Category Archives: Accessories

Accessory Review: Govee Thermometer/Hygrometer

Here’s a neat remote digital thermometer/hygrometer for your humidor that I tried out recently that isn’t awfully expensive and is readily available on Amazon. It’s the Govee Thermometer/Hygrometer. This isn’t necessarily a purpose-built humidor accessory, so it’s made to cover a much wider range of temperature and humidity than we need, and let’s face it, our range of need is very narrow. It’s attractive enough, and sized appropriately for a medium or larger humidor, it would take up valuable real estate in a small humidor. I attached a metal plate the back and have corresponding magnets in various places in several humidors that match up with other hygrometers so I rotate them around to make sure they are all more or less in agreement with each other. An aside, most cigars smoke well out of my humidors anyway, so I’m not anal retentive about the readings, but it’s nice to see if somethings out of whack.



Govee App1One of the nice features of this unit is the app that is included. This logs everything that’s going on, and alerts if temperature or humidity goes outside of limits that you can set yourself with simple sliders. The downside of this is that it’s a Bluetooth connection, so you have to be relatively close to the unit to sync readings or get alerts. So if you are out of the room, you aren’t going to know any more than you did before. I suppose if you Govee App2were some sort of geek genius you figure out a way sync to a WiFi network somehow, but that sound like a whole lot more work that I know how to do, and I just got a headache thinking about it. That seems like the biggest flaw in an otherwise nifty little device. Naturally, it allows you to see the temperature and humidity inside your closed humidor without opening it, which took me a minute to realize the value of since the first two humidors I tried it out on have glass, so I can always see a hygrometer without opening a door. It wasn’t until I tried it in a desktop that it occurred to me the utility of being able to get a reading remotely, even if only a foot away. It seems to be as accurate as the other digital hygrometers I have to compare it too, which are Western Digital units.  Obviously this could have many other applications outside your humidor as well, but this is a cigar blog, so I’m unconcerned with those!

 

Govee makes a lot of smart home products as well, many available on Amazon.  I appreciate the opportunity to evaluate this unit, and will look at it again in several months and see how it holds up. The fact that it uses normal AAA batteries is a plus, and tells you the battery level in the app is excellent.

 

That’s all for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Accessory Review: Colibri V-Cut Cigar Cutter

Back in the mid 90s when I first started down the path of premium cigar smoking, I would stop in my local shop, pick up a Canaria D’ Oro Rothschild, or a Te-Amo Maduro, give it a V-cut with the Boston Cigar Cutter on the counter, and go on my way.  The store is still there, although it moved up the row in the strip center to a larger location many years ago, and they may still have the cutter, although the Boston Cigar Cutter company is, sadly, no longer in business, at least their domain name is availaBoston Cigar Cutterble.  (The picture is linked to a Cigar Aficionado article from 2009). I’ve suffered through cheap V- cutters which seem to work once or twice until they are just cigar manglers, until several years ago when I sprung for a good one made by another very popular accessoriy company. the one I got was the best around at the time, but I rarely felt like I got a good cut, unless it was a very small ring cigar. More times than not I carried a straight cutter with me and ended up re-cutting, as a second V-cut in an X didn’t do the trick. A couple of years ago Colibri came out with their own V-cutter, one which made a very deep cut.  Oddly, I never got around to trying one of these, I was always fascinated, the Colibri Colibri Quasar IPCPRCut” style cutters I have work well, so there was never a question of the quality.  I just never got around to it.  Last year at the IPCPR show I checked out some of their new offerings which included a cool tabletop cutter, the Quasar, which is a cube shape offering both the deep V cut, and the Straight cut, as well as a pocket SV-Cut with both options also. Given my prior experience with V-cuts and needing to re-cut, this seemed like a good alternative to carrying two cutters. Thanks to the folks at Colibri, I had the opportunity to try out a black and gold V-Cut.

 

I’ve cut every cigar this week with the V-cut, and every one had a perfect draw. Lately I’ve alternated between a straight cut (usually either the Palio or my Tommy Bahama cutter) or the Adorini punch depending on the cigar. This deep V is a bit of a shock. It cuts a V which is ¼” deep, which looks normal on a 60 ring gauge cigar, but seems very deep in a smaller vitola. However, like I said, draws have been perfect every time. As you can see in the fancy moving picture, the cutter can’t over cut a cigar as it has a built-in depth stop.  The only time I really notice it is getting to the end of a particularly tasty cigar, it seems to negatively affect the structural integrity of the nub when it gets to about ¾”. The black part of the finish is rubberized, helping with the grip I suppose, but it seems reasonably durable.  The downside for me is the weight, while it’s nice to have some heft in the hand when using, it’s heavy in the pocket. I couldn’t carry it in the same pocket with a lighter, unless the lighter, or cutter, were in a protective case, as serious scratching would occur. Considering I do the majority of my cigar smoking at home any more, this isn’t a huge issue, when I’m out and about I’ll just carry a less bulky cutter. Sometimes I think I could use a Batman utility belt for all the cigar gear! Anyway, as with the Daytona lighter, time will tell how this cutter holds up, but initial impressions are very good.

