Every now and then the folks at Thermopro send me a new gadget to try out. In this case I protested a little, and suggested something else, but they insisted that this was better technology than the older model I asked about, and were rather 
insistant! I agreed to evaluate the ThermoPro TP393 Hygrometer even though I thought it seemed a little large for most humidors. I set it up in my cabinet humidor for a week or two next to a known accurate hygrometer and left it alone. There are quite a few things I like about this, besides the fact that it appears to be accurate. My old eyes like the large display, in this application, the backlighting, time and date function are
Before you panic about the humidity, the top unit is in my Family Room!
pretty superfluous, but in other applications this are nice to have. It has a rechargeable battery, which should make things easier over time, as saves having to find weird button cell batteries, or keep a stock of AAA batteries around. I’ve noticed no battery power reduction over the two weeks it’s been in use. It interacts with the App seamlessly via bluetooth, one can set alerts easily, and historical data is tracked. I have three devices now in my app and can see the conditions in three humidors at a glance. It may be a little big for a desktop humidor, it’s good for a large cabinet, and would be ideal for a walk-in. It’s a nice unit for a very reasonable price. I also have been using their TP200B Indoor 
Outdoor Thermometer to monitor the temperature in my enclosed smoking porch. This is a neat thermometer for indoor and outdoor, but doesn’t really have a good application in the humidor without a hygrometer, and it isn’t Bluetooth. The links included are Amazon affiliate links, I get a few pennies if anyone buys one. I recently received an Amazon payment about enough to buy a cigar, and it’s the first one I’ve gotten in a few years, so I’m not getting rich off of affiliate links! Thank you to Thermopro for the promotional consideration.
I had an opportunity to try a new cigar this week, two of them, actually. It’s actually the same cigar, smoked two different ways. This is a cigar that Kevin at CigarProp/Trash Panda Cigars has been working on with Omar of Fratello Cigars for the last two years, it’s not a new concept, just maybe one that hasn’t been perfected yet. They have made a cigar that has a different smoking experience depending on which end you light. It’s capped on both ends, one end has a lighter cap, and is about 7″ x 50. I smoked two cigars, one from each end, and did, indeed have a different experience. I know nothing about the blend, but I am guessing it’s got some Dominican tobacco, and strikes me as a cigar rolled in the DR. It appears to have a Habano wrapper. The first one I smoked, lighting the Habano capped end (hint, cut both ends, burning through the cap doesn’t go well!), seemed to start spicier, and built in strength. The second, lighting the shade end, seemed to start smoother. Overall these are on the leather side of the flavor spectrum to my palate. My personal opinion on cigars that are copped on both ends is that they need to be stored at a lower humidity, because once the humidity is inside the cigar there’s nowhere for it to go. I found that both samples needed frequent relights in the last third, although the burn and draw were still pretty good. It’s an interesting concept, there have been a couple cigars in the past that have done similar things, one of which was a blatant SCHIP tax dodge! Check out Kevin and Jess’s video about this cigar. I’ll be interested to see how this project progresses! Thanks for including me in the select group of people allowed to know about this!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Here’s another Hygrometer review. I’ve been checking out the ThermoPro digital hygrometer/thermometers, and this is the latest one. The TP358 is a Bluetooth enabled device, which allows you to monitor the readings in an app, which also stores historical data and lets you set alarms. I have to compare it to the last unit I reviewed, the ThermoPro TP393 Hygrometer . My testing showed that it’s accurate, which is the main feature we look for, right? Here are the details:
It pretty much has the same features as the TP393, in a smaller form-factor. The size makes it more suited for humidor use, it’s nearly half the size of the TP393. It also has a clock and backlight, neither of which are particularly interesting to me. The one area where the TP358 misses is that it uses four AAA batteries, where the larger unit is rechargeable. I like the rechargeable feature, it seems to last a long time, I haven’t had to charge it since I got it back in May. That being said, none of the Thermopro devices I have have needed batteries yet, so they seem to last quite a while. Nice devices, overall.
