Humidor Accessories

Humidors are more than a device meant to store and age your cigars. Although preserving your choice smokes is their primary function, quality humidors also provide a classy touch to any room that houses them. Crafted from beautiful hardwoods, these functional works of art also make for excellent conversation pieces. They make a statement about who you are and are an indication of confidence. With this in mind, here are a few ideas about where to put a humidor:

• On the corner of your desk: Placing a classy desktop humidor on your desk tells visitors that you are a confident, self-assured aficionado. Having them in reach also makes it easier to enjoy a smoke during breaks and at the end of successful workdays. It also makes it easy to offer quality cigars when brokering deals and establishing relationships with business associates.
• In a prominent place: Humidors too large for an office desk should be placed where they can be seen and admired by visitors. You would do the same with other works of art and this one will probably be the subject of a lot more conversation.
• In your smoking room: If you use a den for enjoying your smokes, put the humidor in that room to add just the right type of ambiance.

Find humidors, cigars, and all of your cigar accessories at Thompson Cigars today. 

In the not too distant past, hand-wrapped cigars were delivered in their boxes or in bundles and that was about it for packaging. Decorative and sturdy cigar boxes kept them safe enough during travel so there wasn't much need to package them in a different manner. After buying a box of cigars, aficionados transferred them to their humidors and aged them until smoking. However, someone eventually did improve upon the cigar-packaging process. It wasn't a huge deal but many cigar companies saw it as a way of providing an extra bit of protection for their product. This innovation was the cellophane wrapper and it has become a common aspect of many cigar brands.

The cellophane wrapper protects the cigar during handling by distributors and in cigar shops. It's really a nice way of ensuring that you and you alone touch the cigar once it has left the factory. Although the wrapper itself won't hurt the cigar, it's not meant to be used during storage or any aging process. Take the wrapper off before storing it to make sure that it receives the proper amount of moisture. Otherwise, the wrapper will keep your smoke a little too safe and secure and it will probably dry out. 

Find the best in smokes and smoke-related accessories at the Thompson online cigar store today!   

Cigars demand proper storage. Ignore the rules and you will probably end up with sadly cracked cigars so dry that even your tears of frustration won't  help to bring them back to their former glory. Keep them in places that are too warm and humid and tobacco beetles will feast upon and destroy your precious treasure trove of smokes. To avoid such catastrophes, aficionados use humidors to store their cigars. These wonderful devices are designed to keep the temperature and moisture levels at ranges ideal for aging your smokes to perfection. However, even if you carefully set the humidor at the right levels, you still have to keep a careful eye on humidity levels.

It can be tough to keep the humidity levels up during the cold, dry days of winter but for aficionados who reside in hot and humid climates, the challenge frequently lies in lowering moisture levels in the humidor. If the humidity is consistently high, yes, your precious smokes can certainly receive too much moisture. The easiest way of keeping them from becoming downright wet is by putting small cedar trips into the humidor. These can often be found in cigar boxes and work great for absorbing excess moisture.

Find smokes for every occasion and other accessories at Thompson cigars today!

Smoking cigars isn't exactly a low-cost hobby. High-rated smokes are often expensive, certain items can lighten any wallet, and humidors are a necessary expense. However, the good life never comes cheap so you pay to enjoy it. At the same time, you might not need to spend huge amounts of money to be an aficionado. Cigars and everything related to the world of fine tobacco is downright affordable. You may have to look around for certain smokes and accessories but there's no need to break the bank and enjoy a high-rated cigar now and then.

A great way to comfortably enjoy quality smokes on a daily basis is by picking out some of the cigars offered by Thompson. Go to the "Buy More Cigars and Save" page on the website and you can get exactly what the title indicates. Buy Thompson Cigars made with leaf grown from excellent Corojo seeds for low prices. You can even get two bundles for the price of one! 

There are also several other options for buying numbers of quality smokes at low prices and it's an excellent way to stock up on smokes to be handed out at parties or other celebrations.

Save when you buy more cigars at Thompson Cigars today!

The best cigars are made of refined, aged tobacco that is expertly wrapped by experienced hands. The technology is actually just about as low key as you can get because making fine cigars is an art form that no machine can duplicate. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that cigar smoking hasn't experienced improvements as a result of advancements in technology.

