Xikar lighters: Free leather sheat if you registrate your product !

A few weeks ago I bought this great new lighter, a Xikar EX in chrome silver (so I can check if my hair is good on the reflection ;) ). My old one was totally scratched from sitting in my pocket next to my keys.

This lighter is a combination of a regular flame and a jetflame, so you can light your cigars while standing in the wind! It is fuelled by butane, so no benzine smell on your cigars. The people from Xikar also offer a lifetime warranty on all their products, so the Xikar is really a good choice, not only for lighters but they do offer great looking cutters as well! (I am already saving for a mammoth cutter ;) )

Now, what was I going to do to not get this scratched as well? I was looking at keychains or pouches to put my keys in..both designer brands as normal brands offer really good looking ones, but I still feel like they belong to my grandparents..

Well, Xikar solved my problem in another way! They send me a free leather sheath to put my lighter in..As a way of saying "thanks for buying our product" I think this is a really good message!

And I even got it really quick..they send it from Kansas,USA to Antwerp, Belgium in 2 weeks..really great!

Thanks guys and girls at Xikar, I will definitely buy more of your stuff!

De Compagnie Sigarendiner editie 5

It is the time of the year again! Anneke en John from the Compagnie in Breda are having another of their Sigarendiners: 3 courses of dinner accompagnied with great cigars. Be there on Oktober 19th.

De Compagnie en Publieke Werken nodigen u uit deel te nemen aan een gezellig siga­ren diner. De culinaire kant van de avond wordt verzorgd door eetcafé Publieke Wer­ken, in Cubaanse stijl.
De Compagnie selecteert de sigaren. Dit diner hebben we gekozen voor een combina­tie van oud en nieuw. De gekozen sigaren doen het bijzonder goed in proef panels en aan u de gelegenheid te proeven of u het daarmee eens bent.
Wij ontvangen u met een echte Cubaanse Mojito cocktail op basis van Cubaanse Hava­na-Club rum. Tijdens de ontvangst kunt u genieten van een aperitief sigaar en kennis maken met de overige gasten. De sigaar is een “Ramón Allones small club corona”. Deze werd door Cigar aficionado in 2007 als een van de beste kleine corona’s geko­zen.

Na het voorgerecht is het tijd voor de tweede sigaar een “Montecristo Petit Edmundo”. Dit is de iets kortere ver­sie van de Edmundo met dezelfde diameter. Uitermate geschikt als er wat minder tijd is voor een langere sigaar.
U heeft de keuze uit een hoofdgerecht van vlees of vis.
Na het dessert gaan we genieten van een klassieke after-dinner sigaar. De derde sigaar is een “all-time” winnaar. Een “Partagas Série P N˚2” pyramid. Hierbij wordt kof­fie geserveerd en een mooie 7 jaar oude Havana– club rum.

We hopen u graag op het sigarendiner te mogen verwelkomen.
Anneke en John Bodar
bodar@decompagniebreda.nl

La Aurora 1495 Series 4

My parents brought me a lovely box of La Aurora 1495, Series 4 for me from Canada.

The box looks very different from "normal" boxes, but I do enjoy it very much, with the lion. Also the closing mechanism is a double pass, which gives the box an authentic medieval look!

 

 

These Dominican cigars are a bit darker, and have a strong, great perfume.

  

After trying one, I am really feeling good. These are decent cigars, especially for the price tag! Too bad I cant get them in cigar shops in Belgium, or these would be my next favorite everyday-smoke !!

A lengthier review will be due in a few weeks.

Does this Parking lot remind you of any cigars?

The first time I entered this parking lot, I immediately saw a stunning resemble of a great cigar logo ;)

Passatore double bullet cutter

I purchased this bullet cutter in Schneiderwind (see previous post).

You have these cutters in two versions: the single cutter with a 7mm cut, and the double cutter with both a 7 mm and a 10 mm cut. With my love for robustos, it wasn't a difficult choice ;)

Schneiderwind has them in shiny black or aluminium. I chose the aluminium one, because it will be on my keychain.

 

What a difference with my old one, which I purchased in Seattle a few years ago. That plastic cheap item got lost from my chain because the cutter part fell of. That will not happen with this one because it has "screw on" parts. And with a retail price of 49 euros it is just right. The single cutter is 10 euros cheaper.

 

Passatore is made in Germany, but I couldn't find their website. They also make really great humidors.

I already love it ;)

Cigar shop visit: Schneiderwind Aachen

This weekend I was in Aachen with Britt and her lovely dog Emma to spent a day in the lovely town. It is also the closest town that has a Starbucks ;)

The Schneiderwind shop is located in the Krämerstrasse, one of the nice parts of town, enclosed by many shops. They have two entrances, the historic one for the room with liquors (they have a great collection of single malts, vodka's, rum's, and much more!) and the modern one for the cigar shop.

Inside the cigar shop you are helped by one of the very friendly people. My german isn't that good, and the guy who helped spoke quite slowly and helped me making the perfect choices.

The store itself looks very nice! it has glass lockers with Davidoff accessories and much more.

The humidor isn't that big, but big enough to hold 140 brands.

 

They also have one of the best cigar websites I have ever seen:

- downloads: you can download their catalog, kalenders, brochures, cigar journals, ...

- order cigars in many ways: by email, fax, post, phone

- new items: a large list of new items and meetings

- virtual tour around the shop!

- large list of historic cognac's and Armagnac's

Quai D'Orsay Gran Coronas

Well, this cigar let me down..
To be short, it didn't burn well and I couldn't draw any smoke through the cigar! When I looked at it, I could clearly see it was way to overpacked with tobacco. I even cut it in halve, to see if that would help it, but it didn't. Did I pick a bad one ?
To be honest, my humidor was around 78-79%, so it could be that that was the problem..

I 'll try another one later ;)