Category Archives: Accessories

by CigarCraig | June 22, 2014 · 9:40 am

Accessories: Perfecto Cigar Holder, Elertus and Cigar Oasis

I’ve been checking out some products over the last several months and have been lazy about giving them their place in the spotlight. Three Companies have generously shared their products with me to try out, Elertus, Perfecto Cigar Holder and Cigar Oasis. As a cigar smoker, I’m a cheap, lazy bastid, so it probably wouldn’t occur to me to spend cigar money on some of these things, but as I’ve been presented with the opportunity to sample these products, I get to share my thoughts with you, and maybe you’ll decide whether they will make your life easier and are worth the expense. For your convenience, I’ve added each of these items to my Amazon store, located on the left side bar near the bottom of this page. I’ve had that store for over four years and have yet to make a sale, by the way.

When Gary at Perfecto Cigar Holder contacted me offering me a review sample, I told him that these had been pretty widely covered, and I wasn’t sure what else I might bring to the table. He was adamant and sent me one anyway. I’ve been doing my best to clip this thing on anything I can find. It does clip nicely to one of the storage trays in the dash of my Toyota Yaris, which could be handy as sometimes driving a manual car takes two hands. I haven’t yet tried it on a practical level yet, but assuming I’m not driving like an idiot I think it would work. My latest spot is on the arm of my beach chair, which I’ve been sitting in lately for my Saturday or Sunday afternoon smokes (it’s yet to visit a beach!). This gives me a handy resting spot and ashtray. Once the pool warms up I’m sure I’ll find a place to clip it out there. It’s well made, cleans up easily, and pretty cool looking from a guy perspective. I’m not a golfer, but I can see where this would be handy clipped to a golf cart. It potentially solves a lot of problems.

I’ve mentioned the Elertus Smart Sensor before, and I’ve been enjoying and need to send it back! This is a very interesting hygrometer. It has no digital readout on the unit, but it transmits date over WiFi to your own portal. Besides access through a webpage, there are apps for Apple and Android devices. It also sends alerts to your phone via text message. I’m old, I haven’t made the jump to the smartphone fad, I’m waiting to see if it catches on, so I get alerts if the humidity or temperature fall outside of parameters which I define, and also if the unit moves. When I was using it in one of the desktop humidors and we had some work being done in the next room, I got a barrage of texts! This is a really neat device, although maybe overkill for most of us. I can see this being a very valuable addition to a retail humidor, or better yet a locker in a lounge. I have found it quite handy to be able to see the temperature and humidity remotely, not that it’s changed my life. I did mention to the manufacturer that I find the reading to be a couple points high compared to other hygrometers, which he said he’d look into. Still it’s a neat idea, and I think I’ll miss having it around, just for the geek factor.

Cigar Oasis has been a household name in the humidification game for quite some time. You may recall I did a little booth tour with Chaim Kohn, the Sales Manager at Cigar Oasis last year at the IPCPR show (here’s the link) and he told us about some of the products they offer. He recently sent a Cigar Oasis Excel for evaluation, as well as their Caliber 4R hygrometer which I pretty much fell in lust with when I saw it at the show. I’ve been storing many of my cigars in a blue Coleman cooler which has been in service for close to 15 years, and I always used either a florist foam or bead based humidifier, and it’s always kept my cigars pretty good with little maintenance. I would have liked to have put this Cigar Oasis XL unit in my humidor upstairs, but there were two reasons I didn’t: lack of a convenient electrical source, and it’s just too large for even what would be considered a large desktop humidor. I wasn’t willing to give up the cigar real estate! Their Ultra 2.0 would be perfect for the lid of the desktop humidors I think, it’s battery operated and slim. Anyway, I ran an extension cord to the cooler and plugged the XL in. This unit has a digital hygrometer built in, ans also allows you to easily set your desired humidity level. I’ve found that the hygrometer is very sensitive as the reading drops as soon as you open the lid of the humidor, as you can see in the picture. So far I’ve been quite pleased with the performance. The thin power cord doesn’t effect the seal at all, and there is a battery unit available. the sealed water cartridge is nice, no spills, and I have yet to see an indication that it need refilling. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, but I think in a coolerdor environment it may last a while. They will be offering a WiFi attachment for their humidifiers in the coming months, which will not only allow you to monitor remotely, like the Elertus, but also to make adjustments. The Caliber 4R hygrometer is a neat device in that it’s round, designed to replace the round hygrometer of questionable accuracy which may have come with your humidor. I’ve been moving it around from humidor to humidor and I think it’s really cool. Checking it against various other hygrometers I find it to be very accurate. besides it’s obvious function, it’s more visually appealing than your standard digital unit. I haven’t had it long enough to be able to judge the battery life, I’m sure it’s going to last quite a while. I have a Western Humidor digital unit that goes through the expensive little button cells….I have an old Radio Shack unit someplace that uses a regular AAA, but neither have the cool factor that this has. I’ll quite likely buy a few more of these.

