Preserve Cigars at your own risk

Habanos can be kept for 15 years in a good condition, sometimes longer and will improves with ages.

Temperature and Humidity
Habanos should be stored at between 16C-18C with humidity of between 65-70 percent.
Humidity is crucial, if a habano is too wet then it will not smoke but if it is too dry, it will taste harsh. It is important to keep the temperature constant as the humidity varies with temperature changes.

Humidors
A place where you keep your cigars and there are many industries exist to make them. Boxes, cupboards and even a room that are specially designed for keeping cigars with moisture sources.
A good cigar shop keep all their habanos in humidor in providing a perfect condition of cigars for sale.
Your cigars will take a few days to acclimatise to the condition inside so it is wise to seperate the new arrival of cigars from the old ones.
Putting habanos in a fridge is no alternative as it dries and changes the smell of the habanos.

Troubleshooting
Problems may arise in storing cigars, they may become too wet to smoke or to dry. If it's too wet, problems may occure:

• It can be hard to light and keep lit. The draw may become too tight
  (it becomes difficult to get the smoke through the cigar).
• It may become susceptable to mold.

Dryness is worse for they will loose their taste within months and can't be regained as dry cigars lead to the evaporation of the essential oils in them which impart the flavor, leaving your cigars more bland and tasteless. If a cigar is consistently too dry, the wrapper can crack.

You can still re-humidifying your dry cigars gently in stages or you will risk the wrapper burst as the leaves inside absorb moisture.
You will also encounter "bloom" when it is subjected to a sudden increase in humiditywhich will be signed naturally with a white powder mold as it is also sign that the cigars are alive and well. You can simply remove them gently with a soft brush.
Worst of all is the tobacco weevil, the evil insect called lasioderma serricorne. It feasts on tobacco, perforates wrapper and renders a habano unsmokeable. The infestation is a rare case. The best prevention is never letting the temperature in your humidor exceeds 18C.
The only solution is to put the infected box into a deep freeze for few days. Hopefully, this kills the weevils and save the other cigars that have not been infected.

Ageing
is best conducted in a large humidor where moist air is circulate arround the boxes which can be monitored year in year out. It is a task best left to expert cigar shops. The result is worth waiting for the taste will develope.