Spend any amount of time around cigar enthusiasts, and you’ll quickly learn if you want to start your own collection, big or small, you need a humidor. That’s because cigars need to be stored at the appropriate relative humidity (RH) and temperature levels. Otherwise, the cigar will dry out and the natural oils that contribute a lot of the flavor while you’re smoking will effectively be gone. You can always rehydrate a cigar to smoke it, but even so, those natural oils once lost will never return, which means it will never taste the way it should — you won’t have an authentic experience. To make a long story short, you need to care for and store cigars appropriately if you’re going to keep them for an extended period of time. Of course, none of this explains just what is a tupperdor?
Bear with me, I’m getting there. The point you need to understand is that cigars must be stored under the right conditions and to do that you prep and maintain a humidor. Inside the humidor, you use either — or similar gel packs — or something like a to maintain the proper humidity.
Understanding humidor differences
Humidors often come in wood, plastic, or even glass varieties and in many, many sizes. My humidor, for example, is a wooden cabinet humidor that holds up to 3,500 cigars. My brother-in-law has a much bigger wooden cabinet humidor that holds up to 6,000 cigars.
I also have a small temperature-controlled humidor, like a mini fridge or winerator. I use it to store more finicky cigars at the appropriate RH (humidity) and temperature. That’s because I live in Florida where it gets hot and temperatures fluctuate and some cigars, like Cubans, don’t fare well with sweeping temperature changes. Anyway, that smaller humidor holds about 300 cigars maximum. Then there are desktop and small box-like humidors that hold anywhere from 20 to 500 cigars.
So, what is a tupperdor?
Understandably, not everyone can afford a larger cabinet humidor. Sometimes, even desktop and smaller humidors are expensive, too. The good news is that if you go to enough cigar events or venues you’ll always encounter a chance to win one. Various cigar shops around the country will have humidor sales, too. But at any rate, if you don’t want a proper humidor, or don’t have the budget for one, not all is lost. You can use what’s called a tupperdor.
A tupperdor is simply a Tupperware container, that can be sealed airtight, or close to it. You add a humidity source, seal it up, and store your cigars inside. That’s it.
How do you set up a tupperdor?
Like a humidor, you season inside. That’s done by adding Boveda packs and making sure the humidity level remains at the right setpoint. Because tupperdors are generally smaller, they’re much easier to season. You really don’t have to wait long to store your cigars inside, either. With the average wooden humidor, for instance, seasoning requires raising the humidity to the right level inside and making sure it stays there for a couple of days to a week. That also requires wiping down the inside with distilled water and ensuring the wood soaks up decent amounts of humidity before you put any cigars inside. None of that is really necessary with a tupperdor, because tupperware is plastic.
There are also a lot of cigar enthusiasts that swear by tupperdors. They prefer them over wooden humidors because of how easy they are to manage and maintain. Moreover, because they come in a variety of shapes and sizes you can find the perfect tupperware for your setup. If you have a lot of cigars just buy a bigger plastic container, even a bin, and use multiple or larger Boveda packs inside. If you only want to store a handful of cigars, you can use a smaller container. They even on places like Amazon now.
Pinching pennies to the max
If you really want to save money, you can just grab a , toss in a Boveda humidity pack — though most of Boveda’s bags come bundled with one — and then store your cigars that way. It doesn’t look pretty. It legit is just a plastic bag like an oversized sandwich bag. But it works, it saves money, and your cigars will come out tasting fine.
Why else would you want a tupperdor?
Tupperdors are excellent humidor alternatives for overflow, as temporary stand-ins, or for travel. Maybe you have a humidor but you don’t have enough room for a huge cigar haul you just received. The extras can go in a tupperdor. It’s cheap, it’s easy to manage, and you don’t have to spend on a bigger or new humidor. Perhaps you don’t store cigars often and just want something temporary for a batch you bought or received as a gift? Yep, tupperdors are great for that, too.
If you don’t have a travel humidor you can also buy a small, relatively inexpensive tupperware and use that to take your cigars with you on a road trip or vacation.
There are lots of great uses and, as I’ve already mentioned, you can adjust the size of the tupperware to match how much space you need for your cigars. It’s a great opportunity to spend as little, or as much, as you want on your cigar storage. That way, you can spend more of your money on what matters: Getting more premium cigars.