The biggest way in which aficionados of fine smoke have benefited from technology is related to the Internet. The Internet has made it possible to more easily learn about different types of cigars, their ratings, how to keep them, and where to buy them. Best of all, though, the Internet has made it much, much easier to acquire the finest of smokes. Now, with the Internet, all you need to do to buy cigars, your favorite cigar holder, and other accessories is to go to online cigar stores and place your order. They get quickly shipped to your house and you can enjoy a fine smoke without ever walking out the front door.

No more need to deal with traffic and fight for a parking space to visit the nearest quality humidor. No more worries about getting to the humidor before it closes or wasting time to buy your cigars. Just go online, pick out your smokes and order them. It really is as easy as that.

Question of the Day: Where do you keep your favorite cigar accessories, at work or at home?

My favorite cigar humidor, the two-tone dark wood humidor, is at my office. It serves as a conversation-starter and icebreaker there in a way it doesn't do at home, and it's protection for cigars that I don't have to worry about.

Also, the office is where I'm more concerned about making an impression. If you're at my house and I'm offering cigars, I have the hope that you will be more impressed with the quality cigars and the company than whether you like the looks of my cigar humidor. My goal at home is to get things that will protect my premium cigars, while at work there's more of a focus on making an impression and starting conversations.

Most of my other stuff is at home, because that's where I smoke the most. My cigar lighters, for example, tend to migrate to my home, because even the ones I intend to store at work wind up being carried back there in my pockets after a cigar break at lunch. Cigar cutters work the same way -- because they are so portable, they wind up where I smoke the most, which is at my house.

Of course, I keep quality cigars at both work and home. You never know when the urge and the opportunity to smoke will strike, and I like to be prepared.

Where do you keep your favorite cigars and cigar accessories?

When buying cigar accessories, do you focus more on looks or functionality?

Personally, I like a particular style of cigar humidor: Wood, natural-looking, with creative designs if possible but nothing too crazy.  To me, they are as much art or furniture (depending on the size) as functional objects. Obviously I expect them to be able to do their job of keeping my premium cigars fresh, but I'm willing to pay more to do so for a humidor that gives me pleasure to look at even when I'm not reaching into it for cigars.

The Art Deco 60-Count Humidor, for example, is my kind of storage device. It's obvious even at a glance that this is a humidor, thanks to the exterior hygrometer, but I love the tone of the wood and the way the colors merge. There are cheaper humidors available, but I have no regrets that I spent the money for this one.

For cigar cutters, on the other hand, I'm more concerned with functionality. They stay in my pocket or on the table until I cut some quality cigars, and then go back in my pocket. I usually pay more attention to price when I buy these, in part because I tend to lose them -- cigar cutters and sunglasses are the two things I lose often enough that I don't allow myself to buy nice ones because I can't be trusted to take care of them.

Now, if I had something like the Xikar Xi3 Havana Collection Cutter, that would be a dream come true. I love the idea of owning something that functional and beautiful. But unless any of you fine people are buying that for me for the holidays, none of the cutters I own will be treated with as much reverence as my humidors are.

How about you? Do you value appearance over functionality in your cigar accessories?

One of my favorite pages on the Thompson Cigar site is the "Best Sellers" link.

I like it because it shows me what people are interested in, and a lot of times it helps me to discover something new to try, or cause me to consider buying something that otherwise wouldn't cross my mind.

For example, that's how I discovered the Capricho Cubano cigars that I wrote about recently. I was poking around the Best Selling Boxes section, and two of the top 20 were theirs. I gave them a try, and found a really good everyday cigar to add to the arsenal.

I also found it interesting that in the Best Selling Accessories category, the top cigar humidor listed is the Lucky 7 humidor. I love this humidor, and it's at a great price, but what is most notable to be is that it holds 200-plus cigars. That has to be a good sign for the state of the cigar industry, that the most popular humidor on the site is one that holds so many cigars and not a smaller one that might indicate people were planning on cutting back.

And it's also just fun to look at what people are buying to see what I agree with and what I don't, in the same way I like looking at the TV ratings or box office numbers even if I don't tend to watch the popular shows or see a ton of movies. It's a great way for anyone to keep their finger on the pulse of what's hot in the cigar world.

Thompson Cigar's Light Two-Tone Humidor is so eye-catchingly noticeable that it cries out to be used in the office, or at a location at home where guests won't be able to miss it.

