Mike Z. asks: “Are you supposed to add water to the Exquisicat beads before you put them in the Tupperdor?”
Exquisicat beads.
Mike refers to the article Perfect Cigar Conditioning…Can it be achieved? In that article we explored using Tupperware to store cigars, hence the term Tupperdor. Here is Joe’s reply to this most excellent question:
“I suggest putting just a tablespoon of distilled water into the beads. Beads serve two functions; to add moisture when needed and to remove moisture when needed. If the beads get too wet they won’t be able to absorb excess humidity. Tupperdors keep moisture in and in most cases, beads are not necessary. I use them as a “safety valve” to keep the RH from getting too high. If you find the beads are absorbing too much moisture, add more water but do so in small stages. But be careful…mold grows easily in a Tupperdor so monitor the RH often and inspect the cigars regularly. If a bit of white mold starts to show up don’t be alarmed. If caught soon enough, the white mold will brush off leaving the cigars unharmed. It’s the blue mold that will ruin your precious booty.”
Hope this helps,
Joe
Thank you Robustojoe. I have experienced white mold in some of my Tupperdors and have just wiped it off, leaving the box open for a while to clean out the air (no science there, just thought it was a good idea), but I have never seen the blue molds. I thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will be more vigilant going forward with white mold, which I have found to be fairly common for my setting, but has never really been a problem. I just wipe it off and my sticks live on.