Buying Spanish cedar can be a bit of a challenge if you don’t know where to find it. Luckily, we’re here to help! This article will tell you where to find the best Spanish cedar for your cigar humidor. Plus, you can learn about the amazing properties of Spanish cedar, which make it ideal for crafting humidors and storing cigars.
What Is Spanish Cedar?
Spanish cedar is the most commonly used wood for crafting cigar humidors. The botanical name is Cedrela odorata, and despite the name, this variety of wood is not technically cedar and is also not actually from Spain.
Spanish cedar comes from South America and Africa as of the 1990s. It technically belongs to the mahogany family of trees. The color of this type of wood is typically a pink to dark reddish-brown featuring a purple tinge.
Spanish cedar can come in all kinds of thicknesses. It is relatively lightweight with decent density and a porous surface, so it is excellent for regulating and maintaining relative humidity in a given space. Spanish cedar is also popular in boat construction, furniture, doors, and windows.
Why Is Spanish Cedar Used in Humidors?
Spanish cedar is not the only material people use to craft humidors, but it is undoubtedly one of the best. There are four main reasons that Spanish cedar is the ideal wood for cigar storage.
Regulates Humidity
Spanish cedar’s ability to regulate and maintain moisture in a given space is its biggest asset to cigars. Cigars can be very finicky when it comes to relative humidity. If they become too dry, they break and disintegrate and are overall unpleasant to smoke. If a cigar becomes too moist, it could grow mold or attract bugs.
Spanish cedar holds more moisture than most woods. Every time you open a humidor, moisture escapes. This can result in your cigars drying out and losing flavor. Spanish cedar only releases a small amount of moisture when you open the box, keeping the cigars’ environment humid and cozy.
Mold Resistant
Spanish cedar is naturally mold-resistant. So even though it holds more moisture than other wood, it is less likely to produce mold or begin to rot. Spanish cedar and African Mahogany are the two most mold-resistant varieties of wood in the world.
Repels Bugs
You may not know this, but cigars can be very attractive to certain bugs. Specifically, tobacco beetles love to set up camp in your cigar stash and eat away at your precious smokes. Spanish cedar deters bugs from entering because of its resistant properties. Similarly, people use varieties of wood in closets to prevent moths from eating their clothes.
Pleasant Aroma
In addition to these attributes, Spanish cedar also has a lovely, rich scent that complements the cigar aroma. Keeping your cigars unwrapped in a Spanish cedar humidor will season them with a deep flavor. When you smoke one, note the distinct flavor of the cigar, enhanced by the scent of Spanish cedar.
Where To Buy Spanish Cedar for Humidor
There are many places to buy Spanish cedar in small or large quantities. Whether you want a few pieces to put in your desktop humidor or need large planks to build a walk-in humidor, all the places below should have whatever Spanish cedar you need.
- Amazon
- Home Depot
- Lowe’s
- Sears
- eBay
- AdvantageLumber.com
- Etsy
- Bell Forest Products
- Woodcraft Supply
- National Lumber Liquidators
If you feel unsure about your Spanish cedar needs, we recommend visiting one of the in-person stores so you can speak with a specialist about your priorities. Spanish cedar isn’t the cheapest, so you don’t want to buy more than you need. But you also don’t want to have to return to the store multiple times to get your humidor set up.
Best Spanish Cedar Options
To help you get your shopping started, below are the seven best Spanish cedar products available on Amazon. Some of these are large panels, while others are small pieces you can add to your current humidor setup.
- ROJOSER 30PACK Cedar Sheets
- XIFEI Cigar Companion Spanish Cedar Lumber Veneer
- JGFinds 10 Pack Spanish Cedar Planks
- Woho Spanish Cedar Sheets
- Spanish Cedar Lumber
- QBOSO 50PC Cedar Sheets
- Pen Blank 10 Pack- Spanish Cedar
Types of Humidors
Whether adding to your humidor setup or crafting a new one, consider what type of humidor you want. Below are some incredible options you can choose from.
Walk-In
Walk-in humidors are exactly what they sound like. These are massive humidors that are essentially a whole room. It can be a large room, or it can be a small closet. But basically, it is a humidor that is large enough for a person to enter and browse for the perfect cigar.
Walk-in humidors are perfect for cigar enthusiasts who keep a lot of cigars in their homes. Some collectors will stash hundreds of cigars until the right moment when they’re ready to enjoy them.
Cabinet
A cabinet humidor is smaller than a walk-in, but still pretty big. These come in many sizes and can take up an entire wall or a small corner of a room. Cabinet humidors are another excellent option for cigar enthusiasts that store more than fifty cigars or so at once.
Furniture
For a more sleek look, you can opt for one of the humidors that blend in as a piece of furniture. These humidors may look like an end table, a coffee table, or a dresser. These humidors are ideal for cigar lovers that don’t want their cigars out in the open all the time. The furniture humidors also double as a safety measure, deterring burglars from finding your expensive smokes.
Electronic
Electronic humidors are not always as aesthetically pleasing, but they will function to keep your cigars in ideal condition. Electronic humidors may have a more industrial appearance but will be able to monitor and regulate the humidity and temperature inside the humidor.
Display
Display humidors are the opposite of furniture humidors. Display humidors put your cigar collection in the open to flaunt and admire. All guests will see them when they pass the humidor, and you’ll be able to enjoy looking at your lovely collection more often.
Desktop
Desktop humidors are probably the most commonly used. This product comes in a range of sizes but is usually about the size of a small briefcase. They can hold up to fifty cigars and are wonderful for the casual smoker.
Travel
Travel humidors are humidors that you can bring on trips and vacations. They’re small, so they are easily portable and will keep your cigars in ideal condition no matter where you go. Having a travel humidor and a home-based humidor ensures your cigars will stay fresh for events like weddings or birthdays far away!
Conclusion
One of the worst things you can do is let your cigars sit out and become dry or brittle. Humidors are an incredible invention that keeps them fresh, plump, and tasty. No one wants a stale cigar, and using a Spanish cedar humidor is the best way to prevent this.
Think about where you keep your cigars. Are they well taken care of? If not, it’s time to make an upgrade and hop on the Spanish cedar train.
FAQs
Below are some commonly asked questions about buying humidors and what type of wood is best.
Is there another type of wood I can use for humidors?
Yes! Spanish cedar is by far the most popular for its attributes, but there are a few other varieties of wood that can make a great humidor. Woods such as mahogany, cherry, walnut, maple, and oak all have properties that make them decent for storing cigars. But still, none seem to work as well as Spanish cedar.
What is the best type of humidor?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. It depends on how many cigars you keep around and what kind of aesthetic you want to cultivate around them. A good rule of thumb is to buy a humidor slightly larger than what you need.
So if you keep fifty cigars around, buy a humidor that fits 60 to 75 cigars. When it comes to the material, though, Spanish cedar is hands-down the best option.
Is Spanish cedar expensive?
Spanish cedar falls in the middle of the lumber market. It can be considered expensive but is nothing compared to more expensive African woods. On average, Spanish cedar costs about $9 per foot, depending on where you buy it.