While browsing The Stogie Review, I ran across an old article about pairing coffee and cigars. Make sure you check it out, because it covers a lot that I am not.

What prompted me to do this quick post is coffee makers. They are not all created equally. I’ve gone through several over the years. Some better then others, ranging from $40.00 to $100.00 and available at any local store. All of them were basically the same consumer product. This is probably fine for most people, but I’m picky. I want good coffee with minimal bitterness, and I want it HOT.

Mr. Coffee, Kitchen Aid, Krups, Cuisinart, Starbucks brewers, etc… All garbage in the end. They didn’t make coffee hot enough, or broke within a year or two. All have plenty of bells and whistles, but fail at their primary task – Making good coffee.

Apparently to make a good cup of coffee, besides the proper grind, you need water at the proper temperature. “They” say around 200 degrees F is required. To reduces that bitter taste, you must limit the time grounds are exposed to the hot water. Doing it too long extracts everything from the grounds, good and bad. Not long enough, and you’ll have weak coffee with mild flavor.

After years of experimenting with various brands and reading reviews, I almost gave up. I started looking at industrial brands like Bunn, a popular brand used in coffee shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, you can pay upwards of $600.00 for that stuff. Not possible on my budget.

My requirements are simple: Make good hot coffee, and no glass carafe with a heat plate that burns the coffee. An insulated thermal carafe is great and can keep coffee hot for hours, minus that burnt taste.

Enter the Bunn BTX-B, a consumer coffee maker.

No bells and whistles, no timer, no clock. Just a coffee machine. This looked promising.

A good friend Jay has used a similar model for years. So I took his advice, as well as many positive reviews, and gave it a try. A trip to Wal Mart and $150.00 later, I was set.

Operation is simple. On the back, the large silver tank houses 10 cups of water. It is kept at 200 degrees at all times. I turn the tank off and flip it on at bed time. This saves energy and the coffee maker is ready to go when I get up. It takes about 15 minutes to heat up the tank if you are making multiple pots of coffee. Basically if you brew a pot, you have to wait 15 minutes to brew the next pot. Not an issue for me.

To brew a pot of coffee, you pour 10 cups of water into the top of the unit. Once you close the lid, the hot water in the tank is forced through the grinds at a quick pace at high velocity. The fresh water you just poured into the top is automatically placed into the holding tank to heat up for the next pot. Total brewing time is 3 minutes. Worth noting, its advisable to use Bunn filters. They are a little taller and eliminate grounds spilling over and getting into the pot. Again not a problem for me, they are cheap and readily available at any Wal Mart.

How was the coffee? After some experimentation with the grind and amount of grounds placed into the basket, I found a sweet spot. Piping hot coffee with minimal bitterness. The insulated carafe keeps coffee hot for hours. Even at the end of the day, coffee still tastes fresh. 30 seconds in the microwave is all it needs.

So if you are a picky bastard like I am with your coffee, consider the Bunn BTX-B. So far I’ve been happy with it. Although its only been a few weeks since I’ve owned the Bunn, I am at least hopeful now.

This article is just a review of the humidor itself. I will post a follow up which will cover seasoning the humidor, calibrating the hygrometer, and humidification methods. Stay tuned for that article.

First let’s cover the specs:

Price: $276.00

Lifetime Warranty

Capacity – 75 cigars

Finish – multiple lacquer finish in black with tobacco leaf design on lid

Felt bottom

“Ribtech” ventilation ribbed liner

Hidden metal plate under the wood veneer to hang hygrometer and humidifier in the lid

24k gold plated quadrant hinges

Dimensions (exterior) – Length-24cm. Width-29cm. Height-12cm.

In the box – A humidor guide book, analog hygrometer, gold plated acryl polymer based

Humidifier, 4 dividers with label clips, 100ml bottle of distilled water.

Construction:

I examined the exterior finish and it was virtually flawless. The tobacco leaf design against the ultra shiny black finish looks great. Pictures don’t do it justice. The felt bottom means you can store this on a delicate surface without worry of scratching your furniture.

