Tag Archives: Lighter

by Craig Vanderslice | July 21, 2021 · 10:07 pm

The CigarMedics 3-in-1 Torch Lighter and the Contest Winner

I’ve been testing out some items from CigarMedics, the folks that make the Humidimeter, which is a great device that checks the internal moisture content of your cigars and lets you know that they are ready to smoke. The genius of this device is that it takes the absolute moisture reading and translates it to a relative humidity number that makes sense to us in relation to the RH of out humidor. For instance, instead of a reading of 12% absolute moisture content, it’ll read 63% RH, read at the foot of the cigar. The RH number seems to make more sense than the absolute moisture number. It’s a cool device which has saved me from smoking cigars that were too wet to smoke, and I really hate smoking wet cigars! CigarMedics has been making some other cigar devises, which I’ve been testing, a cigar cutter, and a couple draw enhancement tools, one of which Luigi made just for me after some discussion. These have a serrated piercer, which is akin to a spiral saw bit. They work very well at opening up those cigars that are sometimes packed a little too tight at the head, or have a twist in the bunch. But nevermind all that, I wanted to talk about the triple flame torch lighter that they offer. I recently came into possession of one of these lighters and have been using it exclusively for the last couple months.

The CigarMedics 3-in-1 Torch Lighter is a hefty triple jet torch with a punch in the bottom and a cigar rest on the top. You have to manually flip the lid open, which is fine, less mechanism to fail, in my opinion, and the trigger is nice and large. It has a nice fuel window so you can see when it’s running low, and I’ve had no issues with it not lighting when I needed it to. The flames are strong and even, some people think three jets are overkill, I have torch lighters from single to four and really don’t notice too much difference to be honest. I always have my cigar well above the flame anyway. Since I am in the habit of purging my lighters when I fill them, I never have a problem with lighters either (get CigarProp’s purge tool, you won’t be sorry). As far as the punch goes, I haven’t had opportunity to use it yet, it’s small, maybe 7mm, if I use a punch I have an Adorini punch that has 9 and 13mm punches. As with most lighters with built in punches, it’s handy to have in an emergency. The way this one is made it would easily eject the waste when it retracts into the lighter, which is nice. It also securely locks, making ugly pocket accidents unlikely. As far as the size, it’s large, but not bulky, so it fits nicely in the pocket. It’s also reasonably priced, which is a good thing. I like it a lot, and it continues to me my primary lighter, and I have a lot of lighters.

Contest

Once again, I consulted the Google Random Number Generator, and Duane Holmes was selected as the winner of the 90+ Rated All-Star Sampler and cutter. I know Duane said he ordered one, but his number came up, so how he’ll have two. I kinda got the impression that many of you ordered them, for which I am appreciative. When people react to my advertisers, it helps me out! Thank you! It also sounds like Duane has a birthday coming up, so Happy Birthday! I know he’s a long time reader, so there might just be a little something extra in the box!

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Accessories, Contest, Review

Tagged as Butane Lighters, cigar, CigarMedics, cigars, Contest, Lighter, punch, Torch

by CigarCraig | April 28, 2018 · 12:11 pm

Accessory Review: Colibri Daytona Single Jet Lighter

Colibri has been around since 1928Â by Julius Lowenthal, who in the same year, invented the world’s first working semi-automatic lighter. They’ve beenÂ making lighters, writing instruments, jewelry, and other smoking accessories ever since. Colibri supplied theÂ “golden gun” for the Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.Â They basically pioneered integrating cutters and punches into lighters. When I was approached by the company with an offer to pick a couple of items to try out, I remembered the “Firebird” lighter that I received with a subscription to Cigar Magazine (a product of Lew Rothman of JR Cigars fame, featuring writing by his then employee, Steve Saka, among others) which although really beat up, still works ten-plus years later. Looking at the Colibri website, the first thing I saw was a green Daytona lighter, and I thought to myself, “damn, that would match my car!”Â Unfortunately, the lighter that arrived was the gunmetal finish, which would have been my second choice anyway.Â So I’ve been using the Colibri Daytona exclusively, and it’s been very easy on fuel. One of the big things I like about this lighter is the fuel window. They’ve employed some sort of magic which shows the fuel in blue, leaving the empty space clear. Very cleaver, and really easy to see when you are low. The window is huge too, not just the tiny windows some lighters have that are hard gauge the fuel level. A 2500Â° flame is a 2500Â° flame from any lighter, so it’s the features that make a lighter stand out.Â Another handy feature is the large adjustment wheel on the bottom. No tools needed for this one, and if you get aÂ Butane Lighter Air Bleed Tool from Kevin at Cigar Prop, you definitely don’t need any tools. The business end of the lighter has a little door to keep pocket lint out when it’s not in use too. I’m quite satisfied with the flame on this, of course time will tell how it holds up, but out of the box it’s a nifty lighter, and I expect it to stand the test of time.

