Humidors
Product: Adventurer 6 by Vanderburgh HumidorsType: 6-Stick Travel Humidor
Website: http://www.VanderburghHumidors.com
Reviewer: Doc
LOOK AND FINISH: 96
HARDWARE AND JOINERY: 97
INNER BOX: 94
FUNCTION: 96
VALUE: 88
OVERALL SCORE: 94.2 – STOGIE FRESH GOLD STAR RATING
BACKGROUND: The Adventurer 6 is one of the newer, high-end travel humidors on the market. Built solidly and beautifully using exotic woods and pre-seasoned Spanish Cedar, this humidor is meant to impress as well as function.
The Adventurer 6 is a uniquely designed travel humidor crafted to cradle cigars in an elegant wooden enclosure. It has been designed primarily from a block of solid Spanish Cedar with a protective solid exotic hardwood (Australian Lacewood) covering to give visual appeal and unique character. Hand finished with Pure Walnut oil for a more rugged/natural appearance, or with a high-gloss shellac finish, for a lustrous sheen.
When I commissioned an Adventurer 6 from Eddie DeJong, owner and designer of Vanderburgh Humidors, I had some specific requirements in mind.
First, I wanted a version that had a high-gloss finish. The original Adventurer line is naturally finished with 4 coats of pure Walnut oil, which allows the natural beauty of the exotic wood to show itself. However, I wanted a high-gloss to make the already 3-dimensional Australian Lacewood grain burst out. And it does!
I also wanted the Team Stogie Fresh logo laser-etched onto the top. Vanderburgh Humidors can provide laser-etching for any of their humidors. Finally, I wanted to use a tube with silica gel beads for humidification, so I provided Eddie with the dimensions of my tube and he designed the appropriate receptacle.
Upon receiving my Adventurer 6 travel humidor, I put it through the toughest test I could think of… travel abroad. I put the humidor in my checked baggage and lugged it off to Guatemala for two weeks. After enduring the pressure and temperature extremes of high altitude flight, I unpacked the humidor and expected it to work flawlessly in a hot, humid, tropical environment. And it did!
SET UP AND USE:
Prior to setting out with my humidor, I first took some time to admire the workmanship. This is a drop-dead-cool-looking humidor. The Australian Lacewood has a naturally “fluid” appearance and, when coated with a few coats of genuine shellac, looks almost like a block of honey. Sweet, indeed!
The ultra-cool solid brass barrel hinges allow the humidor to open up flat and the strategically placed “earth magnets” keep the lid closed tight.
The slots for the cigars come complete with small grooves that allow humid air to circulate under and around the cigars. More than just a “nice touch,” this allows complete humidification of your smokes.
After inspection, I gave the inner Spanish Cedar a complete seasoning using a clean soft rag and some distilled water. Eddie pre-seasons all his Spanish Cedar in a 70%RH climate chamber, however, by force of habit I always season my humi’s. The key is to just slightly dampen the rag with distilled water. You definitely don’t want to over-saturate the wood. After that, I let it sit for 24 hours and it was good to go.
FUNCTION:
For my trip to Guatemala, I loaded the A6 with 6 fine cigars and, when I arrived in Guate, they were in prime condition. In fact, they stayed perfectly humidified and tasty for the two weeks I was over there. Of course, Guatemala is a warm and humid environment, which is not much of a test of how a humidor keeps humidity levels up. Nevertheless, the plane trip in checked luggage counts for something. Extremely cold temperatures and low humidity make checked luggage situations potentially brutal for cigars.
After I came back from my trip, I put a hygrometer in the humidor to check the values over the next week. This month in my hometown the weather has been very hot and very dry. Outside temperatures in the 100’s (F) and ambient RH values in the mid-40’s made a very tough test for this humidor. I noted that a few of my other humidors had to be recharged with distilled water relatively often, but not the A6, it was rock solid. It lasted twice as long between rechargings, with only very slow loss of moisture and a constant reading of about 71%RH.
After about a week, I put some cigars into the humidor to further check how the humidor maintained humidity and noted that the cigars pulled a little moisture; the hygro was reading about 69%RH, which was still within an ideal range.
The earth magnets are strong; so strong that it makes the humidor a bit difficult to open sometimes. Nevertheless, that is much preferred to having a travel humidor that will pop open unexpectedly.
VALUE:
The only ding on this humidor is that, because it is so finely made and uses expensive hardware and solid exotic woods, it may be out of the price range of many folks who, I’m sure, would love to own one. At $289 USD, the humidor will be cost prohibitive to some (Eddie includes free shipping on the A6 humidor). However, given the intrinsic beauty and the rock solid performance, the price is justified. Just a shame that more people won’t get to get their hands on one.
Another point is that I wish this humidor would have come with a velvet pouch to protect it from scratches. There is no way I would put this in my luggage without some protection. I found a neoprene sleeve that came with a different humidor to pack my Adventurer 6 for my trip to Guatemala.
The Adventurer 6 travel humidor is a rock solid performer and is stunningly beautiful. If you can spare the extra cash, I would highly recommend this travel humidor.
OVERALL SCORE: 94.2 STOGIE FRESH GOLD STAR RATING
Adventurer 6: Travel Humidor
Friday, July 27, 2007
