Category Archives: Accessories

IPCPR 2013 – Cigar Oasis Humidifiers and Hygrometers

It’s been a whirlwind couple of days here in Las Vegas at the annual IPCPR trade show.  I’ve  had the good fortune to see a lot of great folks and wonderful new products as well as get to a couple after show parties. Monday night we went to the Toraño Party at Tao Nightclub in the Venetian, then with friends to Casa Fuente in Caesars Palace Forum Shops.  The Alec Bradley party Monday night was hopping, it was outdoors at the pool at the Palms with an open bar and very loud music. After that we hung around the Circle Bar DSC00550in the Venetian and schmoozed with a bunch of folks.  Over the coming months I’ll be smoking samples and including videos related to them.  I hope you enjoy them and while you may see the same information elsewhere, I hope I can add something a little different so it’s not just the same old information.  We’re getting ready to fly home tomorrow night and as tired as I am right now, I had to get a post put together to serve as my regular Wednesday post.  It may be a little early.

 

Today I had the good fortune to meet Chaim Kohn of Cigar Oasis and shoot a video of him explaining their line of products.  Cigar Oasis has been around a long time and always seems to be improving and innovating.  I was very impressed with the Caliber IV hygrometer which is a round digital unit made to fit where a round analog unit would be in in the lid of the humidor.  It’s a sharp looking item.  Chaim had e-mailed me inviting me to stop by the booth and on day 3 of the show I finally found him not too busy and he gives us this tour.

 

You’ll notice that I took camera man duties on this one, giving my wife, Jenn, a break.  She’s been such a huge help to me on this trip and I can’t thank her enough. The downside is that the camera work suffers, but the upside is you don’t have to see me in the video!

 

Time to try to get some rest before wandering around Las Vegas looking for some cigar friends to hang out with.

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Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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Villiger Talanga, a New Cigar Size in Bernie Parent’s Line, and a Humidor Update

Villiger_Talanga_RobustoMonday evening was rainy. I actually thought there was a break in the showers long enough to take the dog for  walk, but it turned out it was only long enough to get a cigar lit and get a little ways down the road before it started pouring again. I suppose if I had walked farther before it started pouring it would have been worse, as it was I ran the dog home and sat in the garage while I enjoyed my last Villiger Talanga Double Robusto.  I have to say, I like the Talanga a lot.  I like the Villiger Colorado more, but the Talanga is a tasty smoke. It’s smooth and full flavored, and just a delicious, well made smoke. I’ve said it before, I’ve always  liked the little Swiss Villiger Export dry cured cigars for a quick smoke, but they have been making some darned good premium cigar offerings.  I’m actually quite interested in trying the NicaRoma series, which is a mixed filler budget offering in Honduras Connecticut, Nicaraguan Habano and San Andreas Maduro wrappers. If it tastes good, I don’t really care if it’s 40% short filler…but the Premium offerings from Villiger are solid.

BSB No1_CrossbarTuesday night brought much nicer weather and a cigar that you heard about here first and I don’t think it’s had any exposure elsewhere in the blogosphere.  The cigar in question is the BSB No.1 by Rocky Patel Crossbar. This is a new size following the initial release which was a little 4½ x54 box pressed cigar with an Ecuador Habano wrapper blended by Nish Patel. The Crossbar is a  5½”x56 robusto (Gran Robusto? Super Robusto? Short Toro?) that’s round, as opposed to the other new size in this line, the box pressed torpedo, the HOF ‘84 (Hall of Fame, and the year Bernie was inducted). I really wrestled with paying $11.00 for this cigar, but it was easier than paying $12 for the HOF 84, and only slightly more difficult that $8.50 for the original BSB No.1. I wanted to smoke this cigar and report on it, so I bit the bullet, and Tony at Old Havana Cigars was doing me a favor putting up a Ticked Off Music Fest  poster BSB No1_Crossbar_cracksfor me so I was going to buy a cigar or two there anyway. When I took the foot band off I noticed a chip in the wrapper, which turned into a bit of a crack after I lit it.   When I got to the main band (which is awesome with Bernie’s crest which pays homage to not only his NHL hall of fame membership, but his back to back Stanley Cups in the 70s) and took it off, I noticed another split in the wrapper.  It drew well, and tasted good, so I let it go, but I wasn’t very happy about a cigar in this price range that’s anything but flawless in construction and appearance. It was a tasty smoke, and I’ll eventually spring for the HOF ‘84 at some point, but it’s hard for me to forgive the wrapper problems on this example. I do miss hanging out with a cigar and Bernie after the Flyers games.