I smoked a few cigars this week too, but I do that whole cigar shtick all the time, I thought I’d change things up a little and talk about accessories. It appears that the FDA has added another 30 days to the comment period, so if you haven’t already, get on over to CigarRights.org and follow their instructions. It appears that they are listening, or at least willing to listen. That’s enough from me, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Accessories, Review

by CigarCraig | March 16, 2014 · 9:12 pm

An Alec Bradley Event, THE Kind, an Aging Room and Cigar Transporter Tubes

Thursday there was an Alec Bradley event at the world famous Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia (that’s about 20 minutes outside Philadelphia for those who don’t know. Ask your wives, they probably know the area for the enormous mall!) Jonathan Lipson was present and managed to sell through all of the Filthy Hooligans before I arrived. Trae, the co-owner of the shop managed to find me one, so I picked up some Nica Puros too and settled in with the candela toro. I enjoyed several of these last year, and still have one buried in the humidor someplace. I think this is a great tasting smoke. I like the way the candela wrapper tempers the Black Market blend. The downside is that the use an inordinate amount of glue on the bands, which is understandable, they have to stay in place through a secondary sleeve, as well as cellophane. Removing the band does a number on the fragile wrapper. The flavor is refreshing to me, it’s clean and I like this cigar. I was unhappy that I couldn’t go home with a handful of these. My brother-in-law was in Holts the previous evening and they had sold out there too. The event was well attended, we even ran into those guys from The Cigar Lounger magazine again. Always a pleasure having a cigar with Vince, Graham, Steve and Drew. Trae and Wade are consummate hosts, always checking in , emptying ashtrays and making sure all is well. A good time was had by all, and I’m still looking for a few Hooligans!

Friday evenings I try to smoke something I know will be satisfying after a long work week, but I decided to try a new cigar that was sent to me by the folks at Nice Ash Cigars in New York State. As it is, THE Kind is an exclusive in their three stores (one of which is in North-western Pennsylvania), but they hope to distribute on a larger scale. The cigar is the Toro, which is 5¾” x 56, is nicecly box pressed and has a closed foot and a pigtail cap. It’s a very appealing looking cigar. It’s made in Omar Ortez’s factory in Esteli, and has a Jalapa Corojo wrapper with Nicaraguan filler and binder. I really enjoyed the cigar, it had a nice sweetness and was full of flavor, but was a solid medium in strength. It burned fairly well, even though it had only been in my humidor for about a week. I’ll give the other sample a few months rest, but I’m sure it’ll be just as good. My thanks to Andrew at Nice Ash Cigars for thinking of me.

This week I also received a prototype of a Cigar Transporter Tube from Kevin, the maker of these tubes and the gentleman behind the Indiegogo campaign to raise capital to purchase a lathe so he can produce these on his own. The tube is a Dupont Delrin® plastic which is an industrial strength thermoplastic used to make precision parts. He machines this to pretty tight tolerances and matches the top and bottom halves to insure a perfect fit. I had one of the machinists where I work take a look and he was impressed with the machining, and he’s a perfectionist. I put a cigar in this tube and toted it around with me and it worked out very well. Check out his Indiegogo campaign here and throw a couple bucks his way, he’s got some tubes listed as perks for donating, I am looking forward to seeing the aluminum version.

