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. 

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……