Creating a Wineador by Derek Mathews

Hi Guys,

TX Stick here.  I’m a long-time listener and wanted to ask if during a future show, you could discuss wineadors.

Many of us live in parts of the country where temperature fluctuations are so vast that keeping a humidor indoors still causes the internal humidor temperature to vacillate too much.   As I don’t wish to pay a $500 + monthly utility bill to keep my humidor at an appropriate temperature, I began researching wineadors.

As it turns out, this has been a fantastic solution to my problem.  There is a great deal of information on the web with a Google search of “Wineadors” that your listeners may be interested in.  The most important component to remember is to get a wine refrigerator that is thermoelectric.  If not, the condenser in a traditional refrigerator will pull out most, if not all, of your needed humidity.   

I learned that there is a particular type of kitty litter (ExquisiCat - unscented, of course) that is the same product as humidity beads.  It is a much cheaper solution than the beads and can be placed in small containers throughout the wineador to maintain 70% humidity throughout the unit.  It is easily charged with distilled water and my tobacco treasures have been kept in great shape.

Anyway, just wanted to bring this up to ask if y’all could discuss it in future episodes.  I’ve heard great humidor topics on your show before, but don’t recall hearing about this temperature controlled solution.  I'm interested in your thoughts/knowledge/history with this type of cigar storage.

Thanks for continued great weekly shows.

TX Stick (Derek Matthews)

P.S.

Thanks again for having me on the show. The website we discussed for the gentleman who makes the Spanish cedar shelves for the wineadors is wineadors.com

I had a good time and I hope the listeners are able to benefit from our discussion.  Below are pics of a drawer in the wineador that has an aquarium bag with the kitty litter on the left side of the drawer (probably don't need that much!) and another photo of the kitty litter jug.  Please feel free to post them if you'd like with the pic of my wineador from the other day. 

 

 

Caffe' Napoletano Coffee Making by Michael Kacmarek

The process of Caffé Napoletano is not very well known and is more old school than the Cafeteria Bialetti you currently use… Why do/would you care? You’re a coffee lover: the Bialetti offers  wonderful “bright  strong” coffee flavor  whereas the Caffé Napoletano make “rich and very round” coffee and it is quite  wonderful. How does a Chicago boy know this? Easy, he falls in love and marries a wonderful Sicilian woman…..

The atttched PDF shows the process of making Caffé Napoletano, who knows, you may be able to show Colin a thing or two! This coffee pot is not well known outside of Italy. It’s Uma Uma (a secret amongt friends) as they say in Italy.

Caffé Napoletano 101

1) Unlike the Bialetti’s fine ground coffee the Caffé Napoletano should have a LARGE GRIND
 (think of the typical size of coffee going into a French press or Mom’s Peculator ….)

2) Your first pot of coffee goes down the drain (along with the awful metallic taste it is purging out
of the coffee pot) successive brews will “season” the coffee pot. If your “brand” of coffee pot is made
of aluminum, one will want to consider doing this “purge” more often if it is stored for a while
(not as important with stainless though).

3) When turning the coffee pot over to start filtering the boiling water, be mindful of water leakage
(insulate the hand turning the coffee). That way your scream will not be loud enough to wake Liz at
4 in the morning.

4) These coffee pots are like instruments, that is, if you want to make good “music” you must learn
 to play them right. Practice….

* Interesting fact
Some Northern Italians like to put a shot of grappa in their Café on cold winter mornings; this is
known as “Café Correcto” or Corrected Coffee. Sounds like a good way to take the “edge off”
off the Monday morning work week……

Virginia is for Smokers, by Nelson Pidgeon

Last month my wife and I took a trip to visit her sister in Floyd, Va. What? You've never heard of Floyd, VA? Well I'm sure if you were a fan of possum stew, herbal remedies and flat foot dancing you would definitely know the place.. But all joking aside, the main reason for our trip was to visit FloydFest which is "a 4-day celebration of music and art nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia! Bridging the gap between genres, generations and cultures, the festival features over 50 performers on 8 stages!" It was a little like King Richard's Faire in the 21st century but 3 times bigger. FloydFest is in its 10th year and was extremely well run. We had VIP passes which included unlimited free craft beer (probably the best part of the fair). Hundreds of vendors were lined up for what seemed like a mile selling their wares and lots of great food. You could buy a tie dyed anything, test your skill on the flying trapeze, see if you remember how to hoola-hoop, or get a massage for a dollar minute (I enjoyed 15 wonderful minutes of that). But the main reason for the fair is the music and there were many really good bands playing primarily what I'd call American type rock. Sounds like John Mellancamp and Melissa Etheridge. But is all this what you really want to hear about? Why is Virginia for Smokers?

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DogWatch Dale answers a new smoker's question

The following is how Dale, co-host of the DogWatch Cigar Radio weekly podcast, answered a new smoker’s question regarding what to purchase to try a good variety of cigars. CHRIS C. WROTE: I'm new to cigars, and I'd like to know what you would recommend I try to get a good idea of the different kinds of cigars out there. I've seen many people in forums talk of online retailers selling variety packs, but nobody is specific about what is good or not, etc. Lets say that in a week I'm going to walk into my local B&M with about $50 in my pocket... what should I buy to get a good variety of cigars to try? Chris C.

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Carl Holtman reviews the La Tradicion Cubana Toleton

On episode #310, Bob smoked a La Tradicion Cubana Toleton, a unique, limited edition cigar presented to him by his friend, Luis Sanchez of La Tradicion Cubana Cigars. In a random drawing during the show, a Toleton, compliments of Luis, was also awarded to Carl Holtman. Following are Carl's comments after smoking the Toleton.

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