I’m meeting a buddy for a cigar at our local smoke shop, today at 4:00. Somebody give me a recommendation of a terrific smoke, hopefully one I haven’t tried–I feel like trying something different. If it’s not too obscure, this shop should have it.
Well, I’d suggest an Avo XO Intermezzo, for no other reason than I went looking for one last night (inspired by this thread, I think) and realized I smoked the last one I had some time ago. You can tell me if they are as good as I remember.
Did manage a nice smoke anyway: Bolivar Corona from Cuba, about four years of age on it. Not a harsh note in it at all, just that beautiful, full, big earthy flavour Bolivars are known for. Had a nice microbrew porter with it–perfect combination for a winter’s night.
Two of my favourites right now are the Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959, and Perdomo Reserve Cameroon (in particular, the little figurado ‘F’).
Tried the Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959, torpedo. Very nice smoke. Seemed medium / full-bodied, burned and drew beautifully. Thanks to you (and to Spoons) for the tips. I will try them all.
I’ve been smoking Swisher Sweets. Yum.
Former cigarette (and pipe, and cigar) smoker popping in here. I’ve been ‘clean’ for about two years, but’ve started to dip back into cigars a tiny bit lately–in honor of finishing my first set of law school exams, I had one about a week ago.
I’m thinking I might be able to enjoy the occasional cigar without sliding back into the cigarette habit, and am wondering about getting a humidor. I don’t want to spend a fortune, and I don’t, at the moment, plan on having more than a box or two on hand. What would you fellows suggest?
Lemur Catta, if you don’t want to make the commitment to a nice wooden humidor right now (and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t), you can always store a few sticks in a Humi-Pouch. This won’t keep them forever, but you should be okay for a few weeks. For longer periods of time, you can always make your own “Tupperwaridor” until you decide that you want something more permanent and suitable.
Neither solution is terribly elegant. But should you decide not to keep on with cigars, you’re not out the money a nice wooden humidor would cost you.
Spoons, my pipe tobacco–which I have not gotten rid of, and which is probably very nicely aged by now, if not moldy or bone dry–lives in a series of one quart paint tins purchased from the Home Depot. Elegance is hardly my first concern. 
The pouches would likely not be worth it–I’m approaching this very carefully and with great moderation, as I was a fairly heavy smoker before and don’t particularly care to return to that. I’m thinking maybe one or two smokes a month, honestly. Ideally I just want a way to take advantage of the better deals offered by online retailers, plus to be able to let things age a little bit, since I’ll be smoking them rarely.
I’ve seen (and been always suspicious of) very inexpensive humidors like these, and I guess I’m wondering if they are, in fact, too good to be true.
A humidor is a very simple device. You can make one easily like this:
- Find a tupperware container big enough to hold the cigars you want.
- Get some open-cell rigid foam (called ‘oasis’) as used by florists to make flower arrangements (get the stuff that absorbs water - not the closed-cell foam that doesn’t.
- Pick up some Propylene Glycol from the drug store. 500 ml is all you need.
- Find a small tin or plastic box that you can put your foam in. Punch lots of air holes in the top, but leave the bottom sealed.
- Make a 50/50 solution of Propylene Glycol and water, and soak your foam in it. Put it in the small container, and put that container inside your plastic humidor.
Put your cigars in, and away you go. The Propylene glycol mixture will release water when the air gets too dry, and absorb it when the air gets too wet. You’ll have to top up the mixture on occasion.
I’ve made several of these. When I had a lot of cigars, I made an ‘igloo-dor’ with one of those portable insulated plastic picnic baskets, and make a humidification device from a large ‘project box’ I got from Radio shack. It could hold about ten boxes of cigars, and worked perfectly. I also made a smaller humidor for about 10 cigars from an old metal tin and a smaller humidification device I made from a smaller project box.
I don’t think I paid more than $10 for all the parts except the insulated picnic basket, and I still use it all more than 10 years later. I do have a nicer wooden humidor now that I use decoratively, but it often doesn’t even have any cigars in it.
Those cheap humidors from JR will also work fine. All you’re really paying for in a humidor is the quality of the woodwork. Any semi-airtight box with a cheap humidification device will work fine. An expensive humidor is simply a nice piece of woodcraft.
Thanks, Sam–that clears up the confusion I’ve had about humidors since I originally started smoking. I had assumed, based on the price tags, that there had to be something magical going on in humidors. Now that I know that the price is for the craftsmanship, I can feel quite content going the cooler-dor route. 
(Incidentally, I suppose one ought to avoid Thermos brand coolers, as that would be Thermidor? Heh.)
The only nuance to be aware of is that you don’t want your humidor completely sealed - you just want it sealed enough that the humidifying device can maintain proper humidity. So if you use a tupperware container, you might want to punch a couple of tiny holes in it to allow some air transfer.