Saturday afternoon I took a nice, long walk with an Aging Room M21 Fortissimo that I received at the IPCPR show last July. This was in a coffin box, and is a nice perfecto shape, probably around 5½ x 46, which is a great size. I’ve heard many great things about this cigar, so I had high hopes. A few months ago I smoked an Aging Room M356 Rondo and it conspired to kick my ass, so I was a little worried. Unfortunately, this cigar must have been stored in slightly higher humidity than it should have. Rafael Nodal, the principle at Aging Room told me directly just today that this cigar is all ligero, so it’s sensitive to higher humidity (the humidor reads in the low 60s, go figure). I had a heck of a time keeping it burning, and given my experience with the M356, I was hesitant to over smoke it to keep it burning. The flavor was very good, and I will be looking for another sample to fully appreciate the cigar this is supposed to be. Rafael generously offered to send me another, however I think I’ll try to find one in one of my local shops. These guys are really making some great cigars, so I have every confidence that my experience was a fluke. The fact that the same factory is working with José Blanco speaks to the quality of their tobacco and production.

That’s all for today, apologies for not getting this out this morning, but other projects took precedence. Until the next time,

Cigar Craig

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Filed under Accessories, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Aging Room, Alec Bradley, cigar, Cigar Transport Tube, cigars, THE Kind

by CigarCraig | December 29, 2013 · 11:51 am

An Oliva, an Illusione, an Aging Room, a New Adorini Humidor and Elertus Monitor

Wow, it’s been a while since I put a real post together. As much work as it is putting the contest series together, it’s almost easier than droning on about this cigar and that accessory. But it’s fun, I can’t _not_ go on about cigars and their accouterments. It’s gotta come out somewhere, this is the logical place! I’ve smoked a bunch of cigars over the past weeks. It’s a little bit liberating to just be able to smoke whatever the heck I want without having to really write something about it. I revisited some old friends that I wouldn’t want to bore you with again, and took a few nights off here and there. What follows are some new to me cigars that I found interesting, along with a couple new products that I’m evaluating.

One day around Christmas I enjoyed an Oliva Masterblend 3, they mysteriously call it a Dbl Robusto, but it’s 5″ x 50, which puts it squarely in the Robusto category in my book. This cigar had an almost oval box press, which I only have really seen on the San Lotano Oval. It had a perfect burn with a nice, flat ember that I really appreciate. It gave me great flavor that left me wishing this IPCPR sample had been a Churchill. The website describes it this way: “Liga Maestra is specifically blended to deliver the richest characteristics of Nicaraguan ligero fillers and Broadleaf sun-grown wrappers. It is a complex cigar crafted for the most developed palate.” I liked it.

I also came across an old Arturo Fuente Don Carlos No.4 that a friend had sent me many moons ago. This is a corona sized cigar with a torpedo style head. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it’s been a decade since I sampled from this line, but there was a time when the Don Carlos Robusto was my favorite cigar, along with the Hemingway Signature. It’s a cigar that I associate with a some great memories. This one was well aged and tasty. The Cameroon wrapper is flawless and it has that signature flavor that you only get from a well aged Cameroon cigar. It was very nice Christmas Day smoke.

A few days before Christmas I took delivery on a new humidor from HumidorDiscount.com. They offered to allow me to evaluate their newest Adorini humidor, the Carrera Grande Deluxe in black laquer. This is a huge 150 count humidor with a tray, humidifier and hygrometer. I have been really impressed with the Cedro Deluxe humidor from Adorini and this new Cerrera is built just as well. The walls are a good one inch thick and it’s solid as a rock. The lid closes with a nice, soft “whoosh”. It has the same magnetic plate hidden in the lid so the humidifier and hygrometer can be positioned however you like. I’m a little CDO, so I have then centered nicely. This one also has the same ventilation ribs in the Spanish Cedar lining that accept dividers, and it also came with the label clips if you have that need. I suppose these would be handy for unbanded cigars or to record dates, I’m lazy, I just dumped a few boxes worth of cigars in after a generous seasoning period. I haven’t decided on a theme for this one yet. I think it’s going to be for cigars that I plan to feature here, but I feature most everything here anyway, don’t I? Of course, this came a great time, as I had just mentioned the need to finally break down and get a 100+ quart cooler. This beauty will eliminate that “need” for the time being. I’ll periodically mention how this humidor is performing, so far I’ve been impressed. I need check on the hygrometers though, in both this one and the Cedro, as they were a little off of the digital. I had them all in the humidor with a tray of water for a few days and there was about a 5 point swing between the four. I don’t suppose that’s too bad.

