Camacho Room 101 702 Cigar Review

I finally got my hands on another very anticipated cigar for review. Camacho’s Room 101 702.

Camacho Room 101

A big thank you again to @cigarsthomas for shooting a few of these over to me. There are six local B&M shops here in El Paso, Texas. But out of the six, only two carry Camacho cigars. The Room 101 has been on order with them for quite a bit, but I’m too impatient, and I wanted to get my grubby little paws on one ASAP. The cigar community has been buzzing applause directed towards the Room 101 even way before it’s release date. The anticipation has been killing me.

The Good Stuff: Room 101 is a joint operation between Camacho Cigars and famous jewelry designer Matt Booth. “Room 101” isn’t just a blend of cigar but a “Global Conspiracy”.  Everything related to Room 101 boasts strong symbolism, and deep meaning. I won’t go into it too much, but if you feel inclined there are plenty of resources out there, but a lot of the symbolism behind the Conspiracy are kept secret. This only adds to the character. From my understanding Matt Booth met up with Camacho Cigar’s Director of Marketing Dylan Austin as well as a few others from the Camacho Family, words were exchanged, and before anyone knew it there was a proposition on the table of Camacho and Matt Booth teaming up to create a cigar that supports The Conspiracy. I can’t think of another cigar manufacturer that could pull something as interesting as this off.

After all was said and done, The Room 101 cigar was amongst a handful on anticipated new release cigars announced at this year’s ICPCR in New Orleans. The Room 101 wasn’t released to the public until a few months later in early October. The Room 101 is a medium bodied cigar manufactured with tobaccos produced in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. The wrapper itself was labeled as “Semilla 101” and was grown especially for the Room 101. The Room 101 comes in 6 sizes (I think), each one named after different US cities area codes. This particular shape is labeled the “702”, after Las Vegas, Nevada.

Size: 48×54×48×6  –  Wrapper: Semilla 101 from Honduras  –  Binder/Filler: Honduras/Dominican  –  Strength: Medium – Full

Camacho Room 101

Prelight: The Room 101 702 has many unique characteristics that you won’t see from a lot of other cigar manufactures. We’ll start with the band. The band represents the Jewelry very well with is all black ink, supported by all silver prominence. It’s clear from the secondary band that this wasn’t produced by Room 101 for Camacho, but the other way around. Camacho is supporting Room 101 and the conspiracy with this special blended cigar. The band is covered in symbols. If you want to discovery on what these symbols actually mean feel free to browse over to www.room101cigars.com to find out more. The shape of the 702 is very unique as well. It starts off quite bulky on the head, with a nice rounded cap. And just after the band booms from a 48 ring gauge into a boasting 54 gauge through a little more than half the body before returning to a 48. Hopefully this meaty area produces a complex, powerhouse smoke. The wrapper is a dark, chocolately color, very leatheresque with lots of lighter brown areas. There were really no large veins, and absolutely no signs of misconstruction. the foot of the cigar carries lots of loosely wrapper filler tobacco. I honestly think this, from the prelight, is one of the finest constructed cigars I have seen. The wrapper didn’t really carry a lot of strong aromas, but what a did pick out were A graham crackery, cocoa smell with what I could only describe as a tart grape.The cold draw was very similar to the scents I pulled off of the Room 101.

Camacho Room 101

First Smoke: The Room 101 702 releases a nice, smooth draw, with lots and lots of thick tobacco/cocoa scented smoke. The smoke itself wasn’t too pungent, it won’t be as annoying to non-smokers as most other cigars will be. There was a lot let of a pepper taste pulled off the Room 101 than I expected. I think most of the newer Dominican cigars have boasted large pepper tastes and the Room 101 doesn’t follow that guideline making for a much smoother experience. Outside of an incredibly smooth smoke the Room 101 sports a chocolate, cocoa taste with hints of almond and black current. The room 101 is burning very evenly leaving behind a very nice white ash.

Camacho Room 101

There is some flaking from the ash, but nothing that will cause the ash to fall off quickly. The burn itself is a bit faster than I expected, but I have a feeling that will change once I make it into the sweet spot of the cigar. I made it almost 2 inches in before the Room 101 finally ashed off for the first time.

Camacho Room 101

Halfway There: Ahh, the sweet-spot. Almost immediately after hitting the 54 ring gauged portion of the cigar the experience switched up on me. The flavors remained constant, very Ovaltineish with hints of raw coffee. Where as the draw increased significantly. The Room 101’s draw became much looser, and increased in flavor as well as density of smoke. The burn didn’t actually burn slower, but I didn’t need to hit the cigar as hard or as often as I did to produce the draw I was looking for. The burn line got a bit wavy at this point, but no touch ups are needed. The ashed increased in flakiness a bit, but that was mainly due, and expected from opening up the ring gauge of the cigar.

Camcho Room 101

Finish: Towards the end of the smoke the head itself cracked, and unwrapped a bit. I think a lot of that was due to me babysitting this cigar. I didn’t want it to end and actually smoked it quite a bit slower than I would normally. The flavors throughout the entire smoked remained very consistent and the finish was no exception. The chocolate undertones carried through to the finish, and the favors became a bit more tobacco/earthy based. The burn line never got out of hand, and I never felt the need to touch up this cigar, nor did it require any relighting. Considering the size of this cigar I was surprised to see that I had almost no light-headedness or any signs of nicotine for that matter.

Camacho Room 101

Overview: This cigar was well worth the wait in every way imaginable. From the remarkable construction, to the flavors, I feel Camacho knocked this one out of the park. The Room 101 is a direct representation of the hard work, and research that goes into each one of Camacho’s cigar blends. The Room 101 will be in my regular rotation for a long time, and I would recommend everyone else to add it as well. This cigar will be a huge consideration in not only mine, but everyone elses list of top cigars for 2009.

Camacho Room 101

The Room 101 by Camacho was paired with a Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock. One of my favorite Belgium beers. The dark, coffee based double bock beer accompanied the Room 101 every step of the way and even helped distinguish some of the fruity notes of the cigar.

Camacho Room 101 with an Ayinger Celebrator