Expert woodworkers have been producing two-toned boxes and other items for years, precisely because the look is both smooth and striking. Between the dark and light coloring, and the grain of the wood that is apparent in both, it is hard to take the eyes off of the design.

Of course, the inside of the cigar humidor has the standard Spanish cedar lining, the lock-and-key system to deter pilfering, and a pull-out tray and dividers for easy organization. There is also a convenient drawer to store cigar accessories, so that cigar cutter is always around when you need it. 

I wrote about this a couple of months ago, but it's been on my mind again because I seem to be seeing more and more of these, and the prices are only getting higher. It is available here for less than $90, about a third less than the MSRP and a lot less that what similar models sell for elsewhere. As a result, I feel compelled to write again that if you want a great deal on a humidor that both enhances your cigars and your reputation for style and panache, the Light Two-Tone Humidor is a hard one to beat.

A lot of you probably got a new humidor over the holidays. Those are great gifts to get because they're both useful and exciting. Who doesn't like opening a package that contains a new cigar humidor -- after all, it's an excuse to buy more cigars!

Maintaining that humidor is not as exciting. Nobody buys humidor accessories as presents, unless they are specifically requested. And yet, if you want to make sure those quality cigars stay protected, they could be the most important purchase anyone could make.

The Thompson Humidor Accessory Kit can help make sure all of those new humidors and cigars stay in top shape. It comes with the famous Thompson Water Gel, packed in small dispensing jars. Leave a jar open in the humidor, and it will activate humidity as required -- and only as required. Because of that, it should last for at least 90 days before needing recharging -- which can be done with another squirt of the included Thompson solution.

It's a very easy way to make sure everything is working as directed in your cigar humidor, and since you very likely didn't receive anything like this in December it's smart to add one of these Thompson Humidor Accessory Kits to your first post-holiday order. Otherwise, a lot of those cigars you did get as gifts may be dry and stale by the time you get around to smoking them.

One of the newest releases from among the oldest names in cigars, the Punch Uppercut cigars definitely pack a wallop.

This has a distinct taste from what you might expect from other premium cigars, thanks to its use of the rare Ometepe long fillers. This Nicaraguan leaf is harder to grow and manage effectively because of the humidity issues associated with growing tobacco on this volcano-made patch of land, but as folks have gotten more skilled at growing it, it's starting to show up in quality cigars like this one.

The Ometepe blends with the Dominican, Honduran, and its other Nicaraguan long fillers for a flavor that is virtually impossible to find elsewhere. The first third tastes mostly of tobacco, but it gets mellow in the middle before surging to a powerful finish that makes it a shame when it finally gets too small to continue smoking.

Also, not to be superficial, but the Punch Uppercut cigars look awesome. I've never seen a bad wrapper, and the labels have the classic-looking logo and an image of the Ometepe region where its signature leaf is grown. It's not just a great cigar to smoke, it's one of the best to carry if you also use a cigar as an accessory. When you whip this out at a business dinner, it looks the part of a cigar that means business, even if you usually prefer something more mild and have to nurse it for longer than usual. It burns impressively and holds the ash well, making it one of the best Punch cigars to keep in the humidor.

Every news source this time of year has a selection of the most outlandish presents to give the person who has everything, items costing a zillion dollars that look very cool and will be appreciated for at least 2% as long as it would take for most of us to pay them off.

Thompson Cigar doesn't have anything quite like that -- I checked, and there are no cigars made with rare minerals and encrusted with gold dust for $10,000 each -- but I thought it might be fun to put together a holiday gift set that would be perfect if you have a ton of money to spend and a recipient who would appreciate only the finest of the finer things in life. I'm not going to pick the smokes, but stick to the cigar accessories that would accompany the recipients premium cigars.

Since every cigar needs to be lit, the Davidoff China-Lacquer Palladium Lighter does so with style and panache, and while it won't make any king of Wall Street blanch at the price tag, its  $985 is the priciest of the lighters here. The Xikar Havana Collection cigar cutter is literally my favorite cigar accessory we sell, and is a relative bargain at $299.  And the cigars can all go in the new Davidoff Rosewood Century Humidor, as great a humidor as you'll ever find for a shade under $2000.

That means you can buy all  three for around $3300, plus all applicable taxes. If you need someone to get these for, let me know and I'll send you my name and address. But anyone who wants the best of the best and doesn't mind paying what it takes to get it can find plenty of winners here.