Adorini Humidor Progress

 

AdoriniHumidor2It’s been a few days since I filled it with cigars.  I’m sure most of my readers know that a full humidor works a heck of alot better than an empty one. For starters, you have the space filled with 40 or 50 little humidifiers, so the only real reason you should need to add distilled water to the humidifier element (in this case an acryl polymer, which, from what I can tell, is similar to the polymer beads. Does anyone remember clay or soapstone humidifiers?) is to replace moisture lost through the constant opening of the humidor to admire your cigars. We all do this, don’t try to deny it. So far, since I filled this humidor up, the hygrometer has been reading a bit over 70%, so I’m going to let it breathe a little because I’d rather see it around 65% relative humidity. I closed the vents on the humidifying element, which is a handy feature, we’ll see how it works.  I remain impressed. I love my The Griffins humidor, but I think this one may be functionally superior for about a quarter of the retail price.

 

Not much more to report, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Memorial Day Weekend Cigars: a JD Hightower, an American Eagles and a Humidor Review

JD Hightower_3

Shown with a 5×44 corona

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, warmer than Saturday, but still breezy. I decided that the time had come to finally smoke a cigar that was given to me last year at the IPCPR show by Victor Vitale. The cigar in question was the JD Hightower 6″ x 70 box pressed cigar. I’ve been waiting for the right time given the size of this monstrous cigar. Its roughly the size of a king size Milky Way candy bar. I also have had bad experiences with Victor Sinclair cigars (made by Jose Dominguez, the JD in the name of the cigar) to the extent that I’ve sworn I’d never smoke another one, but since Victor Vitale made this for Jose, I figured it deserved a shot. The first challenge is finding a cutter that would handle this. Normally a large ring cigar is do-able in most cutters, but I knew the Xikar XV wasn’t going to do the trick. I picked the Drew Estate Bulletproof perfect cutter and it worked fairly well, although I had to trim a little bit of binder off with a pair of scissors. The draw was perfect, and it burned relatively well over the course of the two hours it took me to smoke. I very much enjoyed the blend, it was a tasty smoke. It had nice, savory flavors that were enjoyable throughout the cigar. I can’t say that it was a very comfortable cigar to smoke or hold. While the box press minimizes the 70 ring gauge a little, it’s still huge and unwieldy. While I’ve grown accustomed to the 60 ring cigars, 70 is just too big. I’m not sorry I smoked it, I had a beautiful 2+ hours enjoying it on a lazy and beautiful Sunday afternoon. This was yet another nice smoke from Victor Vitale.

 

 

IMG_0515[1]Monday was Memorial Day, and I decided to take the dog for a walk at nearby Valley Forge National Historic Park. I selected my last American Eagles Robusto to smoke for a couple reasons. First, the American Eagles is a nice cigar, well made and tasty. They support the military by donating part of their profits to Semper Fi, and it’s got a patriotic theme. The final reason was because I always feel conspicuous smoking in a public place, and I figured if the cigar was camouflaged it would stand out less. IMG_0513[1]I always figure someone might say something about me smoking a cigar, and I can respond with something like “a cigar? I don’t see a cigar, what are you talking about?”, but perhaps this is yet another one of those things that’s only funny in my head. Anyway, we started at the Memorial Arch, and probably walked a good 5 or 6 miles around the outside of the park on the multi-use trail. It was a stunning day, the cigar was great, smooth, mild and full of flavor, and nobody looked askance at the fact that I was smoking a cigar. Puccio and I were plenty tired out after that walk and went home for lunch (we had gotten an early start).

 

CC_CigarSafariBlend2013After lunch I decided it was time to try out one of the cigars I blended on my recent Cigar Safari trip. As I said before, I went into the blending session there determined to recreate the blend I had made two years prior, but all the tobacco, like the proverbial shiny object, distracted me and I decided to get creative. I went into specifics in my post about the blending session a few weeks ago.  All in all I really enjoyed the cigar. There was a lot of flavors dancing around between the San Andreas Negro wrapper, the Cameroon binder and the Mata Fina, all pretty sweet tobaccos in my book. I will certainly be interested in seeing how these age, and I’ll compare them at some point to my blending attempt from two years ago. These were rolled by the Liga Privada pairs, so the construction was without flaw, it burned perfect, had a nice, flat coal and an even burn and draw. I hated to put it down.

