"take the Ammonia off" for your young cigar.
Some of our customers often ask me, "I am going to buy your
Precision electronic humidor, is it necessary to choose the one with ammonia removal function?"
The reason for this question is probably based on the following two considerations: First, does your ammonia purification module really have the ammonia removal function? The second is whether the cigars in the cigar cabinet will really release a lot of ammonia during the mellowing process as you said.
Let's answer the first question first. The ammonia removal rate of the ammonia purification module in the horizontal line cigar cabinet is more than 92%, as we can see from the inspection report of the third party.
Let's answer the second question: Will ammonia be released in large quantities during the cigar mellowing process of cigar cabinet?
Let's first clarify the reasons for ammonia in cigars. For cigars, ammonia is inevitable because it is related to the growth process of the tobacco leaves.
Cigar leaves cannot grow without nitrogen, but a nitrogen-rich environment will cause the accumulation of nitrogen in the tobacco leaves, which will be degraded to NH₄+ during the subsequent fermentation of the tobacco leaves.
The accumulation of NH₄+ causes a decrease in the activity of enzymes involved in nitrogen assimilation, such as glutamine synthetase (GS), which causes ammonium ions to volatilize into the atmosphere as ammonia gas, which is what we smell as ammonia.
Therefore, if the amount of nitrogen residues present in the soil where the tobacco is grown is high, the more nitrogen there will be in the tobacco, resulting in a more persistent smell of ammonia being released.
The harmful effects of ammonia on cigars
Ammonia presents a slightly irritating taste on cigars, which is often felt more pronounced especially during the smoking process. For this reason, cigar smokers often say that the smell of ammonia is one of the biggest factors that determines how good a cigar smoking experience is.
Now that we know the causes and dangers of ammonia, the next step is to study how to treat it. Ammonia is produced because of the accumulation of nitrogen, so to reduce the smell of ammonia in cigars, we need to release it.
First, use tobacco fermentation for release
We know that ammonia is produced because of the accumulation of nitrogen, so what we need to do is to release the nitrogen, and the common way to release nitrogen is fermentation.
Therefore, the fermentation technique is particularly important in the production of cigars. The factories usually carry out secondary or multiple fermentations, through which the tobacco leaves are separated and dried, stored cumulatively, separated and dried again, and stored cumulatively again, so that the nitrogen in the tobacco leaves can be decomposed and released more fully.
Second, re-treatment of cigars during the mellowing process
Although cigars are produced by cigar manufacturers with multiple fermentation processes to get rid of most of the ammonia contained in the cigar leaf, there will inevitably be residual ammonia. This is where the cigar smoker needs to remove the ammonia from his cigar.
When the tobacco leaves are not rolled into cigars, the ammonia is removed by "stacking and fermenting" the leaves and then stacking and fermenting them again to remove the ammonia from the cigar. However, cigars that are already packaged and marketed in boxes can no longer be treated in the same way as above.
In this case, the Precision electronic humidor with ammonia removal function is a good tool to remove ammonia. The ammonia elimination module in the horizontal line cigar cabinet will activate the ammonia elimination function every day to remove the ammonia from the cigar mellowing process, so that your cigars will always be mellowed in a clean and fresh environment and you will never smoke cigars that smell like ammonia.
Finally, I would like to share a tip on how to detect the presence of ammonia in your cigars.
If you happen to have a cigar cabinet without ammonia removal, and you have a certain number of cigars stored in it. Do not open the door for 10-15 days from now, and after 15 days find an auspicious time to open the door, you will feel the ammonia attack when you open the door.
It is no exaggeration to say that people standing 5 meters away can smell very uncomfortable "ammonia smell". If the ammonia is not removed in time, it will take root in the cigar.
To conclude, the longer a cigar is aged, the less ammonia it will smell. This is why aged cigars have a very light ammonia smell and new cigars have a strong ammonia smell.