RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis EMH

We still haven’t really received any rain here and I am hoping that changes today. The clouds are building and I find myself RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis.

The Good Stuff:

Skip Martin, founder of RoMa Craft tobac announced earlier this year that our beloved Cromagnon would be undergoing a change. Due to tobacco sourcing limitations the company was forced to swap the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper with a Pennsylvanian Broadleaf. The Clovis features the same blend as this version of the Cromagnon: a hybrid Sumatran binder over Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. It still carries the updated wrapper, only the Pennsylvanian Broadleaf is separated, barber pole style with an Ecuadorian Candela leaf. The cigar is offered in a single “EMH” 5 x 56 format. The cigar comes packaged in boxes of 24 running $13.15 per cigar with only 500 boxes being produced. I purchased mine over from Small Batch cigar.

• Size: 5 x 56
• Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf / Ecuadorian Candela
• Binder: Sumatra Hybrid
• Filler: Dominican Republic and Nicaraguan
• Price: $13.15
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium/Full

Prelight:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis starts out with the obvious standout characteristic of its very dark brown and army green barber pole style wrapper. The brown is mostly consistent with a few lighter areas around the tobacco’s natural veining while the green is so consistent it almost looks like plastic. The construction on this cigar is flawless as the wrapper is not only perfectly separated but laid over itself seamlessly. The wrapper’s texture is very toothy and very gritty with a good amount of oil coating it. The wrapper is thick and dense while the cigar as a whole is very hard and solid leading up to its round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with the updated Cromagnon wrapper which still carries the same standard black and white pair with an updated silver text on the Cromagnon embossing.

The wrapper on the RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis gives off a very musky, woodsy aroma with a light floral character while the foot of the cigar is more earthy with notes of spice and natural tobacco. The cap took a bit to cut due to its thickness. The cold draw produces loads of woodsy and oaky notes with musk and a touch of sweetness.

First Third:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis starts out with a nice little black pepper punch which fades very quickly allowing the cigar to release notes of strong cedar and musk over lighter notes of dark chocolate, light espresso and a dry earthiness. There is also a nice herbal tea note in there that is trying to fight its way through the flavor profile. The draw is perfect. Each puff kicks out a good amount of thick, white smoke which dissipates very quickly while the cigar releases almost not stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is rock solid and sharp leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted light gray ash which held on for almost an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis and the cedar and musk have really taken over. The cedar flavor is remarkable. Under the woodsy flavors I find the same rich, dark chocolate, espresso and just a solid dryness. There isn’t much sweetness in this profile at all. The retrohale really pumps up the cedar to a whole other level. I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick which is surprising considering how slow this cigar burns.

Finish:

The final third of the RoMa Craft Tobac Cromagnon Clovis is where the body of the cigar really ramps up. First that mild black pepper is back and with force. Underneath is it very bold musk and cedar over dry, deep dark chocolate and espresso and the floral earthy flavors that have been poking in and out are very evident now. It took me almost 2 hours to smoke this slow burning cigar down to the nub. There was no harshness, no extended heat and no sap. The cigar burned perfect from start to finish with no help needed from my torch as I close out with a decent little nicotine hit.

Overview:

I have always loved the Cromagnon from the first time I smoked it in Skip’s initial release sampler packs. To this day I keep my humidor stocked with them. When Skip announced the blend changed I didn’t really worry much, if anything I got excited. I know the tobaccos are both very similar, but I also know that Skip wouldn’t have made the change if he didn’t think it was worthy to carry the same Cromagnon moniker. I’ll probably end up copying that portion of the overview over when I review the standard new release, but I figured it applied here too. Now the Clovis carries a very similar experience only there are some lighter herbal notes I am able to pick up which differentiate it from the standard Cromagnon. Or maybe it’s a placebo. Either way I do feel there are little nuances that make the cigar different. While it’s a bit pricey and hard to find, it’s a worth cigar if you do find it and urge you to pick it up as it won’t be around for very long as I already had a hard time getting my hands on it.