The other nuance is that humidors are typically lined with cedar, which some people swear by. But you can solve this by storing your cigar boxes in your igloo-dor, since they are made of cedar. Or if you have a smaller humidor, take the cedar lining out of your cigar boxes and put it in the bottom of your igloo-dor.
You can also by a digital hygrometer at Radio shack that you can use for measuring the humidity in your humidor. The one I have even has a remote sensor, so if I want I could punch a hole though the side of the humidor, install the sensor, and then have the digital readout on the outside. I never bothered, though. I just chucked the thing in the humidor with the cigars. When the humidity starts to drop, that would be my signal to top up my humidifying device with water/PG mixture.
Also, I don’t know if the Propylene glycol evaporates with the water over time - So if you keep adding the 50/50 mixture, you may wind up with less and less water and more and more PG. If so, you’ll find that your humidity device won’t keep the humidity stable for as long as it used to. IF that happens, just check out the chunk of oasis inside it, and prepare a new one. Or you could try just adding distilled water instead of the water/PG mixture after your initial fill of water/PG.
Sam has the right idea. I have a few such devices myself–they hold my “aging” collection. One thing I would say is that punching holes in the Tupperwaridor (my term for any homemade humidor) may not be what you want to do with respect to air transfer. Still, because of air transfer, you do not want to seal it completely. What to do?
It’s a bit of a pain, but I open mine once every seven to ten days, wave the lid over the humidor itself, then replace it. This way, fresh outside air is introduced, and the Tuppewaridor returns to its 70% RH shortly after I replace the lid.
Aside to Sam: I know you’re in western Canada somewhere. Where exactly? My location says Calgary, but I spend enough time in Edmonton as well. Any chance we might meet for a smoke someday?
IANACS, but this guy just weighed in with his top ten of 2006.
I just bought a nice 75-count display humidor on Ebay for $25 that I think looks nicer than many of the $100 - $300 ones I’ve seen at cigar shops around here. I’m sure it’s not the highest quality woodwork, but it has nice cedar trays and I have no problems maintaining the humidity in it.
One thing to be aware of though is that if you buy a cheap humidor (or maybe even if you buy an expensive one), the analog hygrometer that comes with it is probably junk, especially if it doesn’t allow you to calibrate it. One of the ones I have appears to read about 25% low and has no way to calibrate it, and the other one I have can be calibrated, but the needle just stays at whatever you set it at regardless of the humidity in the box. Do yourself a favour and get a digital one.
Huh. Who would have guessed there’d be such a geographic concentration of cigar-loving Dopers? I wonder if I could get on the invite list, too?
Be nice to set up a North American Dopin’ Herf session. We’d have to have it up here though, so we could flaunt our Habanos about the place.
Sure, why not? I’m not sure where we might all be able to go, but if we put our heads together, I’m sure we could come up with something.
Do any of you guys use any database software to keep track of cigars you’ve smoked, with ratings, prices, etc.? Any recommendations?
A quick Google search yielded a couple of possibilities: Cigar Register and Cigar Briefcase. I haven’t tried either of them, but a little research seems to indicate they both leave something to be desired. I’d love to see something web-based, so I could browse my collection from anywhere (i.e. at work ;)).
I’m a programmer by trade, but I’ve never really had much desire to work on any hobby projects. Maybe this is my chance!
Spoons, can you still smoke in cigar shops/lounges in Calgary? Up here the smoking ban is on all workplaces, no exceptions. I’m pretty sure you can’t even have a “private club” where smoking is allowed, although I’m not sure how they’d enforce that. I can’t smoke in the house, so from October to March pretty much all I can do is dream.
I’m not sure, but if pressed, I’d assume the answer is “No.” They passed an anti-smoking bylaw in Calgary that took effect New Year’s Day, and I’d imagine that if you cannot smoke in bars or even on outdoor patios :rolleyes: , you couldn’t in a tobacconist’s.
I’m well aware of Edmonton’s bylaw, because one of the things I used to like to do in Edmonton was to head for Burlington’s on Whyte, and sample their pipe tobaccos. Can’t do that anymore; at least, not in the shop.
Got a garage? I’ve known a few guys who have made a corner of their garage into a smoking lounge.
I’m in Edmonton. I’d love to have a smoke night, but there’s no place you can smoke in public any more that I know of. I do have a garage, and last year I put my patio table in one corner and put a space heater near it so the wife and I could go out and have an occasional cigar - I don’t smoke in the house. I haven’t set that up this year, but I could possibly do so. Or maybe it would be better to wait until spring - I’ve got a nice deck with some comfy chairs, and a cigar night or two would be a great way to spend an evening.
Johnny will just have to fly a Robinson R-22 up for the event. I used to go for $100 burgers in our airplane - he can come for a $2000 cigar!
Hey, don’t leave out the poor guy from Philly dying for a Cuban! I’ll start walking now. I should be there by spring.