Headed to the freezer!

Starting to fill my humidor, I have my first load going into the freezer.

The unbanded ones are some Donkey Droppings, also have some assorted Gurkha's and some 5 Vegas's that came as some samples with my humidor. Just have to wait a few more days to get the humidor all seasoned up.

[shilala]

Just an fyi from my experience...
I used my seal-a-meal for my smokes a few times and it mashed them so much that some ended up never relaxing, plugged, and had broken wrappers.
The other day I was sealing something and found I could leave air in the bags if I hit the button, pulled the bag out, then finished the seal on the bag. It worked great. I can't remember what I was sealing like that, but thought "that would work for cigars".

The ones you show there don't seem to have flattened out like the ones I did, so I'm hoping you won't have an issue. It bummed me out when I did it because I'd gifted cigars that I packed like that. One of the brothers let me know he had the problems I had, so I just went back to ziplocks. I suck the air out of them, and it seems to be fine.

[T.G]

There's really no need to go to extremes when removing air from the packaging when freezing. The manufacturers & distributors don't and neither do the big retailers that freeze. Stuff goes in as it is received. Simply pressing the excess air out of a ziplock bag is plenty.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by T.G

There's really no need to go to extremes when removing air from the packaging when freezing. The manufacturers & distributors don't and neither do the big retailers that freeze. Stuff goes in as it is received. Simply pressing the excess air out of a ziplock bag is plenty.

Do they freeze filled boxes, Adam, or freeze the cigars on racks? I suppose it's the latter, but for some reason I've always pictured the former. Never really gave it any thought till now.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by shilala

Do they freeze filled boxes, Adam, or freeze the cigars on racks? I suppose it's the latter, but for some reason I've always pictured the former. Never really gave it any thought till now.

To the best of my knowledge, most of the NC stuff is done in full boxes / bundles, packaging and all. If it's done at the distributor as it often is, it has to be done in the packaging, since everything is boxed in the country of origin.

Plus, in the factories, where these issues can be prevalent, you would want to pack the box, seal the box, then freeze it. This ensures a total kill around the cigars and mostly eliminates the possibility of re-infestation of the cigars as they would be waiting to be boxed after coming out of the freezer.