Tag Archives: Cigar Oasis

NewAir CC-100 Thermoelectric Cigar Humidor

A few weeks ago the folks at NewAir contacted me about test driving one of their new humidors.  I told them I didn’t need another humidor, and my wife would likely kill me if I brought another one into the house.  Their website has pictures of a nicely stocked unit sitting on a kitchen counter, that has about as much of a chance of happening in my house as me running my dishwasher safe AshStay cigar ashtray through the dishwasher!  As much as I didn’t need another humidor in the house, this one looked like something my readers would be interested in. It’s available from retailers we all know, it seems like a good value, and the “wine fridge” humidors seem to be all the rage these days.  So I took on the burden of introducing yet another humidor to the house, at great peril.

 

NewAir Box

NewAir CC-100

 

 

 

Here are the deets on the NewAir CC-100:

Key Features

  • Comes with Hygrometer & Moisture Container
  • Real Spanish Cedar Wood Shelves & Drawer
  • Stores up to 250 of your favorite cigars
  • The interior temperature can be adjusted in increments of 1° between 54°F & 74°F.
  • To properly maintain RH, you need to include a method of adding humidity. For your convenience, a moisture container is included.

 

Let’s take a quick look at this list first, bullet point by bullet point.

The Hygrometer is analog and is inset into the Spanish cedar drawer which is in the top of the unit. It seems to be quite accurate, agreeing with several digital units I put in as a control.  The “Moisture Container” is a plastic tray, and I’m not sure why they include this. I suppose one could put polymer beads in it as a humidity source.  If a novice to cigar storage were to just fill this with water and leave it in there it would mold very quickly.

The shelves and drawer are nice and fit well. I tried re-arranging the placement but they seem best suited to be left alone, the drawer in the top position and the shelves underneath. Good quality, perhaps not enough wood to truly buffer the humidity swings of frequent opening and closing, but an acceptable start. Storing boxes on the shelves gives it plenty of wood to buffer humidity.

It’s well known that humidor capacity is based upon the number of petite coronas (typically Montecristo no.4) cigars that can be crammed into the box. this will easily hold 250 petite coronas, although probably not in boxes. I have about 75 cigars in there now with room to spare. Since this is a retrofitted wine fridge, it’s deeper than it is wide, so it’s possible that smaller boxes could be stored two deep.

The temperature adjustment is where this differs from a traditional humidor. I set mine at 70, and it seems to be right on. This will be handy in the summer months, and after I have had this for a while and feel comfortable with the stability I am storing some of my best cigars in there, as well as keeping my “on deck” review samples in the drawer.

Finally, adding a humidifier. I happened to have a Cigar Oasis Excel siting idle, and decided to give that a try. It’s just about the right size and really doesn’t take up much space on the bottom of the unit. The ribbon cable has to come out the front door (on the  side), once I decide that’s going to be the humidifier of choice, I’ll stick the wire to the side and hide it real good.  This unit is so tightly sealed that I figure Boveda packs or polymer beads of some sort, could work just fine. I actually haven’t heard the Cigar Oasis running much, which is a good sign. Please don’t just fill the included container from point number one with water and let it go, you will end up with a large petri dish.

 

two humidorsOne of the challenges I still have is finding a place to put this. Right now it’s sitting on the floor next to my cabinet. It plugs in, as does the Cigar Oasis, so it needs to be near an outlet. I would love to find a shelf unit to put it, as well as the other desktop humidors, on, as long as it receives spousal support, creating a sort of “tower of humidors” next to the tower humidor. As if it’s not bad enough (or great, depending on perspective) that the focal point of the living room/dining room is already a humidor.  This is where the depth works against the unit, but it’s very close to the same depth as the cabinet (a few inches deeper). I really need to get it off the floor.  If I didn’t have so many cigars, this would be a perfect humidor to have as my only unit, it holds humidity well, maintains temperature well and looks nice. I am so confident in it that I put some of my higher end cigars in it. It gets the CigarCraig seal of approval, I think it’s a very good value.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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A Flying Pig, a Foundry and a Dominican Big Leaguer Cigar and a House

LPSU_FlyingPigIt’s been a busy weekend.  I took the day off Friday to settle on our new house. It’ll be a while before we get moved in, as there are some things we want to do there, and our current housing remains on the market.  One feature that really sold us on the new house was a large screened in back porch, which will be a perfect place to enjoy cigars!  So Thursday evening after work I took my evening walk with a Liga Privada No.9 Flying Pig. I’ve actually been thinking about smoking one of these or a while, as I haven’t smoked one since June of 2011. Another reason this came to mind is that there’s a Flying Pig Saloon near the house. I have a habit of coming across various incarnations of Flying Pigs, most recently a concrete garden ornament which was $70, too rich for my blood.  Anyway, I think I’ve had this particular Pig in my humidor since early 2011, and I believe the last one I have is from last year, although I believe they were all made about the same time. The shape is cool, it ends too soon, and it’s a tasty little porker. It’s rich and meaty and a fun way to smoke a Liga Privada No. 9.  I actually have never had the T52 or Undercrown Pigs yet, and I have a Feral Pig in the humidor that may need to be burned soon. I like having Ligas around, but they are ready to smoke and I don’t know that they age very well. Good smokes if you can find them, I dig the Pig.