 

 

Humidor Review

 

AdoriniHumidor2This will be an ongoing project over the next several months. The folks at HumidorDiscount.com sent me their Adorini Cedro Deluxe Humidor to evaluate and report upon. Initially I’m very impressed. This shipped from Germany, and only took a few days. It was packaged very well, it was boxed, bubble wrapped, then had a retail box that was lined with 1/8” styrofoam. The humidor was in it’s own cloth bag inside the box, and contained some dividers, Write-on tabs which attach to the dividers to label your stock, a bottle of humidor solution, and brass humidifier with a polymer media, and a small dial hygrometer. The humidor itself while reasonably plain (I think there is an elegance in it’s simplicity), is solidly built with walls that are a full inch thick, and the lid closes on a nice cushion of air telling me that it seals well and AdoriniHumidor1should be made right. Heck, my The Griffins humidor HAS to be locked or the lid doesn’t close all the way, and doesn’t close with a woosh. It also features “Unique ventilation ribs (“RibTech”) for improved air circulation within humidor”, and I like the hidden magnetic plate in the lid that allows the hygrometer and humidifier to be positioned wherever you want it on the lid without screws or glue or anything. So far I’ve added some of the enclosed solution along with some distilled water to the humidifier and will start seasoning it. When I think it’s ready I’ll fill it up and see how it does. I’ll be keeping track of it’s progress and posting that here on a weekly basis. My personal modus operandi when it comes to humidors is to let them do their thing and not get too worked up about daily monitoring (read: I’m lazy), so that will be a feature I look for, holding temp and humidity and not having to fiddle with it much. Thanks to Silvia at HumidorDiscount.com for allowing me the oportunity to evaluate one of your humidors.

 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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A Room 101, a Cuenca 5 Anniversary and Some News

I’ve been taking a little break from cigars since it’s been so bitterly cold out and I haven’t felt like freezing my tuckus off.  Friday I finally said enough is enough and grabbed a cigar to take for a walk in the snow with the dog.  One good thing about snow when the temps have been so low is that it tends to be very powdery and doesn’t require a lot of effort to shovel. It didn’t hurt that we only got about an inch.  This was my kind of snow storm!

 

Room101_SA_213So, after last weeks discussion about gloves and cigar sizes, I figured I’d try a corona.  I figured it had sufficient length to handle with gloves, yet is small enough that it wouldn’t take two hours to smoke.  A few weeks ago I bought a couple of Room 101 San Andreas  213, which is a 5.5 x 44 corona. I really like this size, and when it’s cold and I haven’t had a cigar in a few days I typically reach for a San Andreas wrapper. Out of all the Room 101 lines, this one is, by far, my favorite. It’s rich and flavorful and perfectly constructed. I had just received a Screwpop Cigar Punch which i used with excellent results. The punch is a little larger than the one I’ve had, which was the perfect size for the corona. I also successfully opened a bottle of ginger brew with it! Anyway, I love this line of cigars, I know I’m in for a treat when I light one up. They are pretty fairly priced at around $5.50  which  appeals to my inner cheap bastard.

 

Cuenca_5AnniversarySaturday was a pretty nice day with temps climbing into the 20s so I decided to go large. Cuenca Cigars in Hollywood, Florida is celebrating their 5 year anniversary and are marking that milestone with a cigar made for them by AJ Fernandez, the Cuenca 5 Anniversary. This is a huge 7″x 54 box pressed torpedo that’s got a beautiful dark wrapper. This is normally far too large a cigar for outdoor winter smoking, but it’s funny how balmy the 20s feels after several days in the teens! This was a very enjoyable smoke, I smoked it to a finger burning/freezing nub.  Well balanced, nice little spice in the flavor and perfectly built.  This is a nice cigar, and I really look forward to smoking another one when it’s warmer and I can really relax and enjoy it.  Check out the press release for Cuenca Cigars Anniversary celebration here, and more information about the Cuenca 5 Anniversary cigar here.

 

News

I receive press releases all the time and some of my peers do a great job of posting them on their sites almost immediately.  I think that’s great, and I appreciate it.  Personally, I don’t have the ability to react that quickly and generally choose not to post them as opposed to repeating what others have done already.  We all have our little niches that make us different from one another.  That being said, once in a while I come across something interesting that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I received a request from a gentleman named Hugo Melo, the president of Hispaniola Cigars, asking me to post his press release.  The press release can be found here, as well as other news outlets. According to the press release: “The Taino aborigines of the Dominican Republic attributed spiritual qualities to smoking tobacco during their ancient rituals. It was believed that smoking the tobacco leaf would elevate them to “Turei,” translated literally as “Heaven.” Hispaniola Cigars is proud to announce that in January 2013, the spiritual experience of the Tainos will be resurrected by Turei Cigars.” I haven’t heard of Hispaniola Cigars myself, and they seem to be based nearby in North Joisey. I’ll keep an eye out for them.