I have one criticism. A couple of years ago a competitor came out with a new lighter that was “supercar inspired”, and this Daytona has a similar marketing angle. I don’t suppose many people would pick up on this or care, and I probably shouldn’t even mention it. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and they are both really nice lighters, both are in my regular rotation. I appreciate the features of the Colibri more though, it’s made everything easy, without sacrificing styling, which is cool.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Accessories, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Colibri, Daytona, Lighter

by CigarCraig | January 11, 2017 · 10:02 pm

Villiger 1888, La Gloria Cubana, Inca Secret Blend and More Tommy Bahama Accessories

Trying to get back into the swing of things after the holidays still, and with the remodeling going on in the house, my cabinet humidor has been a little hard to get into without moving furniture. Fortunately, there are other humidors around that I can get to, so I’ve been grabbing cigars out of those. One of the cigars I selected this week was a new Villiger 1888 robusto, re-issued this year in new packaging. This was originally released in 2009 and was the first handmade, premium cigar that had the Villiger name. This one has an Ecuadoran wrapper, Mexican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers made in the DR. I found it to be a well made, flavorful cigar, which burned well. It had a bit of sweetness and a floral component and was on the mild side. I liked this cigar.

I have one desktop humidor that just contains La Gloria Cubana and Foundry cigars, which was accessible. I’ve been smoking La Gloria Cubana cigars for twenty years, but the Serie R Esteli blends that have come out in the last couple years are my favorites, so finding the new La Gloria Cubana SErie R Esteli Maduro No. 54 right on top didn’t bother me at all. This cigar has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. As General Cigar has done with several lines, they have a brick and mortar version, the Esteli, and the catalog version, the black. With the original Serie R Esteli and Black having a Nicaraguan Jalapa wrapper, I thought the Esteli version had a deeper, more satisfying flavor, but the Maduro varieties I think are on a par with one another. The Esteli Maduro is rich, sweet and a very nice cigar. I’m a maduro fan, but I love both varieties of the Serie R Esteli. Funny, I was never a huge fan of the regular Dominican Serie R, which was one of the original large ring gauge lines in the late ’90s.

Tonight I selected an Inca Secret Blend in the new Monumento shape, which is a classic 6″ x 52 torpedo. The Inca Secret Blend is the US market version of the Inka Secret Blend that was an exclusive to the UK market through Mitchell Orchant’s C-Gars Ltd. The cigar is a Peruvian Puro, manufactured at Tabacalera del Oriente in Tarapoto, Peru. Gennaro Lettieri is the owner of the factory, and I’ve met him several times. I’ve told this story before, but I recall sitting outside the Casa Fuente in Vegas with Mitchell and Genaro in 2013 while they sampled test blends, which were all horribly plugged leaving ashtrays filled with cigars that had been smoked less than an inch. It wasn’t until the next year that I had the chance to sample the finished product, which came in a toro and 6×60 size initially. This year they released the torpedo, robusto and a 6″ x 40. I love cigars with Peruvian tobacco in the blend, and the Peruvian puro is surprisingly good. It’s on the mild side, and reminiscent of a milder Havana, with a sweet little twang, not surprising since one of the creators of the cigar has lived on a steady diet of Havanas for most of his life.

