Spanish Cedar: Why Every Jemar Humidor Is Lined With It

Open a Jemar humidor and the first thing you notice is not the veneer, however handsome, but the smell: a dry, sweet, faintly peppery scent that anyone who has opened a box of good cigars will recognise at once. It comes from the lining, and the lining is Spanish cedar. Every Jemar desktop humidor is lined with it throughout — walls, floor, lid and dividers — and that decision, more than the choice of wood outside, is what makes the box work.

Neither Spanish nor cedar

The name is a historical accident. Cedrela odorata is a tropical hardwood native to Central and South America and the Caribbean, and it belongs to the mahogany family rather than to the true cedars of the Mediterranean and the Himalayas. It acquired its common name from Spanish colonial trade, when the timber was shipped through Spanish ports and its aroma reminded European buyers of cedar. The misnomer stuck, and every humidor maker in the world now uses it without a second thought.

What it does for humidity

The wood's most important property is hygroscopic: it takes up moisture from the air when the air is damp and releases it when the air is dry. In a sealed box that is exactly the behaviour you want. A humidor is opened several times a week; each time, room air replaces some of the conditioned air inside and the humidity drops. A cedar lining that has been seasoned to the right level gives moisture back to the air almost immediately, so the cigars never feel the change. When the box is closed and the humidification source catches up, the cedar takes the surplus back.

The result is a humidor that behaves like a much larger space than it is. The cedar is the climate; the Boveda pack or other humidifier only sets the level it settles at. This is why an unlined box with a humidifier is not a humidor, and why seasoning the cedar before first use — the subject of another story here — is not optional.

Aroma, and why it belongs

The second property is the scent. Spanish cedar contains aromatic oils that transfer, slowly and in small amounts, to tobacco stored beside it. Far from being a contaminant, this is part of what a cigar smoker expects: premium cigars are aged and boxed in the same wood at the factory, and the faint cedar note in a well-kept cigar is a sign that it has been stored properly rather than in plastic. In a Jemar the lining is untreated and unfinished on the interior surfaces, so that the wood can breathe and the aroma can do its work.

A quiet defence against the beetle

The third property is the one most owners never think about until they need it. The tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, is the one pest capable of destroying a collection; its larvae hatch inside a cigar and eat their way out, leaving pinholes and dust. The same oils that give Spanish cedar its scent are a deterrent to the insect, which is one of the historical reasons the wood was adopted for cigar boxes in the first place. It is not a guarantee — heat is the real trigger, and a humidor kept below about 20 °C is the best defence — but a full cedar lining tilts the odds the right way.

Why "throughout" matters

Many desktop humidors line only the tray or a thin panel on the floor and rely on the exterior wood or a veneered board for the rest. Jemar lines the whole interior. The difference shows up in how quickly the box recovers after opening and how evenly the humidity is distributed from corner to corner; a fully lined box has more cedar per cigar and therefore more buffer. It also shows up in the smell, which in a partially lined humidor fades within a year and in a Jemar does not.

Living with it

Spanish cedar asks for little. Do not seal, oil or wax the interior; the wood must stay bare to breathe. If a stubborn bloom of white dust appears on the cedar after a very humid spell, wipe it with a dry cloth — it is a harmless crystalline deposit from the wood's own sugars, not mould, and it is the cedar telling you the box has been running a little wet. Keep the humidity in the 65 to 72 percent range that Jemar recommends, keep the box out of the sun, and the lining will outlast the cigars many times over.

El Laguito Cigars carries Jemar humidors as an authorized retailer. Each one arrives in the maker's own box with a full Spanish cedar interior, and we supply the Boveda packs to season it and hold it at the level you choose.