Essential cigar accessories

It was my first trip to Europe since before the Covid-19 pandemic and I was anxious, particularly in the week leading up to it, so I made sure I had enough cigars to tide me over during  my stay in Geneva.

When you don’t know what the situation is in the country or city you are travelling to, there’s nothing worse than getting there  and not having cigars as a just-in-case.

Anyway, I was pleased to discover that in Geneva it is relatively easy to find a place to smoke a cigar and places to buy cigars; sometimes they are one and the same. The one thing the trip reinforced is my need for the necessary tools.

Going through airport security on  trip way back, the woman in charge of searching my backpack spent more than ten minutes going through its various nooks and crannies only to find that it was my Xikar v-cutter that looked suspect on the scanner.

There is definitely a better way of travelling with cigars and the various accessories.

Project Carbon — Dia de Muertos Edition Travel Case

Project Carbon is synonymous with cigar pouches and travel cases. They offer a wide variety of cases made from various materials in an array of colours. With a mildly strange affinity to skulls and the “day of the dead”, this green leather, limited edition case has aesthetic appeal. When it comes to functionality, Project Carbon has all the bases covered with a collapsible cigar pocket to hold between five and seven cigars, three-pocket storage for accessories such as lighters, cutter, a big, flexible band to hold a cigar rest and a smaller flexible band to hold a perfect draw tool for when a cigar feels blocked.

It is made from grain leather, has a retractable handle for easy carrying and an insert in the front and back of the case, as well as the front pocket of the cigar pouch that is hard enough to protect the cigars, but not so hard that they affect the weight and structure of the case. When ordering a case online, there is the option of getting it with a Perfecdraw pen and a Zimmer cigar stand.

Puro Prestige — The Hemingway Edition

UK-based Puro Prestige is another company that makes exquisite cigar accessories. The beautifully designed and crafted Hemingway Edition travel cases come in several colours and I particularly like the blue leather. To store cigars, they have a cedar wood rack that holds four cigars of up to 60 ring gauge and six-and-a-half inches in length.

The cedar wood ensures that cigars can stay fresh out of the humidor for a couple of days, and they also supply Puro Prestige cigar tubes. It has two pouches for a lighter and a cutter, slots for bank and business cards, as well as a small leather strap to hold a cigar rest, of which they provide a 24k gold-plated one with the travel case.

Le Fines Lames

French company Les Fines Lames creates some lovely and unique cigar products, none more so than their punch bracelets, which they bill as “the first wearable cigar accessory”. Made with various stones, including onyx, hematite, tiger eye, malachite, lava and magnesite, the bracelets have either a brass or a 316L stainless steel body that can be unscrewed to reveal the 316L stainless steel blade.

If I had to choose, I would go for either the punch bracelet stainless steel onyx with a 7mm punch and bracelet beads of 8mm, or the trio brass red jasper with a 7mm punch, three bracelets and beads of 10mm each.