Tag Archives: Room 101

by CigarCraig | June 3, 2012 · 4:20 am

Another C & C Cigar, a La Traviata, a Room 101 and Some News

A few weeks back I picked up a little robusto sampler of C and C cigars that included the C and C Corojo Robusto. The three cigars set me back a whole $10. I really enjoyed the maduro, and had high hopes for the Corojo, which I smoked this past Thursday. It’s a nice looking cigar, nothing fancy, just a no-nonsense robusto. It was a delicious smoke, well behaved and as good or better than many cigars at twice the price. Another fine cigar from the folks at C and C! I don’t know about the orange band though, but that’s probably just me.

I got off to a late start on Friday, so I grabbed my last CAO La Traviata Maduro Luminoso and sat on the porch with the dog watching the thunderstorm roll by. This is a 4½ x 50 Rothschild with the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. The first time I tried the maduro I wasn’t impressed, which is odd since I usually like most maduros. I was confused by this, I thought for sure I’d love the cigar. That first one must have been a dud, because subsequent cigars have been right up my alley, great construction, nice flavor, just what I look for in a maduro cigar.

It was a beautiful Saturday yesterday, and I had to work at 9pm, so I wanted a good cigar, no surprises. I went with an original Room 101305 robusto. This is a cigar I really enjoy. It’s a solid, well made, savory and satisfying smoke. I have long been a fan of Camacho cigars, so it stands to reason I’d like the Room 101. The whole experience is first rate, from the appearance to the band (although one band would suffice, it seems like half the cigars I find myself smoking lately have multiple bands), this is a really superb cigar. I punched this one for a change, since there was a little bit of a crack in the cap and I was afraid to make it worse. It turns out that the punch provided a perfect draw and made for a very enjoyable experience.

News

I received the following press release from Ernesto Padilla this week: May 30, 2012

PRESS RELEASE!

Padilla Cigar Company is proud to announce yet another collaboration with Oliva Cigar Company following the recently 93 rated Padilla Studio-Tobac Limited Edition.Since the inception of the Padilla brand, Ernesto Padilla (brand owner), has worked on several successful projects with the Miami Lakes, Florida based Oliva Cigar Company. Oliva will manufacture and distribute the new Padilla Premier Cru cigars to be sold exclusively in the European market. The Padilla Premier Cru will feature the most premium fillers from the Oliva Family Tobacco Farms in Nicaragua. The superb wrapper will feature a Habano tobacco seed grown in the Ecuadorian Oliva plantations. The Padilla Premier Cru will be available in 3 different sizes those being Robusto, Torpedo, and a Double Toro. The cigars will range in price from €8 – €10. Padilla Premier Cru will beintroduced this September at the Inter-Tobac Trade Fair in Dortmund, Germany and will be available through all of Oliva’s European distributors. German distributor Wolfertz, GMBH and Dutch distributor Van Horssen, BV have already agreed to begin sales this fall. For those in the United States feeling left out, Padilla and Oliva have created 2 new blends in Habano and Maduro wrappers. This highly anticipated cigar will be known as the Padilla Reserva and will be exclusively sold in the United States. The Padilla Reserva will also be available in 3 sizes those being Robusto, Torpedo, and Double Toro. The cigars will range in price from $8 – $9 dollars. Padilla Reserva will be introduced at the IPCPR Trade Show in Orlando, Florida this August.

In other news, the CAO Last Stick Standing promotion as been extended to July 31, so if you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on the tin of cigars and cast your vote, you now have more time!

I haven’t been one to jump on posting press releases as soon as I get them, there seem to be plenty of others that do that. I will, however, listen to my readers, if this is something you would like to see more often, please let me know!

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under News, Review

Tagged as C & C, C and C, Camacho, CAO, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Corojo, La Traviata, maduro, Room 101

by CigarCraig | May 2, 2012 · 6:11 pm

A Namakubi, a Guillermo Leon and a Liga Privada

Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had plans to attend our grand-daughter’s first birthday party at my daughter’s house. After I finished publishing Sunday’s installment, I had just enough time to relax in the sunshine with a cigar. This was one of those circumstances where the cigar selection is very important, too large a cigar and there’s not enough time to finish. Fortunately, I had picked up a couple small Room 101 Namakubis a few weeks back at an event at one of the local shops. I selected the Roxxo for the morning smoke and it was terrific. It’s a 4″ x 48 stubby robusto, made in the Camacho factory, a Ecuador Habano wrapper around Honduran and Dominican fillers. Such a great size for an hour in the sunshine on a Sunday morning with a cuppa joe. It had just the right balance of spice and sweetness. Really a nice little cigar, I think I liked it better than it’s little bro, the Papi Chulo. Two thumbs up.