I’ve been taking a break from using my trusty Xikar tools for the last few weeks and using some of the Tommy Bahama line of lighters and cutter. Both lighters have detailed, embossed logos on both sides and the cutter has the Tommy Marlin design on one side, and the side with the switch to open the spring-loaded blades just has Tommy Bahama name and a little gold marlin. These have a very classy gloss black finish. The cutter and pocket lighter have leatherish cases to keep them in good shape. the cutter has two very sharp blades which close effortlessly and provide a clean cut. It’s got some weight to it, and seems solidly built. The pocket lighter is also hefty, larger and heavier than the Xikar Xidris Ive been using, with a similar side trigger, but has two jets. This is the first dual jet lighter I’ve had, and I like it. Is it twice as good as one? I don’t know, but it does a nice job and lights every time. It has an adjustment wheel on the bottom with a flip-up turny thing. I filled it a week ago and it’s still ¾ full, which I can tell because there’s a handy little window which is very easy to see the fuel level. The table lighter is a beast, it’s large, has four jets and twin side triggers. It really throws off some BTUs, I think I mentioned that holding it about six inches from the foot of the cigar looks like the foot of the cigar is re-entering the earth’s atmosphere like an Apollo capsule. The one thing it lacks is the fuel window, but I suppose the idea is that it doesn’t wander too far away from the can of butane, it being far too large to carry around. The folks at Island Lifestyle tell me these are becoming available in stores other than the Tommy Bahama stores, they are working on getting them into brick and mortar retailers. It’s nice to have good tools, and I think these are pretty good out of the box, I’ll keep using them to see how they hold up over time.

That’s more than enough for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Accessories, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, cutter, general cigars, Inca, Island Lifestyle, La Gloria Cubana, Lighter, Tommy Bahama, Villiger

by CigarCraig | October 8, 2014 · 9:00 pm

A Montecristo, a Gurkha and a Cohiba, and Some Cigar News

I’m sitting here watching the first Flyers game of the season, trying to write. Hockey is the only sport I have any interest in, so it’s nice that it’s back! Anyway, I stuck with some classic brands this week, starting off with a Montecristo which was given to me by Tom, our local Altadis rep a few weeks back at The Smokin Goose Festival. Goose’s Tobacco is a Montecristo Lounge, so they have the exclusive (and aptly named) Casa de Montecristo Exclusivo. Obviously, this cigar is only available at Montecristo lounges. This is a 6″ x 60 with an enormous band in addition to a black and silver Montecristo band. The wrapper is Ecuador Sumatra, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigar burned very nicely, and it had a reasonably sweet tobacco flavor. I enjoyed this cigar, I suspect I would smoke this again if I found myself in a Montecristo lounge and had $12 burning a hole in my pocket.

Tuesday I heard the news that Carlos Llaca Toraño is now the Director of Operations at Gurkha Cigars. He was previously the Operations Director at Toraño Family cigars until their recent acquisition by General Cigar Co. This prompted me to select the newest offering from Gurkha’s East India Trading Co., The Classic Cigar – Havana Blend in the XO size. The square press on this 6″ x 60 makes it feel smaller than it is. This is another nice smoking cigar which I found to have a pleasing flavor on the light side. Once I realized that this wasn’t a powerful cigar I really enjoyed the delicate flavor. At right around $8 each, this is a nice smoke. I only had to touch it up once or twice, otherwise it burned quite well. This would probably be a nice morning cigar with a cup of coffee.

Tonight I went with the new Cohiba Nicaragua in the N50 robusto size. The samples I received from General Cigar Co. are cellophaned 5″ x 50, which only appear to be available in glass tubes commercially. This is the first Cohiba to be blended and handcrafted in Nicaragua. The fillers are from Esteli and Jalapa and the wrapper is listed as Colorado Oscuro, no mention of country of origin. Obviously the Cohiba name comes with some expectations, whether positive or not, so I was interested to see what this new Nicaraguan blend brought to the table. It started out very sweet, and developed very nicely. It burned like a super premium cigar should, a nice flat and even burn with a perfect draw through a V-cut. I suspect these will age nicely, but they are smoking well now.

As I was getting a lighter out the other day I realized that I have a few of them laying around. One thing that stands out to me is that the lighters I have range from a couple dollars to around $60, and with the proper care, the cheaper ones generally work as well as the expensive ones. In this picture you’ll notice that none of the three Blazer torches I’ve had over the last 17 years or so have survived. The Zippo with the z-Plus insert has been the most impressive, as well as the Ronson. The newest addition is the Jetline triple torch (at about 9 oclock) which came from the Rocky Mountain Festival goodie bag. This is a very nice lighter. The yellow one will be recognized by some of my blogger bretheren, it actually has what is basically a Cricket lighter inside of it and I have had good luck taking it apart and spreading it out through my luggage when I travel. Only the white La Gloria lighter is a soft flame, hence it gets very little use. I have some other ones here and there, I hate not having a lighter handy!