I used another product I was sent to evaluate, the Elertus Smart Sensor, while setting up the new humidor. I mentioned this in a post a couple weeks ago (here). This is an impressive little gizmo and I’ll be sad to send this back. It connects to your home WiFi router and you can download apps for iPad/Phone/Pod or Android device to monitor several different things. I get text messages on my dumb phone when there is physical movement or the temperature or humidity deviated from my pre-selected guidelines. I can also check in on the website or the Apps to see what the temp and humidity are in real time. There’s sensor I could attach to tell me if the lid was opened, but I didn’t feel a need for that. This was the fourth humidity reading device I had in the new humidor while it was getting ready and it seemed to read about in the middle of the digital (which was on the low side) and the analog units. Point is, it seems to work well in humidors from what I can tell.

Friday afternoon my wife an I needed a relaxing day out of the house, so we ventured to Cigar Mojo in nearby King of Prussia to smoke some cigars and relax in their comfy leather chairs. Jenn wanted to get some reading done, so we parked in the seating area in the front of the store as opposed to going in the lounge with the TVs. There was a pretty good crowd in the lounge for a place that’s only been open for six weeks. I bought some cigars and lit up an Illusione Rothchildes. I had actually asked Trae a few weeks ago if he was getting these in because I wanted to try them. He ordered them on the spot and got them in. He should have no problem moving these well priced and exceptionally good smokes. I will smoke more of these without hesitation. The size is great at 4½ x 50 and the San Andrés wrapper while not as pungent as I expect, was delicious. For $4 and change this is a must try cigar.

After the Illusione I lit up an Aging Room M356 Rondo. This is a 5″ x 50 robusto that is the little brother of the No. 2 Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the Year. I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. This was a good tasting cigar that I had some trouble keeping lit. I found this to be an overly strong cigar, but it was subtle, it snuck up! I had to stop for a Coke on the way home. Yeah, it was bad…but the cigar was tasty, and I have another one resting in the humidor that I’ll leave along for a while and try again when I work up the courage! I have a Quatro Fortissimo from the IPCPR show that I still have to get around to. I told Rafael Nodal Jr. it was too pretty to smoke in it’s little coffin box when he handed it to me, so he broke the seal on the box so I’d have to smoke it. It still looks too nice to smoke! I’ll get to it though, maybe it’ll help if I take it out of the coffin and put it on the top tray of the new humidor. We had a great afternoon hanging out at Cigar Mojo, talking to Alan Price, who has been helping out in the shop, and Trae, one of the owners. Certainly a great new shop in the Philly area that must be visited.

One other thing, real quick. If the winners of the 12 Days of Cigar Giveaways that already haven’t can confirm that they’ve received their goodies in the comments, I’d appreciate it! I want to make sure everyone is happy! Many thanks again for everyone for making it such a success!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Accessories, Review, Stores

by CigarCraig | August 18, 2013 · 12:29 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Ortega Cigars: a Cubao, a Serie D and Minis

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Eddie Ortega and his cigars, going back as far as the REO. While I haven’t gotten around to sampling any of his Wild Bunch series, I have enjoyed the heck out of the Serie D line. At the show Ortega Cigars re-released the Cubao line, and I smoked No. 5 Friday evening, at least I think that’s what it was. I should have measured it because there’s still some confusing information on the internet about this line. Many retailers still list this as an EO Brands line. It’s still made by Pepin Garcia in Nicaragua in the same blend as before. Sumatra wrappers aren’t always my first choice, but this is a darned tasty and perfectly constructed cigar. I certainly look forward to smoking more in this line.

Eddie was a tough guy to get to talk to at the IPCPR show, but I finally got a few minutes in between customers near the end and talked to him about his new cigars. Here’s a short video:

Saturday afternoon I smoked the Ortega Serie D no. 8 natural. This is a brilliant cigar, although not as brilliant as the maduro in my opinion. I always appreciate a well made cigar, and these always burn perfectly. Its got a pleasing flavor that’s satisfying and always makes me a little sad when it’s finished! Perhaps I need to get larger sizes! The maduro Serie D is awesome! Side note, when you see a picture like this one it means I was either too lazy, too negligent, or in too big a hurry to smoke the cigar to take a proper picture. Fortunately I compulsively put almost every cigar I smoke on Instagram. Sorry. 🙂

