How to Store Cigars Without a Humidor in Morocco

There is no shame in not owning a humidor. There is even good news: to keep a handful of vitolas in rigorously correct condition, the humidor is optional. What is not optional is physics: a cigar wants to live at around 65% relative humidity, away from light and temperature swings. Any container that guarantees those three things does the job, whether it is varnished mahogany or kitchen-grade polypropylene.

This guide reviews the humidor-free solutions that genuinely work, the ones that destroy cigars in silence, and the moment when the true humidor becomes the right choice again.

What a cigar demands, and what it does not

Let us recap the essentials of our guide to storage in a dry climate: tobacco is hygroscopic, settling into equilibrium with the air around it. At 65% relative humidity, it stays supple, burns evenly, and ages well; below 55%, it dries out and loses its oils; above 72%, it draws poorly and grows mould.

What a cigar demands, then, is an enclosed, regulated volume of air. What it does not demand: precious wood, a display case, a brass hygrometer. The Spanish cedar of a humidor brings real benefits (a buffering effect, protection against insects, an aromatic note), but it is a refinement, not a requirement. The hierarchy is clear: a well-regulated plastic box beats a beautiful humidor that leaks.

The tupperdor: the humidor-free benchmark

The “tupperdor”, a contraction of Tupperware and humidor, is the solution that aficionados the world over have validated: an airtight food container, a two-way humidity pack, and that is all.

The equipment

• The container: food-grade polypropylene, with a silicone-sealed lid and clips. New, preferably. Never a container that has known onions or spices: plastic holds odours, and the cigars pick them up. Count on 2 to 4 litres for about fifteen vitolas.
• The regulation: one or two two-way packs, set point 65%. Our humidity guide explains how they work and how many to use; the key point is that you cannot overdose.
• Optional: a small calibrated digital hygrometer for checking, and a sheet of Spanish cedar (salvaged from a cigar box) to recover a little of the wood’s buffering effect.

The whole kit comes together for under 100 dirhams (about $10), packs included.

The setup, in four steps

1. Wash the container with plain water and no scented detergent, dry it completely, and let it air out for a day, open.
2. Place the humidity pack at the bottom or clip it against a wall, never in direct contact with the wrappers.
3. Lay the cigars flat, without packing them tightly; slip a sheet of cedar between two layers if you have one.
4. Close it, and open it once a week, for a minute, to refresh the air. That is the only maintenance a tupperdor asks for.

The container being transparent, keep it in a cupboard or a drawer: direct light bleaches wrappers and heats the interior; in a Moroccan summer, a windowsill turns the best container in the world into an oven.

Variations by volume

One to five cigars: the zip-seal bag

For a few cigars (a recent purchase, a trip), a zip-seal freezer bag with a small 65% humidity pack makes an honest micro-humidor. Press the air out as you seal it, slip the whole thing into an opaque box, and do not go beyond a few weeks: plastic film slowly lets water vapor through, and the pack wears out faster than in a rigid container.

Beyond thirty: the cooler humidor

At the other end of the scale, the beach cooler, or “coolerdor”, offers a large airtight and thermally insulated volume, a serious asset when the room heats up. The protocol is the same as for the tupperdor, scaled up: high-capacity packs (320 g), a hygrometer mandatory given the volume, and a month of prior airing if the cooler smells of new plastic. It is the transition solution for collections that grow faster than the humidor budget.

The original box, inside

A cedar cigar box is not airtight; on its own, it preserves nothing. But placed whole inside the tupperdor or cooler humidor, it becomes the finest of storage trays: the cigars stay in their original box, the cedar plays its buffering role, and opening the outer container barely exposes them.

What does not work, and does its damage in silence

• The sponge, the cotton pad, the damp breadcrumb. These improvisations saturate the air locally instead of regulating it: mould on one side, desiccation on the other. It is the leading cause of lost cigars among beginners.
• The refrigerator. Very dry air, food odours, thermal shock at every removal: our dry-climate guide details why it is the false good idea par excellence.
• The bare cupboard. Without an airtight container, a cigar tucked “safely away” follows the humidity of the room: in a dry climate, it is in danger by the day after tomorrow.
• The metal tin or the shoebox. Neither one is airtight; the first sometimes adds a metallic odour, and the second drinks up the pack’s moisture itself.

One principle sums it all up: never free water, never an open container. Enclosed air, a set point held by a pack, nothing else.

Checking that it works: the signals that never lie

A well-assembled tupperdor needs almost no supervision, but “almost” deserves a definition. Two checks are enough:

Touch, roughly once a week. Press a cigar very gently between thumb and forefinger, near the foot: it should give with an elastic suppleness and spring back into shape. If it crackles or stays dented, the air is too dry; if it feels spongy and the wrapper glistens, too humid. Touch is more reliable than a cheap hygrometer: it is the tobacco itself bearing witness.

The hygrometer, if you add one. In a small volume, placement skews everything: sitting on the pack, it will read the pack’s set point, not the box’s. Place it opposite the source, and above all calibrate it once, since a sensor that drifts by eight points leads to bad decisions made with great confidence.

Three signals call for immediate action:

• condensation on the walls means the box has taken a heat hit (sun, car trunk): take the cigars out for an hour, wipe it down, reassemble in the shade;
• a white dust on a wrapper is a downy mould if it resists wiping and smells of damp cellar: isolate the affected cigar and lower the set point; it is a simple crystalline bloom (plume, rare and harmless) if it wipes away with a breath;
• a stiff pack has finished its work: replace it, without waiting for next weekend.

When to move back to a true humidor

The tupperdor stores. It does not showcase, it barely ages, and it copes poorly with collections in constant rotation. Three signals say it is time to read our guide to choosing a humidor:

• volume: beyond thirty or so vitolas, stacking in a container becomes unmanageable and repeated openings ruin stability;
• aging: if you keep cigars for years to let them improve, the buffering effect and micro-oxygenation of a cedar humidor make a real difference;
• pleasure: a humidor is also a beautiful object and a ritual; the day the plastic box starts to weigh on you, the moment has come.

Until then, your tupperdor will hold its 65% without fail, and your cigars will arrive at the cut exactly as their torcedor intended.