In other news, I’d like to welcome StogieBoys.com to the CigarCraig.com family of supporters.  They are offering a deal if you sign up for their mailing list.  They will send you three cigars and a V-cutter if you sign up to get e-mails ($4.99 to cover shipping, so really you are getting the 3 cigars for $5, quite a fair deal!).  I’ve been working with these folks for quite a while and have been a customer as well and they are a class act. You may recall that they started out the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways strong with a nice prize pack, and we’re already working on an upcoming giveaway.

 

That’s about all I have for today.  It looks like temps will be climbing into the 30s today, so I may have to find something interesting to smoke before the 6:00 Flyers/Tampa Bay game!  Hopefully the Flyers didn’t use up all their goals last night.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

 

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Cigars and Hockey – Alec Bradley Connecticut and Tempus and a Merlion

Screwpop_PunchThe last time I mentioned the cool match holder/striker that was brought to my attention, so this time take a look at this new cigar punch from ScrewPop, who makes a variety of tools that have integrated clips that double as a bottle opener.  This is an aluminum body with a stainless steel punch blade and the cover screws on with an o-ring to keep out the crud.  Next time I stop by Cigars International I may pick one of these up to see how it works!  ScrewPop also has clip-able screwdrivers, knives, flashlights and mini-Bic lighter holders.  Pretty nifty stuff.  Please note that this is not a paid endorsement, just something that came to my attention that looked pretty cool.

 

Alec Bradley_Connecticut Robusto Thursday evening I finally decided to smoke the Alec Bradley Connecticut that Jon Lipson gave me at an event a while back.  This is another cigar that bucks the trend of mild Connecticut cigars.  While not a particularly powerful smoke, it had loads of flavor and was solidly medium bodied.  It had the signature Ecuador Connecticut wrapper flavor, with some real depth and body.  I liked this smoke, it was different enough from the similarly wrapped American Classic Blend (which I really like).  I almost thought it was kind-of like a Tempus with a shade wrapper, not that that’s a bad thing.  Very nice smoke.

 

Merlion_ToroFriday evening I went out to dinner with my wife and her father and had a delicious flounder stuffed with crab.  I probably would have made another cigar choice afterward if I had chosen steak, but I naturally gravitated to a Merlion Robusto for some reason (aside: did anyone pick up my series of puns in my last post?).  I don’t know what I’d have selected if I had eaten duck.  Anyway, the Merlion is the sequel to the La Sirena, which is a cigar I really like, but haven’t really smoked enough of.  The Merlion is made by La Aurora in the Dominican Republic and is a bit milder than it predecessor  with an Ecuador Corojo wrapper and a generous smattering of tobacco from Brazil.  I enjoyed this on a post dinner walk and it was a nice cigar to follow an excellent meal.  I can’t remember if this is one I bought at the Delaware Cigar Festival or was an IPCPR show sample, but it was missing one of the ornate bands, not a big deal to me as it’s one fewer band to remove, but the double banded presentation is quite nice, much like the impressive bands on the La Sirena line.  Another nice job by the folks at Miami Cigar and Co.

 

Alec Bradley_Tempus RobustoI’m a big Philadelphia Flyers fan, and the last several months has been frustrating without hockey to watch.  Hockey is really the only sport I like, to be honest.  I had the good fortune to attend the opening game of the season yesterday.  Unfortunately they didn’t really start playing until the end of the first period and couldn’t manage a comeback over a pretty defensively solid Penguins team.  I really don’t like the Penguins much, and I kinda wish the fans would chant “Penguins Suck” instead of “Crosby Sucks”, because Crosby is a skilled player, he’s just a whiny little bi…..sorry, I’m straying from my point.  When I got home I decided I’d smoke an Alec Bradley Tempus to see how far off I was on my thoughts about the Connecticut.  I can’t really make a judgement on the similarities between the two except that they are both very nice cigars.  The Tempus is a bit fuller bodied and was a very nice smoke. I don’t know if there are any cigars in the Alec Bradley line that I really don’t enjoy.  There seems to be something for everyone in their portfolio.  Even though the Flyers didn’t win, this Tempus was a winner.  The Wells Fargo Center, where the Flyers play, does have a Cigar Bar, and I’m trying to get a tour to feature in a future post.  Holt’s used to have the cigar concession in both the private club area and adjacent to one of the bar areas.  I have been to a couple games many years ago where we could enjoy cigars before going to our seats. Sadly, the indoor smoking regulations put an end to that.

 

I’m afraid that’s all I have today.  The TV will be on at 12:30 to see if the Flyers look better against the Sabres today, and I’ll find something to smoke afterward no doubt.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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