Let's get this out of the way first: Davidoff cigar cutters are not for the faint of heart, or the light of budget. You can get something very capable of handling any cigar in your humidor for a fraction of the cost.

That having been said ... is there anything better, in terms of quality and style, than Davidoff cigar accessories? That's hard for me to believe. They take simple devices and turn them into objects that you want to stare at in admiration as much as you want to attack your Padron cigar with.

It's hard for me to pick my favorite. The Davidoff Round Sapphire Glass Black Cutter looks like something out of a science fiction movie, while the Davidoff Hairline Bicolor Double Blade Cutter seems like it should be sold at one of those jewelry shops my wife likes to shop at instead of at an online cigar store. And the Davidoff Lines and Stripes Silver Plated Cutter is the type of cigar accessory that you pass along to your children and your grandchildren.

All of these cost a lot more than your average cigar cutter. But that's appropriate. There's nothing average about any Davidoff accessory.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Davidoff cigar accessories are not the cheapest on the market. If you're looking to save some cash, there are plenty of other great buys available on Thompson cigar.

But here's the thing. You won't find anything of higher quality, or made of finer materials, or with greater care.

Take the Davidoff travel humidor, for example. The small travel humidor holds between four and six cigars, and is currently on sale for a little over $800. If all you're looking for is something to keep your cigars safe when you travel, you can certainly find cheaper cigar humidors.

But for many of us, it's more than the bottom line that matters. It's the handmade object crafted from the finest materials. It's the look that stands out from the crowd and is guaranteed to impress whenever anyone sees it. It's the functionality that will keep your cigars fresh under harsh conditions.

In short, Davidoff cigar accessories are designed to be the best. And if you are someone who demands the best of everything and won't rest until you find it, well, we make it easy here at Thompson cigar. The best travel humidor is the one that is pictured to your right, and getting one is as easy as clicking the "add to cart" button.

If you're looking to get a gift for a cigar lover and don't know what their tastes are, cigar accessories always make a safe gift. In particular, I'd like to extol the virtue of cigar cases as excellent options for when you are in doubt about what to get.

First, the caveat. You're very unlikely to be getting the recipient the first cigar case they have ever owned. Odds are good that they already have one or more lying around. If the only purpose of a case was to transport a cigar from the humidor to the smoking location, they would be purely functional objects that would sell for pennies and that nobody would care about.

But most cigar cases aren't like that. They're designed not just to serve and protect premium cigars, but to carry them around in the style that they deserve. Let's be honest -- whipping out a cigar from a Xikar Envoy Single cigar case is a lot different than breaking something out of a tubo. The latter is purely something that keeps a cigar fresh, while the former is designed to impress as much as the smoke that comes out of it.

That's why the cigar smokers I know tend to accumulate cases like golfers do golf towels or extra clubs. Just because you have a little bit of something doesn't mean that you don't want more, and that's particularly true with goods like cigar cases that come in so many different colors, sizes, and styles. It doesn't matter whether the person you're buying a present for already has a dozen cases ... he still will want more, and he'll realize that as soon as he opens the gift.

Cigar ashtrays may be the most underrated of the cigar accessories. They aren't as cool or portable as cigar cutters or cigar lighters, and they won't keep your cigars fresh like humidors will. But somehow, I always find myself searching in vain for these when I have guests over.

I think that's because when I first started smoking cigars, I didn't think much about ashtrays. Generally, I used a plastic cup half-filled with stale beer to do the trick at the end of the night, because that's just the kind of classy guy I was. And don't snicker -- I'm betting you've done that yourself once upon a time.

Then I reached an age where I realized that just looked silly. You get out of college and grad school, you start having to wear ties at work, and the plastic cup starts to look ridiculous. And then you start playing catch-up to try and get enough cigar ashtrays to not look unsophisticated when company comes over, and odds are that you just start picking up random ones that don't do the job well or break too easily.

One quick way of making up the gap: One of the cigars plus ashtray combos for sale at Thompson Cigar.  There are a lot of options, but if your cigar preferences are like mine you can't go wrong with the H Upmann Magnum with Ashtray combo. It's five excellent cigars plus a stylish ashtray, so you get both the smokes and something practical for you and your guests to put them out in. Because really, aren't we all too old to go back to that plastic cup thing?

