Keeping cigars at correct 70-72 percent humidity brings out the best in them. Most aficionados keep theirs in a humidor to bring out the oils and smoothness.

A good humidor is a wooden or cigar box with a cashier's sponge bowl (from a school supplies store) moistened with water. Some use a little brandy with the water but if the cigars are of good quality, there is no reason this should be done.

Cigars, when kept well, last a long time. Some high-end British tobacco shops sell vintage cigars dating back to the sixties that are delightfully mellow. (Beware of cheap cigars that have simulated tobacco-colored paper as wrappers, they tend to create imbecile-looking smokers.)

Wrappers such as the silky Cuban leaves provide a different burn and flavor from, let us say, the bumpy or toothy Sumatran or dark, oily maduro which is darkened and ripened on the plant.

A cigar that has been over-humidified or dried-out creates an uneven burn. When one sees "long filler" as description, the cigar uses whole, long leaves rolled by hand into a unit as against the inferior "short filler" that could be machine-rolled and are small shreds packed into a wrapper. (Probably even the sweepings from the floor after a long filler production.)

Source: Gene Gonzales