There are many things that one takes for granted which one really shouldn’t – take for instance the way you stack your cigars in your humidor. This may seem a trivial affair but the way you do it is extremely important for the integrity and flavor of your sticks.
First and foremost, let’s be clear and dispel those that hold a hard-line of stacking – there is absolutely nothing wrong with stacking cigars on top of each other. Remember that a quality cigar, if properly cared for, should be firm to the touch but yet still have a slight give when squeezed. So long as this optimal condition is kept cigars are more than hardy enough to be stacked (though do beware too much humidity, as it’ll make your cigars spongy and ruin their integrity which means that those on the bottom of the stack will be mushed over time!).
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, another important point to keep in mind is what kind of cigars you want to store together? Are they all one brand or many different brands, are those different brands all of similar or the same filler type, are they flavored? All of these questions need to be asked and answered before you stack your cache, especially if you intend to stack them in your humidor raw (as bare sticks). Remember that the various flavors and scents of more potent and powerful sticks will bleed into your other, milder sticks over time, eventually ruining their taste and aroma. That being said the easiest way around this problem is simply to only stack cigars that are of the same brand together if one has enough storage space to do this. If one doesn’t have enough storage space (like someone that only has one, small humidor) a easy solution to stacking different brands together is to install small, cedar boards between the different styled sticks so that their tastes and aromas won’t bleed together as easily.
There’s one primary exception to these guidelines – flavored cigars. Flavored or sweetened cigars (such as Drew Estate’s ACID line) are especially potent and bleed into other, more naturalistic cigars with tremendous potency. That being said never, ever stack flavored or sweetened cigars together with your normal cigar collection.