News

The first big news relates to my mention of Carlos Llaca Toraño joining Gurkha, his cousin Jack Toraño, who was also displaced in the acquisition, has joined Roberto P. Duran Premium Cigars. Look for a press release in the coming days announcing this. Anyone who knows Jack knows what a great guy he is, and I’m very glad to hear he’s re-joining the workforce after a reasonably short hiatus.

In other news, The Charlotte Observer reports that the JR Statesville store will be closing at the end of the year. There are three stores in North Carolina, and they are all large outlet stores with all kinds of merchandise from Jeans and toys, to cigarettes and premium cigars. If you ever drove down I-95 through North Carolina you can’t miss the entertaining billboards. Apparently the owner of the property isn’t renewing their lease and has plans to re-develop the entire shopping center that is aging. Seventy-seven jobs will be lost, however JRs says they will open a cigar only store nearby in the future. The full story is here. This is the only North Carolina location I haven’t visited, I’ve stopped at the Selma store on the few trips I’ve made down I-95, and I had a tour of the massive distribution center in Burlington many years ago.

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under News, Review

Tagged as Casa de Montecristo, cigar, cigars, cohiba, East India Trading Co., general cigars, Gurkha, Lighter, Montecristo, Roberto Duran, Torch

by CigarCraig | October 17, 2012 · 6:34 pm

A Xikar Executive Lighter and A Little of This and a Little of That

When we left off on Sunday, I had a cold coming on, and it came on in full force that day, but the worst of it passed quickly. I still didn’t really feel like smoking too many cigars, so I’m left with not a lot to talk about today. So I figured it would be a good enough time to showcase a piece of equipment I’ve been using lately, a red Xikar Executive lighter.

I won this lighter at an event at the Wooden Indian a few months ago and have used it pretty regularly with generally good results. The single jet flame is more than adequate to light and touch up a cigar, it has plenty of horsepower and even works OK in a light breeze. It seems to run through fuel pretty quickly, but many jet flame lighters do, but I find myself filling this one more than other lighters. I’m going to guess that this is an old model, it looks like the Executive II has replaced it and has a fuel window, which is a welcome improvement. Another little thing I’ve noticed is that it’s finish is already starting to chip, and I’ve been VERY careful with this lighter. I make sure to put it in it’s own pocket in my pants, and don’t throw it in the drawer with other things. It’s still gotten a couple chips, but the important thing is that it works well to light a cigar. If I have occasion to need a fancy lighter, I’ll just pull out the gold Dupont….I can’t even finish the sentence…I don’t have a gold Dupont lighter….wouldn’t know what to do with one if I did! I bet they don’t do any better job of lighting a cigar. As an aside, a few years back I was in Vegas and stopped into the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop of Pawn Stars fame, and they had a Punch Dupont lighter. It had a $3000 price tag on it, but they would have let me have it for $2500. For that kind of money it better have MY name on it! Anyway, I like the Xikar lighter, it’s been reliable and easier to put in my pocket than my other favorite lighter (see my post about that lighter). This review was not solicited by Xikar, I won this as an event attendee, I bought some cigars and got a raffle ticket!

Speaking of Punch, head on over to http://www.punchcigars.com/tailgating/ and sign up to win a cool six-pack of Punch cigars. They are giving one away every day until December 28, 2012. I saw these at the IPCPR show and it is a really neat presentation. It comes with an assortment of Punch cigars, a cutter and a bottle opener. It’s a very cool piece, go try to win one or pick one up if you see it in your local shop!

On a sad note, we lost one of our feline family members last night. Frank was a good companion for the last 16 years and was never too far from my lap whether I was on the porch enjoying a cigar, or on the couch watching TV. He even made a few cameo appearances in my CAO Last Stick Standing video. He was pretty straight laced, when the other cats were rolling around in the catnip, he would have nothing to do with it. But he did seem to like sitting on my lap while I smoked. He had a good, long life and we will miss him.