The cigar shop

[exelr8]

A lot of us enjoy a nice cigar so I figured we could start a cigar thread.

I had an Ezra Zion inception tonight. It was a darker full flavor cigar. Pretty good. It would have went great with a latte.

[timot_one]

It's actually been a few months since I've had a cigar.  I've just been too busy with work and other shit that I haven't had time.  Also, my friend that I usually smoke cigars with had oral surgery so he can't smoke right now.

I did get a new humidor for Christmas though.  I'm seasoning it right now.  I'm taking the slow approach to it this time around.  There are different schools of thought when it comes to seasoning a humidor.  Some say wipe it down with a damp cloth, others say that's the worst thing you can do.  I'm going to avoid the wipedown method.  Instead, I have 2 gel bottles, a gel humidification device, and the cheap-o humidification device that came with my humidor.  I'm guessing it should take about 5-7 days to get it seasoned properly and up to about 70% humidity.

As far as cigars I've enjoyed recently, I've really enjoyed the Oliva Series G.  That has been my recent "go to" cigar whenever I visit the shop.  I'll have to post some pictures of my set up when I get my humidor seasoned.  Now I have a smaller humidor that I will hopefully keep out in the garage in fairer weather.

[exelr8]

That's awesome Tim, I'd like to have a small humidor at the house.

I've got a tabak robusto in a zip lock bag with a humidity pack waiting in my bedroom. I may get around to it today or Wednesday

[timot_one]

Small 10-15 cigar humidors are relatively inexpensive.  You can pick one up for about $30.  Make sure to get one that is cedar lined, not a cedar veneer inside.  The veneer is way too thin.  My humidor came from Thompson Cigars.  They sell a lot of good humidors at a reasonable price, plus you can get all the additional stuff like a gel bead humidifier, PG solution, and a digital hygrometer.  All of those are a must for a humidor.

I just checked everything in my new humidor and it was up to about 62% humidity from 40% when I set everything up last night.  I have two 2 oz gel bead jars in the bottom, a gel bead humidifier in the lid, the shitty foam filled humidifier on the upper tray and a small shot glass filled with water.  I'm surprised how fast the humidity came up overnight.  I think it might be ready for me to move my cigars over into it when I get home tomorrow night.

[exelr8]

I def want pics of this. You never got around to the CAO I sent you did you?

[timot_one]

I def want pics of this. You never got around to the CAO I sent you did you?

I haven't gotten around to smoking it.  Work has been crazy busy and my smoking buddy has been unable to smoke.  Now that I'm on vacation, I should have some time to enjoy a smoke.  I've gotta get a heater for my garage soon.

[exelr8]

I didn't get around to my tabak today but hopefully this week

[timot_one]

I'm hoping to smoke one of the cigars I have this week.  Let's hope the weather is nice enough.

[exelr8]

It doesn't look like it will be here. I may go to the tobacconist Friday. They have old barber shop chairs and a 50 inch LCDtv.

[cna]

I need to upgrade my humidor am still using the wipe and foam setup i hear some run on batteries which i prefer the clean setup yet functional

[timot_one]

There are humidification devices that you can use that run on batteries.  I've seen them run around $100-300 depending on what you want.  Some use pre-filled cartridges that are not refillable.  There are others that you can refill on your own.  The cost associated with purchasing non-refillable cartridges is not worth it for me when you compare the cost to a gallon of distilled water or even PG solution.

It's been a few days that I've been seasoning my humidor by only putting humidification devices in it.  The highest humidity reached was 65%, which is a preferred level for some aficionados.  I want to get to 70% just to be safe, but I can't seem to get past 65%.

[timot_one]

I'm pretty sure I've been doing everything properly to season my humidor to bring it up to the proper humidity.  At first it seemed that the humidity fluctuated in my humidor, so I checked the seal on it and "tweaked" the cedar in the lid to get a tighter fit.  After that it seemed like I wasn't able to get the humidity to stabilize around 65-70%.  Last night I decided to check the calibration of my hygrometer using the "salt" method.  After 8 hours, it was at 50%.  So that means it's reading 25% low.  I decided to pull the battery and "reset" it to see if that might fix the issue.  Now I have to wait another 8 hours to see if it's going to still sit at 50% humidity, or if it's going to get closer to 75%.  I have a feeling that it's going to be sitting around 50% when I wake up tomorrow.  The one thing that I don't like about the hygrometer is that you can't calibrate it like some models, so I ordered a Xikar hygrometer that can be calibrated.

I should probably be moving my cigars over to the new humidor tomorrow night.  As long as I can be sure it's close to 70% rh with only the humidifier and 2 gel jars, I'll be good to go and ready to fill it up with more sticks.

[Accord Euro-R]

Don't know all that much about cigars, only that I enjoy a good one every now and then.  I was in Florida a couple weeks ago for my birthday and smoked about 9 in 5 days, and while most were "meh", 2 of them really stood out:  I had a cigar made by Acid (I buy their hookah tobacco all the time) and my all time favorite to this point, a Makers Mark cigar.  Comes sealed in glass tubes with the red wax, but the flavor, mellowness, and smoothness of the smoke was absolutely exquisite!

Just wanted to contribute! haha.

[timot_one]

I picked up 2 more Opus X's, 2 Anejo Reserves, and a Liga Pravada No 9 and T52.  I'm tempted to go back to the shop I went to so I can pick up some more.  These are all supposed to be some top notch smokes.

[exelr8]

I wish I could get an opus x, they sell out within the day they arrive here.