 

Foundry_WormHole_2064_Hell-E-INAs I said, I had Friday off, so we went out to breakfast, stopped at the bank and got a large check,  did some shopping, walked through the house, and went to settlement.  Oddly, the title service rep recognized me (my name) from junior high.  I’ve repressed most memories from that dark and awkward time in my life, but I remembered her name and she knew a lot of people in the neighborhood I grew up in. It always seems like we run into strange coincidences at the settlement table. Anyway, I can’t imagine you care about, so the cigar I smoked on my Friday evening walk was a Foundry Worm Hole 2014 blend HELL-I-EN. Every time I smoke a Foundry cigar I learn a little more about them. A few weeks back Michael Giannini sent me a bunch of cigars, and he sent both sizes of the 2064 blend. This is a larger size, and, in true Foundry fashion, I have no idea what the tobacco make-up of these are.  What I do know is that this cigar is smooth, reasonably mild, and, like I’ve experienced with many cigars in the Foundry and Compounds, Elements and Musings lines, is really enjoyable.  They are all a little bit different than other cigars, and I really like that. I can always expect a unique experience, it may not suit my palate every time, but most of the time I’m satisfied and entertained by the cigar.  Any company that makes a box shaped like my surname initial has to be cool. This was a super smooth and tasty cigar, an experience on a par with a Davidoff. I do have my doubts that there’s tobacco from Mars in the blend.

 

DominicanBigLeaguer_AnniversarySaturday was a rainy, dreary fall day, the kind of day I really dislike.  We ran over the the house to show Macha (the dog….side contest: I’ll send a 5er of my choosing to the first person who can tell me where that name comes from in the comments, and it’s not what the SPCA told us the origin is, it’s what I say it is! It ties into another significant part of our lives here). We made a list and bought some stuff at the store which I may go ever today and install.  After an early dinner I took a walk with a Dominican Big Leaguer Anniversary in a toro size. One of the stops we made on Friday was at a local shop, JM cigars, in Exton, PA. This is a classic cigar shop, and I’ve been going there for years, since I started smoking premium cigars back around 1995.  Anyway, the owner, Jeff, was big on the DBL line when I was in there a few months back and I enjoyed what I smoked.  A few weeks ago I finally had the opportunity to meet and talk to Francisco Almonte, the owner of the brand and he gave me this cigar.  This line pays homage to the Dominican love of baseball. It’s a national obsession really.  Anyway, this cigar showed promise, it had a great flavor, but the mottled wrapper didn’t really want to burn for the first half of the cigar.  It’s possible that it was a fairly thick leaf and since it was such a damp day it took some time for the heat of the cigar to dry it out.  It was still a darned tasty cigar, and I really look forward to smoking the San Andrès maduro in the regular line.  An interesting note, as I usually rely on my friend Will Cooper’s Cigar-Coop.com to fill in some blanks when manufacturer sites are lacking, I could find nothing on the Dominican Big Leaguer, or DBL Cigars. Something must be wrong with his site search.

 

On a peripherally related note, I’ve been snacking on Ritz Bacon flavored crackers spread with The Bacon Jams all weekend.  It’s really hard to have too much bacon, and I was going to put some actual bacon on a couple, but someone polished off the few strips I had leftover from yesterday’s breakfast.  Anyway, what a tasty snack. If you want to learn more about the sweety and meaty goodness that is The Bacon Jams, they are going to be featured on QVC tomorrow (Monday, Oct. 13) in the 5PM EDT hour.  Tune in and buy some, I’m sure they will sell out!  One of the principles of the company, Bruce,  is a cigar smoker and was in the CAO and Flying Dog pairing video we did a few months ago.  Bruce also was involved in the development of the app for the Cigar Oasis WiFi remote, which is very cool, by the way. You want spreadable bacon. You need spreadable bacon.

 

That’s it for now, enjoy some great cigars today! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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IPCPR 2013 – Cigar Oasis Humidifiers and Hygrometers

It’s been a whirlwind couple of days here in Las Vegas at the annual IPCPR trade show.  I’ve  had the good fortune to see a lot of great folks and wonderful new products as well as get to a couple after show parties. Monday night we went to the Toraño Party at Tao Nightclub in the Venetian, then with friends to Casa Fuente in Caesars Palace Forum Shops.  The Alec Bradley party Monday night was hopping, it was outdoors at the pool at the Palms with an open bar and very loud music. After that we hung around the Circle Bar DSC00550in the Venetian and schmoozed with a bunch of folks.  Over the coming months I’ll be smoking samples and including videos related to them.  I hope you enjoy them and while you may see the same information elsewhere, I hope I can add something a little different so it’s not just the same old information.  We’re getting ready to fly home tomorrow night and as tired as I am right now, I had to get a post put together to serve as my regular Wednesday post.  It may be a little early.

 

Today I had the good fortune to meet Chaim Kohn of Cigar Oasis and shoot a video of him explaining their line of products.  Cigar Oasis has been around a long time and always seems to be improving and innovating.  I was very impressed with the Caliber IV hygrometer which is a round digital unit made to fit where a round analog unit would be in in the lid of the humidor.  It’s a sharp looking item.  Chaim had e-mailed me inviting me to stop by the booth and on day 3 of the show I finally found him not too busy and he gives us this tour.

 

You’ll notice that I took camera man duties on this one, giving my wife, Jenn, a break.  She’s been such a huge help to me on this trip and I can’t thank her enough. The downside is that the camera work suffers, but the upside is you don’t have to see me in the video!

 

Time to try to get some rest before wandering around Las Vegas looking for some cigar friends to hang out with.

IMG_0693

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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