Women of Cigarfest 2010
May 9, 2010
A Stogie Experiment
To freeze or not to freeze, that is the question…Awhile ago…well sometime ago way back towards the end of May we received the following e-mail from one of SR’s biggest fans:
I had an idea pertaining to the debate of “To freeze or not to freeze your smokes.”
Personally, I freeze all my smokes before putting them in my main humidor.
I do this because I simply cannot maintain 70 degree temps, although
humidity is a no brainer thanks to the Oasis. I do it to hopefully prevent a
beetle outbreak. My method is: double freezer bagged. One day in the fridge,
3 days in the freezer (-10 F), one day in the fridge, one day at room temp
(still in the bags), then back in the humi.There was a taste test at club stogie (I think) where people could not tell
the difference between a smoke that was frozen, to one that was not.My idea is, it would be cool if you guys would be intested in doing this
taste test. I know Jerry is a RP fan like me. I’d have no problem sending
you a couple RP Vintage smokes. A couple that have been frozen, a couple
that haven’t. It would probably be a good idea for me to place the frozen
and unfrozed in my spare humi for a couple weeks, so they are basically
stored in the same conditions for a little while.So what do you think? If your into it, let me know, and I’ll bag up a few
smokes with humi pack and send them over. I’d send a couple frozen RP’s, and
a couple that have not been frozen (same kind).Thanks and keep up the good work!
-Tom
Well I accepted Tom’s challenge to see if I can tell the difference between a frozen and non-frozen cigar. Earlier this week I received Tom’s package with four RP Vintage 1990’s numbered 1-4. While I won’t be reviewing this cigar in the traditional sense, what I plan on doing is recording while I smoke these over a course of a few days and put a video together of the entire experiment.
Before I get started, I wanted to see what you guys think this will turn out? Do you think I will be able to tell the difference? Do you think you could?
P.S. – Tom was also nice enough to include a 2007 Camacho Liberty…Like I’ve said before, the SR community is a generous one! Thanks Tom, you are the man!
I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference between the cigars. I don’t think it would make a significant impact on the palette range of the cigars because I’d think that they’d be just like anything else that gets frozen. Freezing a bottle of soda and then slowly bringing it back in to a room temperature environment shouldn’t change the properties of the soda, correct? Anyhow, that’s awesome of Tom to send you those. I’m looking forward to hearing the results of this experiment.
I’ve seen many threads in places like Cigar Live that are mainly pro freeze. Some are against it though. I’ve had opinions ranging from “You can’t tell the difference” to “It may ruin your smokes. Does a steak not taste the same after you freeze it?” So I figured what better place to get an opinion than here? Although these guys claim NOT to be experts, let’s face it, they know they sh!t.
The reason I do this process to all my stogies is simple. Prevention. In the Florida summers I can’t keep my house cool enough (although humidity control is OK thanks to heartfelt beads). Last time I tried to keep the house cool, my electric bill was $600.00!
Personally, I can’t tell a difference between the froze/unfrozen stogies. I’ve had a couple private taste tests of my own. I look forward to Jerry’s findings, since he can pick apart flavors much better than me.
Jerry -Enjoy the smokes, and the Liberty, a damn good smoke.
PS-
If you check out my stogie stash (click my name) you’ll see why I’m so paranoid about an outbreak!
I havent noticed a diffrence yet in freeze treated and non-freeze treated. I started freezing all of my stogies because like tom, I am petrified of an outbreak. It is a good question, one for the experts to handle. Im looking foward to this one.
- Also, awsome reviews, keep up the great work!
In Episode 17 of YQMA we talked about how cigars lose their prescious oils if they are not stored properly. Thats where I find this interesting. Even only after a few days of being in a cold/dry condition do these cigara lose any of their of prescious oils?
This also has me thinking. If every cigar ages differently, would the results of this experiment be different for every cigar?
In the end I don’t know what to expect, and sometimes its not about how things end, but how enjoyable the journey is.
P.S. – Vista’s voice recognition takes forever to learn your voice. i spend more time correcting it than dictating.
That Camacho Liberty looks awesome. I think last years band looked better, but the barber pole look of the twin wrappers is very attractive.
Tom, thanks for offering up the cigars. As someone who doesn’t freeze their smokes I would really like to know how this turns out. If it has no affect on flavor than I have nothing to loose by freezing, plus I gain the extra insurance of the lower possibility of a beetle outbreak.
-Walt
Very nice can’t wait to hear it,
I just ask this question not to long ago on cigar live.
I think you could if anyone can, sense your the Rocky fan!
Freezing only kills the beetles and the larvae. The eggs are very resiliant and will survive. Therefore you still run the chance of having tobacco beetles. My suggestion is to not freeze your cigars unless you see signs of tobacco beetles in you cigars or your humidor. I hope this helps.
Many cigar manufacturers are now experimenting with microwave treating the tobacco, hovever I think the dosage is less than what a microwave oven puts out. Apparently it works and even kills the eggs. I don’t know if you can put your sticks in the microwave though.
That is also up for debate. For example, Lew Rothman of JR’s says “Freezing the cigars cracks the larvae and kills the eggs and the adults” He was referring to a freezer they purchased from a food manufacturer to freeze treat cigars in their NC warehouse. I guess this is another aspect of the debate. Does it in fact prevent an outbreak? Some say yes, others say no.
My take on it is, if it doesn’t affect the taste, I’m for freezing just as a preventative measure.
Tom,
Dang, you have an AWESOME humidor. I guess my thoughts on freezing are, if you do it and it tastes fine to you, then keep on doing it heh. My only bad moment with tabacco beetles was when I bought some Cohiba Black cigars from a cigar shop in LA and they were in the cellophane. After removing the cellophane, voila, about 20 holes in each of the cigars. Bleh. And they were dry as jerky.
I’ve been comtemplating getting a thermo-electric wine cooler that will become my cigar fridge. Going to buy one today. I’ve read good things about that keeping the cigars cool and I’m hoping it will help me out. Get’s aweful hot here in Sacramento and I try and keep the house at 74 degrees which is a bit hot for cigars and occasionally if we forget to turn on the AC, well, it’s 80 degrees!!!!! Perfect breeding grounds for beetles I’ve heard.
So I’m a bit scared and going to err on the cooler.
Dave
That’s a great collection of smokes Tom. I heard a company called Moore & Bode uses the freezing technique on their cigars as well. They’re also located in Florida. I’ve seen them at my local B&M, but haven’t picked them up yet. I’d like to see a review on them in the future. They have two variaties, the Miami and Flamboyan.
Our fearless leader, taking another bullet for the team! You rule J-Dog! ….I’m being facetious if it’s not abundantly clear
Tobacco beetle eggs are always present in the natural state of tobacco. They are just dormant, waiting for the proper conditions. I know that 25 years ago, a very respected cigar manufacturer/importer in Miami was using vacuum to kill the beetle eggs. They put the imported cigars in a large container, about the size of a tractor trailer. They reduced the pressure in the container and the pressure being greater in the eggs, caused the eggs to rupture. This drastically reduced the occurrence of beetle infestations.
I know that many of you have very expensive, and old, cigars. I don’t see why a small vacuum treatment unit couldn’t be constructed.