Here’s the question: when storing cigars in a humidor, should they be removed from their cellophane wrappers, or not?

This is almost like asking who is the greatest baseball player of all time . . . no two people you ask will have the same answer. For example:

Many connoisseurs, including the noted experts at the Gerard Pere et Fils store in Geneva, Switzerland, campaign vigorously against keeping cigars in cellophane on the grounds that without it, cigars will “breathe” better and reach their peak of flavor.

Others, especially Hong Kong collector Min Ron Nee, whose “An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars” is one of the wonderworks ever written on the subject, are just as strident in their belief that cigars can age perfectly in cellophane – especially over longer periods – and that there is no reason to remove it.

A third view, and the one I subscribe to, is tempered by an aversion to risk in storing cigars. In specific, the danger of tobacco beetles. These pests are latent in tobacco leaves, right through the cigar-making process. However, they are most often (but not always) prone to hatch when temperatures reach about 80 degrees (F) or more. If they do, they are liable not only to bore through the cigar they are in, but to jump to adjoining cigars if they are able.  Nothing will break the heart of a smoker more than to open a box of beautiful cigars and see them reduced to dust by beetles which have run wild through an entire box. To prevent this:  Ensure, as much as possible, that your cigars are stored in conditions which are both humidity-controlled and temperature-controlled. If your humidor is not temperature controlled, at least keep it away from direct sunlight, which will heat your cigars.

Keep the cellophane on your cigars in order to ensure that if a beetle does hatch, it has an added barrier – the cellophane wrapping – in moving from cigar to cigar. This is especially important in humidors in which multiple brands are stored together.

One more reason to consider keeping your cigars in the cellophane in which they were packed is if you remove cigars from your humidor and place them in a case for travel. In some cases, cigars can be squeezed together and the jostling inside a suit pocket or in your briefcase can cause wrappers to rub against each other and possibly end up chipped or broken. This will not happen to cigars which are placed in a case with their cellophane wrappers intact.