Monday was actually my grand-daughter’s birthday, and we had such fun watching her at her party digging into her cake! You may recall, a year ago I celebrated her birth at the Wooden Indian in the town where my daughter lives with Guillermo Leon himself. I had picked up a couple of his Guillermo Leon Signature Corona Gordas and decided that it would be the perfect cigar to mark the occasion. A year of age hasn’t hurt this particular example, it was a tasty smoke. I love the 6″ x 47 size of these and it burned very nicely. While I don’t generally gravitate toward the flavor profile that comes out of the La Aurora factory, I certainly need to re-think that, because I’m enjoying more and more cigars that come from there, and have always had a soft spot for them. It goes back to my first box of cigars being La Aurora Bristol Especiales, purchased largely because my daughter’s name is Aurora. I will always try cigars from La Aurora based on that small fact, and I’ll always find something to enjoy about the experience. Always well made, and the Guillermo Leon Signature will forever remind me of the day my first grand child was born.

Tuesday evening turned out to be a nice, warm spring evening, so I felt like digging into my dwindling supply of Liga Privada cigars, and came up with a T52 Robusto. I probably purchased this at an event a few years ago, so it was not without a bit of age. I love it when a cigar is perfectly flat when you tap off the ash. It’s a testament to the blender that he can select tobaccos that all burn at the same rate. Astounding. really, after having seen how differently various leaves burn. Some leaves burn up almost immediately upon being lit (seco leaves) and others (ligero) smolder and barely burn at all. It’s truly a miracle. Anyway, I’m always impressed with a Liga Privada, and the T52 is no different. One of the few cigars I’ll spend $10+ dollars on, and I don’t do it often. An hour and a half or so of satisfying relaxation in robusto form!

That’s all I have for now. Don’t forget to get on over and sign the Whitehouse Petition, if you haven’t already, and keep pestering your elected officials to keep the FDA out of our humidors!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigar store, cigars, drew estate, Guillermo Leon, La Aurora, liga privada, Namakubi, Room 101, Roxxo, t52

by CigarCraig | April 4, 2012 · 7:03 pm

A Monte Pascoal, a New Room 101 Cigar and News from CAO

Monday evening I was in the mood for something interesting, so I grabbed a Monte Pascoal Belicoso. This Brazilian puro came to me from Wesley Genzel who is the US distributor for the brand, and a really cool guy. I first made his acquaintance at the 2010 IPCPR show where I found myself standing in the wrong registration line with him (I was in the wrong line, he was fine) . I was also privileged to be present at the Cigar Journal awards ceremony where Monte Pascoal was awarded the best cigar from Brazil. Now, most of us probably associate Brazilian tobacco with nice, dark maduro wrappers like one finds on the CAO Brazilia, or Toraño Exodus 1959 50 years, but the Monte Pascoal has what I would call a Natural wrapper. It doesn’t have the heavy flavors I associate with the maduro wrappers, of course, and is a really nice, smooth, well balanced cigar. It’s interesting to smoke different sizes of this line and see the differences presented in each vitola, the Minuto is decidedly stronger than the robusto or belicoso. It’s a very cool line, if you can get your hands on some, I’d recommend trying them.

Since I visited with Matt Booth last week, I didn’t want to waste any time trying out his soon to be released Room101 San Andreas. I have a real weakness for Mexican San Andreas wrapper, so it was all I could do to leave this in the humidor for a couple days. I had a short amount of time between dinner (General Tso’s Chicken, Beef and Broccoli) and the Flyers game, so I set out on my evening walk with this little puppy. The sample I received was the same size as the Papi Chulo, 4″ x 42. I’m actually guessing, I was too excited to smoke it so I forgot to measure it. I punched it, and got a blast of flavor on the cold draw. At this point I know I’m in for a treat. And a treat it was! This is a cigar one needs a beverage with, it’s one of a few cigars that makes me salivate, I bee-lined it to the root beer when I got home from my walk. I so enjoyed this little cigar, and too soon it was gone! I generally smoke a cigar to a finger-burning nub, but when I got to that point, it was still delicious. I had no choice but to impale the little bastard with a toothpick and suck the last little bits of goodness from it. I look forward to these being released, I believe the band on this, and I like the band, it clearly states it’s a pre-release sample, says it’s coming out mid-April. I heard someplace that the robusto is the real gem in this line.

News

I’m not one to re-print every press release that comes through my e-mail box, I feel compelled to share this one with you, as I think it’s really cool.

CAO SAYS JUDGMENT DAY IS COMING

Promotion Gives Fans a Chance to Choose New Blend

Richmond, VA—When their fans talk, the team at CAO listens. From now (April 3, 2012) through June 30, 2012, cigar smokers will have a chance to select an upcoming CAO blend, as part of the brand’s “Last Stick Standing” promotion.

CAO’s senior brand manager Ed McKenna explains, “Rick Rodriguez has been developing blends with our team in Nicaragua and has come up with three which we think are all great. So we’re calling on CAO fans to help us pick the blend that will ultimately be launched as a new CAO collection, to be released late this year, or in early 2013.”

