The contest was sponsored by the East Coast Cigar Company, who promptly had the winning prize at my doorstep. I will use this ashtray for years to come. If your smoking area needs an ashtray, check out the variety of products that Stinky has to offer.

While your at it, pay attention to Stogie411.com, who has bi-weekly video casts not seen anywhere else. It goes without saying that Stogie Review is the king of cigar review websites. But every now and then somebody new pops up that is worth paying attention to.

By the way… Do you know the answer to the question that won me this prize? “What is the Stogie Review equivalent to a Rick Roll?” To my surprise, no one in the chat room knew. Duh… Winning…

While Perdomo cigars receive mixed reviews in the blogosphere just like anything else, I find myself smoking the Champagne quite often in the morning. They have quite a few blends that can appeal to a wide variety of cigar smokers. But this DVD goes beyond that…

Any cigar smoker, or anyone interested in cigars, will find this DVD educational. Hosted by Nick Perdomo, he starts in the tobacco fields of Nicaragua and goes through every step of making a cigar. By the time you get to the last DVD, he is showing you their process of making cigar boxes.

I didn’t realize that Perdomo is a completely self contained business. They control every aspect of their product. Nick covers in detail every aspect, from seed to completed boxed product. Along the way he interviews family/employees and translates to English for you when needed.

Keep in mind this video’s purpose is to showcase the way Perdomo makes cigars. There is no fancy editing or production. What counts is the audio and video quality is good, and you get an intimate tour of all that is Perdomo. Even if you aren’t necessarily a Perdomo fan, I think it is worth a watch.

The package has four DVD’s, each running around 45 minutes. They really could have squeezed all the contend on to two DVD’s, not that it’s a big deal. I paid around $20.00 for my copy via their “Introductory price.” How long this price lasts I don’t know. I think it was worth it. If this interests you, go to Perdomo’s website and get your copy.

What is a coolidor? Why would you want to use one? It is simply using a cooler as a place to store cigars. While it isn’t as pleasant to look at as a traditional humidor, it does get the job done efficiently and affordably. Another advantage is that coolers offer a tight seal and minimize temperature swings.

I went with a Coleman Xtreme 50 quart wheeled cooler for $35.00. I chose one with wheels since I don’t really have a permanent place for the cooler. It will probably be moved from one part of the house to the next, depending on the circumstances. Otherwise, I would skip a cooler with wheels.

The dimensions, in inches, are: Length-25, width-16.5, and height-16.6. This is enough space for quite a few boxes of cigars.

After purchasing the cooler, I found that it had a strong odor of plastic. All it took was a few drops of Ivory dish detergent and a scrub down of the interior. I thoroughly rinsed out all traces of soap after scrubbing for a few minutes. This got rid of every last bit of the plastic, new cooler smell. Once everything was dried out, the cooler was ready for cigars.

What about humidity control? Easy… I went to Heartfelt Industries and used their calculator. I entered the dimensions of the cooler, and knew how many beads I would need. I chose to use a pound of 65% beads. I split them into two 1/2 pound bags, which are placed on each side of the cooler. You can purchase empty mesh bags on their site, or use pantyhose. I went with the bags available from Heartfelt. In the end I spent around $35.00 for humidification.

I already had cigar boxes (loaded with cigars) ready to go. So it was simply a matter of placing them in the cooler, along with the beads. Everything equalized quickly, and I was holding a steady 65-68% humidity in the tightly sealed cooler within a day.

I am using more beads then I need to, which never hurts, and I won’t be using a hygrometer. I’ve been using Heartfelt beads for years, and simply don’t need to constantly check up on humidity levels. I do spot checks from time to time, but the beads haven’t let me down yet. There are other methods available, which you can read about here.

If the cigar boxes were dried out, I would have probably “Seasoned” them by wiping them down with a slightly damp cloth. Distilled water only of course. Fortunately, I didn’t need to take that step.

And there you have it. A quick and cheap means to store a lot of cigars. Some people go with mounting a hygrometer, cedar linings, and a place for beads. While nothing beats a traditional Spanish cedar humidor, I just needed something functional and nothing more, and this did the trick.

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.