Opening the lid, you see a quality cedar liner that is ribbed for ventilation. This design is claimed to increase air flow. The concept makes sense as you can see in the picture below.

The liner has a little bit of play, which I assume is to compensate for expansion and contraction from the tropical environment that we need for cigar storage.

The lid has a piece of metal hidden underneath the wooden liner. This makes hanging a hygrometer and humidifier a snap. No Velcro or adhesives needed here.

While we are looking at the lid, check out the hinges. They are plated with 24k gold and are solidly mounted with no play or flimsiness.

When I let the lid drop from open to closed, there was a nice “Woosh” sound and the lid would gently settle to a very tight seal. If it were a leaky lid, it would have simply slammed shut.

The liner protrudes from the humidor and fits perfectly into the lid. Overall this thing is build to tight tolerances. Construction is top notch.

There is no cigar tray for a multi tier style humidor. Instead, included are four dividers that slide into the ribbed interior. Plastic clips can be used for labeling and organizing as well.

Accessories:

The Sorrente comes an analog hygrometer and humidification device. Both attach to the lid via magnets thanks to the hidden metal plate in the lid of the humidor.

The hygrometer is fairly accurate, but I prefer a digital unit. I found that the analog unit was accurate but only within a small range of humidity variations.

The humidifier uses distilled water, and has adjustable vents. While I found it to be easy to use, my personal choice is beads from Heartfelt Industries. There are plenty of choices for humidification. I’ve tried a few that you can read about here.

Finally… Besides a small bottle of distilled water, there is a humidor guide book included. It covers various topics from humidor construction, storing cigars, humidor seasoning, to issues like mold, tobacco beetles, and reviving dry cigars. It is a fairly thorough book.

In addition to the book, a comprehensive website covers various humidor and cigar topics.

If you have read this far, you get the idea that I love this humidor. So to be fair, let’s cover the cons:

They say this is a 75 count humidor. Obviously if you store a bunch of Toro’s or Churchill’s, you won’t be fitting that many cigars in to the Sorrente.

There is no tray, so organizing cigars can be tough. The dividers help, but nothing beats a tray for multi-level storage.

I’m sure you noticed the price. For it’s smaller size, this is a top dollar humidor in my book. But in all fairness, the construction is top notch.

I am not a fan of analog hygrometers or the adjustable humidifier (even though it looks great). That’s an easy fix with some humidity beads or gel.

Conclusion:

I hope this doesn’t sound like a commercial, but… Wow this is now my favorite humidor. The construction is top notch. It is easily the most well built humidor in my collection. In the looks department, it is great. I have it in the living room sitting on the coffee table. It just looks good no matter where you put it. More importantly, it maintains humidity with a good seal and no leaks. If high end humidors are in your budget, I would suggest considering the Sorrente Deluxe. There are various other styles from Adorini that may fit your style as well. Check them out over at Humidor Discount.

Unfortunately, towards the end of March 2010, the lighter sprung a leak and wouldn’t hold fuel anymore. I admit, I was bummed and a little angry. I babied this thing, and even kept it in the free sheath Xikar sends you if you register your product on their website.

I figured it was time to test Xikar’s warranty again via their mail in option. While I was at it, I figured I’d send my Xi MTX Multi-Tool for sharpening. I used it for a couple years straight, and it was getting dull. This is to be expected from any cigar cutter as time goes on.

Per the instructions on their website, I packed my items in a padded envelope, along with a short letter containing my contact information and description of why I sent them back. I opted to add delivery confirmation (per their suggestion) for a few cents more. I spent less then $3.00 in shipping.

My envelope was shipped on March 31st, 2010. It sat at a “Soft Facility” in Kansas City, MO from April 3rd until it arrived at Xikar on the 14th. If there is a next time, I’ll chose priority mail!

On April 20th, a replacement Axia lighter and Multi-Tool were at my door. Despite the shipping delay, I had my items back within the 3 week time frame Xikar gives for warranty service.