A special three-pack tin called the Last Stick Standing is now available for free with the purchase of any six CAO cigars at participating cigar shops across the U.S. Each tin contains three distinct blends, aptly named C, A and O. The cigars all measure 5 1/2” x 54, which is what Rick Rodriguez considers to be the ideal size for allowing consumers to truly evaluate each blend.

A dedicated website (www.lss.caocigars.com) will serve as a virtual voting booth, allowing cigar smokers to rate each cigar on certain criteria, such as flavor, body, construction and overall experience.

For every rating submitted, consumers will be entered to win a box of the winning CAO blend before it’s available for purchase, or the grand prize, an all-expense paid trip for the winner and a guest to the CAO factory in Nicaragua. Sharing entries on the Last Stick Standing Facebook page will provide consumers with multiple entries to win.

Last Stick Standing, AKA “Judgment Day” events will be held at select tobacco shops across the country, with special event-exclusive offers featuring CAO OSA Sol “Lot T” (4 ½” x 50) and “Lot 46” (5 ¼” x 46 ) which will be released later this year as the first new additions to CAO OSA Sol since its debut last September. In addition, a handpicked group of preferred CAO retailers will host guided Last Stick Standing tastings by Rick Rodriguez who will share his insight on the three blends.

General cigar did something similar quite a while ago in the Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur line, where they sent samples and had consumers choose the favorite of the two. This resulted in what many of us always wanted, an Excalibur with a Cameroon wrapper, the 1066. I had the pleasure of participating in a similar exercise last fall when visiting General Cigar on the DR. We were given three cigars and asked for our input. It’s always fun to smoke cigar blind, and to be able to have a voice in the selection of a new cigar is pretty cool.

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, general cigars, Matt Booth, Monte Pascoal, Room 101

by CigarCraig | April 1, 2012 · 9:51 am

Room 101 Cigars Event at Old Havana Cigar Co.

Friday evening Matt Booth from Room 101 was making an appearance at a local shop, Old Havana Cigar Co. in West Chester, PA. I frequently attend events there and it’s always really busy, Friday being no exception. I purchased a handful of singles and lit up a Room 101 ‘305’, which is the robusto in the line. I enjoyed the cigar, probably not surprising since I’ve long been a fan of Camacho cigars. I had the great pleasure of talking to Tom Smith, the Davidoff representative, who doesn’t like bloggers. I can see his point, which is that particularly popular bloggers can cause damage to a brand or shop by giving a bad review. I suspect that the number of cigar smokers who are influenced by blogs is reasonably small, as I haven’t run into too many people hanging around in cigar stores that use the Internet for any kind of cigar stuff, be it forums, blogs or whatever. Certainly we need to be responsible and not pretend we are experts and tell people what they may or may not like. The 305 was a really nice cigar, very Honduran and perfectly made.

I followed the 305 with a Namakubi Papi Chulo (is it a coincidence that “Papi Chulo” and “petite corona” share the same initials?). This is a nice little 4″ x 42 with a reddish Habano wrapper. It took a little work getting it to light right, but ended up being packed with flavor and smoking very nicely. I was going to leave after the 305, but I got to talking to a gentleman who came in and was lighting up a Papi Chulo, so I decided to join him. He was an interesting gentleman, he had taken the opportunity in college to study abroad in Havana, which was interesting. He had a sincere interest in cigars and was really refreshing to talk to. The Papi Chulo was terrific, but short, so I was soon done and decided to head home. I took a few minutes to talk to Matt on my way out. If you have a chance to meet him, take it, because he’s a nut, but one of the nicest nuts out there. We had a little back and forth on zipper up vs. zipper down (on my jacket, what were you thinking?), all I can say is: Matt, you worry about your CDO, I’ll worry about mine, K?. Very cool guy. Also cool was Tom Smith of Davidoff, even though he hates bloggers. A wealth of information on all things cigar. I appreciate the chance to meet and hang out with both of these gents.

Summary: Room 101 cigars good, although priced a little higher than I’m comfortable with. Sometimes one has to factor in the overall experience and it makes it worthwhile. On a side note, I got to thinking about petite coronas vs. larger cigars. Certainly petite coronas offer a different, often more flavorful smoke, and when it comes to variety, you can smoke several vastly different small cigars in the time it takes to smoke one large one. However, this is a tough sell for me when the price is close: do I pay $5 or$6 for a PC, or $6 or $7 for a Churchill? I usually choose cigars based upon the time I have to smoke them, so this isn’t generally something I worry about. Another little item rattling around in my head: I was once told that it costs nearly as much to make a small cigar as it does to make a big one. Manufacturers can’t price the coronas and PCs that close to the larger vitolas, so you are actually getting a good deal on the smaller cigars, as the larger cigar sales basically subsidize the smaller ones. Not really relevant to anything, just something that comes up in my head from time to time…