuba has different practices when it comes to freezing cigars. Habanos S.A. does freeze their cigars, but most people freeze their Cuban cigars again just to make sure there won’t be a cigar beetle outbreak.
Submitted March 12, 2015 at 05:23AM by BIGMACneil http://ift.tt/1HFwJz9 cigars
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