Accessories/cigar gear. Very important stuff, right? But when you get down to the nitty-gritty, if it works, it works. If it don't, it don't.

Unlike trying to assess cigars, reviews of accessories are not quite as subjective. Let's face it... An item either does what you want or doesn't, with very little wiggle room in between. It can do the task better than another one, or worse. It can be easier to use, or more complicated. And that's about it.

Maybe that's the reason we review more cigars than gear.

But late last year, the folks at Famous Smoke Shop reached out to me, and provided a little swag to be given away in an upcoming contest. They simply requested that we do a review, and that we provide a link to their site. I quickly agreed, of course, because our members deserve good swag!

The item we have here is the Cigar Caddy 10 Count Portable Humidor.

Looks familiar to most of us, right? But it's not a brand we might recognize. Still, it represents a great value at less than 30$ (often bundled with Cigars on Famous's website too!).

Specifications

The review

How do you review something like this? I mean, it's a simple crush-proof box with sufficient padding inside to support 10 average-sized cigars. 

To test it, I first charged the credo humidifier according to your-antibiotics.com. I closed the lid up and let it sit overnight. The next day, I loaded it with 10 humidified cigars and a small digital hygrometer. The cigars (and the hygrometer) had been in a large chest cooler maintained at 65% humidity. Given the '0%' relative humidity here in my home, I moved fast and got the lid to the Cigar Caddy closed up quickly. 8 hours later, I opened the box for a peek. The hygrometer read 68%, and I quickly snapped the lid closed.

Cold weather here in Atlanta means the furnace runs a lot. Furnace means warm toasty house, happy kids and a happy wife. It also means air like the Sahara Desert - so dry that water gets drawn right through the sides of my wooden humidors, to the point I'm recharging them almost weekly to maintain a fluctuation of less than 5-10% in the internal humidity (yes, it can be that dry!). 

So, for comparison, I let this box sit for exactly one week on top of a wooden table-type humidor equipped with the same brand/calibrated digital hygrometer. Through the front glass, I could see 65% displayed.

7 days. Yes, I left them both closed for 7 days. Very, very hard to do. (Thankfully, there are also a couple of coolers full of stogies to choose from - though for some reason I desperately wanted to smoke the AVO that I put in the Cigar Caddy!). So it was merely a mental struggle to leave them alone.

And then came the day of reckoning!

Through the front glass of the table humidor, I read the bad news - 60% RH. Before proceeding any further, I ran to grab a gallon of distilled water. Why open the humis twice, right?

Popping the latches on the Cigar Caddy, I flipped open the top and saw - happily - 66%!  I'd witnessed a drop of 5 points in the large cedar-lined humidor, and only 2 points in the Cigar Caddy.

I can recommend the Cigar Caddy as a good value item for any smoker who needs a box to travel with. With just a periodic recharge of the humidification disk, it can keep a selection of your sticks ready to go wherever your wheels may take you.

Pros: Light weight, sturdy, warranty