So once again Xikar made good on their warranty. I didn’t expect anything different. The point of this article was to demonstrate how easy it is to get them to honor their lifetime guarantee. You just have to ask, it’s basically that easy. I was lost without my multi-tool, and like I said, I was a bit annoyed about the lighter blowing up. Time will tell how the lighter holds up to regular use. I have complete confidence in the scissors though.

A big gripe of mine is how expensive even the most basic table torch lighter is when you buy one from a cigar/tobacco shop. I could understand the price if the torches offered some kind of superior quality, but they are generally all mass produced in China like everything else. So I took Walt’s advice and stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond.

In the cooking/kitchen area I found a Creme Brulee set for $19.00. It came with a table torch and four small dishes.

After getting home and unpacking the torch, I immediately was annoyed with the childproof lever on the back right under the ignition button. Removing two screws exposed the lever, which came right out, and the problem was solved. I had to use a dab of super glue on the top tabs, since I broke the original glue that was applied from the factory.

I’ve only had this torch for a few days, but it feels and performs like any other table torch I’ve used. It has the same features you’d expect, flame adjustment and a lever to lock the flame on when you let off of the ignition button. If you are on a budget I’d say this is worth your while. Thanks for the tip Walt!

MSRP: $69.99

Before I dig into the review, I will get my initial experience out of the way. On December 26th I picked up a Xikar Axia from my pal Ed. After a few days I noticed the ignition lever was sticking in the down position (see picture). Shortly after that, the spark starting arching against the body of the lighter. I figured it was a good time to test the Xikar lifetime warranty.

I took the lighter back to the shop, told him the problems, and he agreed. Ed handed me a new Axia on January 6th. Sure, I was a little bummed about my new lighter being a dud, but Xikar’s warranty is hard to argue with. Also, if you register your Axia (or other Xikar lighter), they will send you a free sheath to help protect it from keys, pocket change, and the elements.

This is now my primary lighter. This article is based on one month of constant use.

The Axia has a solid sturdy feel to it and fits easily into the pocket. The ignition lever has a solid click when pulled. The adjustment knob on the bottom is big enough and easily accessible to do quick adjustments on the fly. The dual jets point straight up, not coming to a pointed flame. Despite this, I have yet to mistakenly scorch a cigar wrapper on various ring gauges. After about 10 to 15 seconds of lighting, the top of portion gets a bit warm. According to the manual, it is recommended that you maintain the flame for 10 seconds. This hasn’t been a problem for me. Getting to know the lighters characteristics is easy, and my light times are basically cut in half when compared to my single jet Blazer PB207 that recently died (RIP).

The fuel level can be checked via a window on the side of the lighter. As I expected, the dual jets can suck up a decent amount of fuel. It does light quite a few cigars on one tank though. In one night, I lit 3 cigars, and let my lighter be used by several people. It wasn’t until the next morning that it finally ran empty. As the fuel level runs low, it is easy to do quick adjustments via the large knob.

The fuel adjustment knob is limited in rotation by a notched washer under the adjustment screw. I found that as the lighter ran low on fuel, I had to adjust it almost to the maximum. Although this worked fine, I felt the need to take the limiting washer out to allow more freedom in fuel adjustments. I’m sure this is frowned upon, but I’ll try to put together another article on how I went about doing this modification. It literally took about 5 minutes.

One problem I had from time to time was when I would engage the ignition, it would take a few clicks. I noticed that the spark was arching to the lighter body. The ignition tab is located between the two jets, and extends about half way out into the flame. I was able to bend the tab downward closer to the jets. So far this cured the problem. I found that every now and then, if I blow out the jets with air, or with a rapid breath, it helps for quick ignition.

Overall, I am very happy with this lighter. A big plus for me is quick light times and touch up’s. The fuel reservoir is big enough to get you through an all night herf before needing a refill. If you have a problem, Xikar is willing to remedy it without debate thanks to their warranty. Of course, this is assuming that you used the lighter as it was intended (IE smashing it with a hammer probably isn’t covered). Overall, I recommend this Axia for those in the market for a new lighter.

UPDATE – 4/21/2010 – The lighter blew up in March 2010, so I put their mail in option to the test. Read about it here!