New at the show this year are the Ortega Minis. These are 4″x 38 little guys sold in 4 packs in Connecticut, Habano and Maduro wrappers. Many have speculated about the packaging for these, as they come in a cardboard box reminiscent of a Marlboro cigarette pack. Certainly the argument can be made that the premium cigar industry wants to distance itself from anything to do with cigarettes, and I have to agree. However, Eddie likes the packaging and it is what it is. The cigars are pretty amazing. Last night I started with the Ecuador Connecticut wrapped version, then smoked the Habano. They were both tasty smokes, with my personal preference leaning toward the Habano. The Connecticut was good, don’t get me wrong, and it wasn’t a mild and flavorless cigar at all. If anything it had a little acidic bite that will mellow with age. The Habano was full flavored and both cigars burned perfectly. I actually used the 5 Star Perforator on both with good results. I smoked the Maduro after the trade show closed in Vegas, sitting outside by a fountain at one of the entrances to the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Regular readers will not be surprised that this was my favorite of the bunch. It was rich and full of my favorite cigar flavors of espresso and cocoa. I will be picking up some of these, regardless of what I think of the packaging. These are all cool little smokes, they are like smoking half a lancero. Pretty darned yummy.

That’s it for now. We are having a little graduation/birthday party for our oldest son, Corey today, so I have to get ready for gusts to arrive and fire up the grill. I think today may be a lancero day for me, I’ve got a few in mind, unfortunately, an Ortega Serie D Maduro isn’t one of them (but is on my wanted list!).

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Accessories, IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Cubao, IPCPR, Mini, Ortega, Serie D

by CigarCraig | August 14, 2013 · 7:27 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Ezra Zion Cigars: Eminence and Tantrum and the Five Star Perforator Tool

Last year we met the guys from Ezra Zion at the show (here’s the post) and have gotten to know Kyle, Chris and Alan since. I can’t say I agree with their politics or spiritual views all the time, but I can say that they make fine cigars and are passionate about tobacco. Whereas last year they had a booth along side their Cigar Federation booth (a cigar social media site for which the same group is responsible), this year they were in the booth with the rest of the House of Emilio brands. Between the Cigar Federation and Ezra Zion they were the book ends of the booth. On to the cigars: I am a big fan of the Inception (or Jamais Vu as it’s now known) and I smoked the Tantrum and the new Eminence this week. Here’s a video we did with Kyle at the show a few weeks ago telling us about the newest blends:

Monday evening I fired up the Eminence. This was a dark, fat belicoso that had a wrapper that was reasonably flame-retardant. I suspect a few months in the humidor should solve this, but despite having to light it pretty often it was a big old pepper bomb from the start. It was a lot spicier than the usual San Andreas wrapped cigars I appreciate so much. I really enjoyed this cigar, and I’ll pick up a few the next time I get to my local “House of Emilio” shop, let them set for a while and see if I still have a burn problem.

Last night my wife and I went out to dinner, so I grabbed the little Tantrum to walk the meal off. This is a little firecracker, but it’s not nearly the spice bomb that the Eminence is. I actually used a new tool I’ve been testing on this, the Five Star Perforator. This little device has five piercers in a spring loaded enclosure. What one does is press this into the cap of the cigar and it puts five nice little holes in the cap. I’ve had good results with cigars that have a loose draw, but that’s a difficult cigar attribute to figure out before cutting the cigar! I’ve found myself piercing the cigar, finding I can’t get enough smoke, trying again with a little rocking or twisting motion like the website suggests, then using a punch, V-cut or straight cut, depending on what I have on me. Certainly this is an interesting piece to have on the key chain (which in my case could have more cigar devices on it than keys!). I’m old and set in my ways, so sometimes I just grab the V-cutter or guillotine and do it right the first time. If I know a cigar has a history of being rolled loosely, this is a great tool to use. Anyway, the Tantrum is a great little 4″x44 cigar, although the price point is on the high side for it’s size. I think I paid $7.50 or $8 if I recall. Keep an eye out for the Ezra Zion cigars and give them a try, and see it one of the Five Star Perforators is a tool that would work for you.

Don’t forget to go back to Friday, August 9th’s post and enter to win a box of La Gloria Cubana Gilded Age Toros courtesy of Famous Smoke Shop! There’s only another 5 days to enter, and I know this is longer than most of my contests, but I wanted to give plenty of people a chance to enter.