Our New Year's Eve celebrations now have become casual affairs, where everyone winds up at someone's house for a post-dinner drink and a smoke. New Year's Day is similarly casual, with everyone seemingly either hosting an open house or traveling between others.

I like that for the same reason I like fine cigars -- it inevitably leads to a lot of sitting around and telling stories. New Year's is extra special because it's an excuse to look back at 2010 with nostalgia, a final day of remembering the past before the new year starts with a vengeance.

We are hosting an open house this year (with two small children, that's a lot easier than getting in and out of the car seats), and frankly that's how I like it. All my cigar humidors will be loaded, and the cigar accessories ready to be used on the deck no matter how cold it is. We'll spend the day with good friends, lots of hot appetizers, premium cigars and a lot of conversation. And at some point over the 24 hours, we'll rehash 2010 and get ready for what 2011 may bring.

On behalf of Thompson Cigar, I hope your New Year is a healthy and happy one as well. Here's hoping you have a great end to the current year, and a perfect start to the next one.

Having just bought another cigar humidor, I'm not really in the market for another one. But when I am, I know exactly which humidor I'm going to get.

That's the Two Tone Dark Wood Humidor; one of the new cigar humidors on offer from Thompson Cigar. It's got the right look and the right features to make this one of those cigar accessories that I have to have and will acquire ... sooner or later.

It fits about 125 cigars that can be sorted into pull-out trays and dividers, so you won't have to hunt for your premium cigars. There's a lock and key feature that keeps prying little hands (I'm thinking of my kids and not any height-challenged friends) from turning my prized smokes into their latest art project, which has been known to happen. The accessory drawer means that I won't have to fish around for my cigar cutter and cigar lighter after picking out a cigar, a small convenience that's much appreciated at the end of a long day. And the two-tone wood finish fits my style -- I'm a big fan of wood objects in general, and even my non-cigar storage units tend to be wooden boxes, so this seems like it was made for me.

Of course, this didn't arrive in stock until right after I had already purchased a different model. Murphy's Law at work. But while it might not be today or tomorrow, sometime soon this will be mine. Guaranteed.

I find myself acquiring more and more flavored cigars, even though I don't typically smoke them. Well-meaning friends and relatives pick them up for me on their travels, or I get them as gifts during the holiday season. Of course, I'm grateful for any cigars or cigar accessories (hint, hint), and I do find that I know more people these days who prefer flavored cigars so I have been keeping them in my humidor.

One recent bit of housekeeping I did as a result was to move all of my flavored cigars to their own humidor. Part of that was just an accounting trick -- that way I know where they are -- and part of it was a just-in-case fear that if I did not, the flavors would mix in with my regular cigars and I'd find my Padron 1964 Aniversario cigars smelling and tasting like vanilla.

I should say, for the record, that I have not actually noticed that happening. I don't tend to age my cigars -- they don't stay in my humidor for years or anything -- and I am definitely a smoker more than I am a collector. If you rotate your cigars in and out frequently, this may not be an issue for you.

But because the flavored cigars are the ones that tend to stay around my humidor the longest, I invested in a Zebra 50 Count Humidor. It was worth the peace of mind not to have to wonder whether I detected a hint of flavor in a premium cigar that was meant to stand well enough on its own.

As sure as the all-Christmas Music radio stations returning to the airwaves, a sign of the holiday season is the little Santa cap atop the logo of the Thompson Cigar website. That's a not-so-subtle hint that it's time to start considering what cigar gifts to give this December.

Indeed, to make it even easier, we now have a link for top cigar gifts for the holidays. There, you'll find ideas that we think will be particularly appreciated by those on your holiday list. Each is a collection of fine cigars or cigar accessories that anyone would be grateful to receive -- and if you're lucky, to share.

Among the options you might like: The La Gloria Cubana sampler.

This cigar sampler features six limited edition La Gloria Cubana cigars, plus a double-flame butane lighter to fire them up with. Everything comes in the stylish gift box you see here, colorful and compact, which will fit nicely under a tree or in any pile of presents. An added bonus: The box is see-through, so the cigars can be appreciated without taking them out and exposing them to the air right away. Particularly if you're giving these to someone who is away from their home, that will help these stay fresh until they can be placed in a cigar humidor.

It's also very affordable at $39.99, making this one of the best-selling cigar gifts on the site. There aren't many options more attractive for those looking to buy cigar gifts online.