 

That’s all for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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Accessory Review: Colibri Daytona Single Jet Lighter

Colibri has been around since 1928 by Julius Lowenthal, who in the same year, invented the world’s first working semi-automatic lighter. They’ve been making lighters, writing instruments, jewelry, and other smoking accessories ever since. Colibri supplied the  “golden gun” for the Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.  They basically pioneered integrating cutters and punches into lighters. When I was approached by the company with an offer to pick a couple of items to try out, I remembered the “Firebird” lighter that I received with a subscription to Cigar Magazine (a product of Lew Rothman of JR Cigars fame, featuring writing by his then employee, Steve Saka, among others) which although really beat up, still works ten-plus years later. Looking at the Colibri website, the first thing I saw was a green Daytona lighter, and I thought to myself, “damn, that would match my car!”  Unfortunately, the lighter that arrived was the gunmetal finish, which would have been my second choice anyway.  So I’ve been using the Colibri Daytona exclusively, and it’s been very easy on fuel. One of the big things I like about this lighter is the fuel window. They’ve employed some sort of magic which shows the fuel in blue, leaving the empty space clear. Very cleaver, and really easy to see when you are low. The window is huge too, not just the tiny windows some lighters have that are hard gauge the fuel level. A 2500° flame is a 2500° flame from any lighter, so it’s the features that make a lighter stand out.  Another handy feature is the large adjustment wheel on the bottom. No tools needed for this one, and if you get a Butane Lighter Air Bleed Tool from Kevin at Cigar Prop, you definitely don’t need any tools. The business end of the lighter has a little door to keep pocket lint out when it’s not in use too. I’m quite satisfied with the flame on this, of course time will tell how it holds up, but out of the box it’s a nifty lighter, and I expect it to stand the test of time.

 

 

I have one criticism. A couple of years ago a competitor came out with a new lighter that was “supercar inspired”, and this Daytona has a similar marketing angle. I don’t suppose many people would pick up on this or care, and I probably shouldn’t even mention it. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and they are both really nice lighters, both are in my regular rotation. I appreciate the features of the Colibri more though, it’s made everything easy, without sacrificing styling, which is cool.

 

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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IPCPR 2017 – Island Lifestyle and Tommy Bahama Booth

I’ll be filtering out my IPCPR coverage over the next few months, mostly as I smoke relevant cigars. I’ve done this every year and am in no hurry, honestly.  It’s what I do. There were several media outlets that knocked themselves out to provide in-depth coverage, check out Cigar Federation, Cigar-Coop/Smooth Draws, Developing Palates, The Cigar Authority, Blind Man’s Puff, Halfwheel, Cigar Weekly, and several others I can’t bring to mind at the moment.  All these folks were killing it on the show floor and are great sources of information.  I do things my way, and I’m good with that. I don’t see writing a blog as any kind of competition, not that I don’t take some pride in what I do (I must say that the Saka video was GOLD! I’m pretty pleased that I was able to present that unique piece of information). Everybody does their unique take on the show, which keeps things interesting.

 

Island Lifestyle1The first stop for me at the show last Tuesday was the Island Lifestyle Importers booth, which won best in show at last year’s IPCPR. Obviously I’ve enjoyed a great relationship via e-mail with Ryan Frailing and his team, and was looking forward to finally meeting them face to face. I like the cigars they are producing under the Island Lifestyle brand, and the accessories they produce under the Island Lifestyle2Tommy Bahama brand are of excellent quality. In addition to being available at Tommy Bahama stores (I LOVE seeing quality cigar products in mainstream stores!), they are available in various cigar stores around the country. The styles will vary by outlet, the Regatta and Cigar Club styles are really sharp, there’s a style that should appeal to everyone. There’s even a golf themed collection with a Island Lifestyle3dimpled finish. The cigars are being rolled out in several new sizes, adding Robusto, Churchill and 6″ x 60 to the Toro in Connecticut, Sungrown and Maduro.  I tried to get the factory out of Ryan, but he wasn’t disclosing anything. They are boxed and in ceramic humidor jars that are stunning. I somehow failed to get a photo of the jars (you can see them on their website), but Island Lifestyle4they are awful nice, black for the Connecticut, Orange for the Sungrown and White for the Maduro. Collectors pieces and the cigars are very tasty!  I smoked a Sungrown Toro at the booth, and I was still smoking it two hours later and it still tasted great. If it sounds like I’m pretty high on this companies brands, it’s because I am and I wasn’t alone as they reported later in the show that they were very busy and made a lot of sales. In addition to the time I spend talking to Ryan in the booth (video below), I had a great conversation with Rick and Phil at the hotel bar after hours on Wednesday. Great bunch of guys with a great selection of products. There were a couple highlights of the week for me personally, and meeting this crew was one of them. Check out the video, it’s raw and unedited, but full of information about the products.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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IPCPR 2017 – Cigar Oasis Booth

 

I’ve been here in Las Vegas since Monday and have seen many friends and made some new ones.  The venue is the Las Vegas Convention Center, a different location than in the past.  It’s only a couple blocks off the strip, but has a totally different feel  the exhibit space is larger, so it seems more sparsely attended, but many booths seemed busy and it remains to be seen if attendance is down or just more spread out. More on all that later.  I attended several media events, Mambacho Cigars hosted an amazing party at a private residence, Davidoff and Ventura had media briefings in their booths during the show, and I’m heading to a Drew Estate media event tonight. There still seems to be new releases like crazy, in the coming weeks I’ll be closely examining some of them. In the mean time, I paid a visit to the Cigar Oasis booth this morning and took the video below, featuring Chaim Kohn telling us about their offerings and about their celebration of their 20th Anniversary.

 

 

I tried some YouTube live videos yesterday that are available on my YouTube Channel. Today it didn’t want to work so I didn’t do it live, but did post videos as soon as I was done. They are raw and unedited. More to come.  That’s all for now, until the next time.

 

CigarCraig

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