Do a little research, and you’ll immediately see that virtually everything related to cigars uses Spanish cedar and cedar wood. Humidors and containers. Shelves. Dividers. Even cigar spills, which you can use to light a cigar, are made from cedar. Manufacturers wrap some cigars in cedar sleeves, as well. It’s everywhere. What’s the deal?
The truth is that cedar, and Spanish Cedar especially, have some excellent properties that are ideal for the storage, handling and protection of your average cigar. Cigars and cedar go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly, smoke and fire, or pineapple and pizza.
In a general sense, wood is all-natural, so it’s biodegradable, and doesn’t contain many pollutants or toxins, unless it’s treated. Also, there’s no associated waste — at least not excess waste. If you throw away a cedar box, cedar wrapping or cedar components, it can all be burned at the dump and doesn’t really end up in the landfill like other garbage or waste. In that sense it’s environmentally friendly, but it’s also fairly inexpensive and available in large quantities.
Beyond that, Spanish cedar has some attributable properties that make it such a good companion for cigars and the entire craft. For starters, cigars need to retain humidity or moisture and cedar does an excellent job of supporting this. Unlike other wood types, cedar tends to react positively with moisture, and its naturally decay-resistant.
Cedar is hygroscopic, which means it can absorb moisture and discharge it, not unlike your cigars or those Boveda packs you use. It also prevents the buildup of mold, which is why a lot of humidors are so great at fending off nasty stuff like that, provided you maintain the right temperatures. Best of all, cedar has a natural immunity that repels bugs like cigar beetles. That doesn’t mean they don’t happen at all, it just means they’re less likely to become a problem.
When it’s humidified correctly, cedar can also create a firm seal, which is fantastic for humidors. That seal helps lock in moisture and humidity and is a large part of why you can retain RH (relative humidity) even inside super large humidors and spaces. That’s precisely why a lot of cigar lounges, shops and even cigar warehouses have walls lined with cedar.
If you’re tallying up the score, things are probably getting ridiculous. Cedar has just so many benefits the list is extensive.
You may have noticed some cigar enthusiasts using cedar to light their cigars, or the fact that manufacturers wrap cigars in cedar? Some great examples are the My Father Fonseca Cedros, Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez, or the Arturo Fuente Chateu Fuente series.
Manufacturers wrap cigars with cedar because the sensory properties of the wood are also excellent. It smells fantastic, even more so when lit, and the flavors and the aromas cedar provides will mesh well with just about any cigar blend. In fact, you might even enhance the experience by lighting your cigars with a cedar spill or a strip of the wood.
Not necessarily bad, more like a caveat that it still requires proper care. The biggest concern is that you still have to care for the material as much as your cigars — you still have to care for your humidor, for example. That’s why your humidor still needs to have a source of humidity. Cedar can’t produce moisture on its own, and like anything else, it will lose moisture over time if there’s no nearby source.
But if you’ve been around cigars for any amount of time, you likely already know this. You need a humidor to keep those cigars at the optimal RH. If you don’t have access to one, your cigars are going to dry out and they won’t be pleasant to smoke.
Let’s all take a moment to appreciate Spanish cedar and how formative it is for the world of cigars. Without it, we wouldn’t have our favorite hobby.
Briley has over 16 years in the publishing and content marketing business. He's been writing about cigars for nearly half that in various forms. What makes him a tour de force is he also smokes them.
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