3:36pm
This Fairbanks Sherry. This penicillin. They are conspiring in me to make my stomach gurgle loudly. I figure it’s time for porch and stogie. I wouldn’t know, if pressed, why I figure that, but heck …
… been a heckuva week. I won’t even delve, I will however, puff.
The Cigar:
Room 101
HN #615
Criollo 98 natural wrapper
Brazil Mata Fina binder
Dominican/ Honduras filler
7 x 48 sized
Well, if it’s good enough for Guy Fieri and Busta Rhymes, it’s certainly good enough for… I seem to have lost my train of thought. Let’s start this one mo’ gin’ -- ready, set, go! --
Like any offering wholly representative of Camacho, Room 101 are purportedly bold and spicy and also when you visit their website -- apparently a manufacturer of some sort of Kustom Kulture bling something. Chazerai. Chazerai as far as the eye can see.
I don’t like the Low Brow art influenced cigar wrapper which is designed, obviously, to look better on merchandise, than on a cigar band. I don’t like any departure from tradition. I am a fuddy-duddy, you see. Will this stogie breathe new life into my depression-era, vaudevillian personae? If I damn well let it, I suppose.
Note: there is a tab on the company site that is labeled “Cigars.” It seems broken. I feces ya not, gentlepersons.
Let us just see shall we?
Sweet spices behind vanilla cream notes. On the cold pull there is some pepper mixes of white, some black and some little red. Perhaps a cinnamon hint -- candied, like a Red Hot from my misspent Brooklyn youth. I cuffed them by the box from a bodega ran by a midget -- but this is about the cigar and not about me.
Construction is somewhat soft but even. The cosmetics seem a tad on the rough-hewn side, but too seem done purposefully so. This only serves, though, to clash with the image of the stogie as new old school whateverness. Or perhaps it is the purposeful left rust of a rat rod.
Light:
Simple 'nuff combustion that yields immediately, quite the bite. There is a certain little sweetness, too, seeming to me like the frothed milk of an espresso drink. There are rich coffee notes here, as well -- so we’ll go with that for now. On the third puff, a cedar pokes through the bite. It is not an unpleasant bite -- but it is most definitely there.
1/3:
Let’s start the first third on a retro-hale: spicy but quite nice. There is enough of a balance and I feel I am at a cabin in the woods, burning cedar in the den and why am I sitting so close to the fireplace? Meh, too comfy to move and the air is sweet. The black pepper approaches undeniable prominence, but it is well done and while not of my typical fare -- thus far it is enjoyable.
A stogie which will keep you on yer toes, and knock you simultaneously on yer derriere. A job for Doc Martens and tight jeans.
The ash is piling on tightly and the burn is even enough and rectifies itself almost entirely before I can flick my Bic.
Undeniable sweetnesses of vanilla and cream are well-muted in comparison but intermingle with the spicy notes while both surround the dark coffee milk-frothed middle. I do find myself rather enjoying this offering.
The smoke output is substantial and mainly sweet. The draw is the loose end of medium
2/3:
At the onset here, I was forced to retouch the light a tad, after the ash dropped off in a very firm clump. Too, Ruby barked at me to brew some coffee and add a teaspoon of sugar. I was apparently buzzed. I am always the last to know. However, she is a Dachshund and I’ll be damned if I allow a German to give me orders.
Oh, fine. I will, but just this once.
To note -- the peppers have simmered down much to my surprise and Ruby’s relief. That is not to say this is not remaining a quite flavorful affair. This is to say that I recommend this stick post-meal and mid-dry sherry. I feel a dry sherry would sit well in the middle with that rich, dark coffee. Allowing the swirls to play about it nicely. Allowing too the bite.
The burn is now near razor edge and accumulating another thick pile of ash. A nice chew is forming and my palate remains crisp and delineated with spices both sweet and peppery. The finish is medium-length and gone well before the next pull.
The slim ring gauge insures a warm yet not hot draw through which I can appreciate the subtleties. I feel a wider offering might tell a different tale, as wider offerings are prone to do -- in cigars as well as in other spheres.
This is a cigar which announces its presence with well-tuned authority and once your attention is granted it, said attention is kept through lovely nuances and minglings of a stick with a well higher price tag.
(Through no fault but my own schedule, Ron Burgundy saying “Milk was a poor choice,” rings in my ears as the midday sun hits my porch hot, and this is a sun-downer smoke.)
Ruby has begun slurping from my mug and I cannot help but feel her guidance was self-serving. Such a good dog. Such an even better German..
3/3:
The ash clumps off and the even burn remains. Too, a bit of bite returns. This time with a heady cedar note.
This cigar is an almost purely Brazilian experience now, with all the Mata Fina characteristics predominately displayed after the passing of the second and shorter wave of peppers. The Criollo wrapper nicely contains this but also allows it to freely roam. I taste a backing of the Honduran filler, as well, with its heavy earthiness.
All transitions have been quite nice and smooth enough, and avoid being mottled.
Speaking of finishes, which I wasn’t for a bit but am now again, the final third was fully spiced cedar. Sharply clean and very short.
Notes:
While I find fault in Room 101’s merchandising and marketing -- that is entirely subjective. Objectively, I find nothing at all wrong with the crafting of this cigar and would have paid well more to have enjoyed it. As long as the more did not interfere with my sherry budget.
For all its spice and the boldness which that entails, it never became irritating to my palate. For all its inherent sweetnesses, it never lingered sickly there. I would much highly recommend this stogie.
Epilogue:
5:05pm or so
I forgot all about my lousy toothache and swollen gums. Now I must walk my caffeinated pooch. She has much to bark at and to urinate on.
[I raced the clock on this one. Forgive me please, any typographical errors. My account here is experiencing some technical difficulties as of late, which force me to post in a hurry to avoid Error Code interruptions.]