RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario

By Tony Casas | September 25, 2023

This week I am taking a look at the newly released, limited edition, RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario.

The Good Stuff:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario was created to celebrate the birthday of my boy and RoMa Craft Tobac fonder, Skip Martin. While the name may seem a bit wild to those who aren’t too fluent, it roughly translates to someone who is in their 50’s which is very fitting. Another special addition to the celebratory blend is the fact that Skip collaborated with the famous blender E.P. Carrillo to create the blend. Skip made multiple trips to the Dominican Republic to work with E.P. Carrillo which Skip credits to allowing him to learn more about Sumtran-see wrappers from Ecuador. This ultimately helped him create one of RoMa Craft’s new releases the Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 which we also reviewed recently. the Quinquagenario features an Ecuadorian Sumatran wrapper over a Dominican binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic. The cigar is offered in a single 5 x 50 format which comes packaged in boxes of 24 with only 2,000 boxes being released, running $15 per stick. I purchased a handful of these over from Mardo Cigars.

• Size: 5 x 50
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $15

Prelight:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario starts out with a very consistent, milk-chocolate brown wrapper. There really aren’t any color variations found throughout the wrapper. Speaking of the wrapper, its texture is mostly smooth with some very light grit and only a light layer of oil. The wrapper feels a bit thin and brittle so I don’t handle it too harshly as I find no softspots or trouble areas. The wrapper Carris some lighter veins as it’s laid perfectly over itself leading up to the cigar’s round, triple-wrapped cap. Like all RoMa Craft cigars, it’s evident that a lot of care went into developing the beautiful, and elegant navy blue (Skip was in the Navy right?) and white band with the Quinquaguagenario script embossed in silver across the front. Gotta love the paper stock he uses on all his releases.

The wrapper on the RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario gives off some light honey and molasses aromas while the foot of the cigar is very earthy with some great brown sugar notes over natural tobacco. The cap cut like button under my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces notes of honey, orange citrus, and loads of natural tobacco.

First Third:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario leads with honey, cashew, and a great musk over lighter notes of citrus, vanilla, and light coffee. There is a tiny bit of pepper that just teases my lips a bit. The draw is stupendous. Maybe I have had bad luck lately, or maybe this thing is just rolled perfectly but the smallest of puffs kicks out the perfect amount of very thick, very dense smoke which sticks around for a pretty long time before dissipating while the cigar releases a ton of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burnline is very even and very thin leaving behind a very tightly compacted trail of white and light gray ash which held on for about 3/4 of an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario and an awesome sweetness as really made it’s way to the forefront of the cigar creating a wonderful graham-cracker flavor that is leading the way back by the honey, cashew, and musk with backing notes of vanilla and creamed coffee. The retrohale brings the citrus back out along with a great little spice that pairs really well with the graham cracker. The cigar is still burning like a champ as I close out the second third with absolutely no signs of nicotine.

Finish:

The final third of the RoMa Craft Tobac Quinquagenario showcases an awesome dark chocolate flavor that I didn’t really pick up until now. The Dark chocolate has taken center stage at this point backed by graham cracker, cashew and musk making a very enjoyable, yet smooth flavor profile. I took me an hour and twenty minutes to take this down to the nub and I didn’t want it to end. I experienced no harshness, nor extended heat. The cigar actually left me with zero nicotine kick as well which isn’t something I find in most RoMa Craft blends.

Overview:

A big part of a collaborative effort is to make sure each contributor leaves behind their personal mark and that’s exactly the case in the Quinquagenario. While I am used to the deep, rich and bold flavors skip bakes into each one how blends, this cigar has a bit of a finer touch to it which is likely attributed to E.P. Carrilo’s touch. It’s different for sure, but incredibly enjoyable. The flavor profile is refined, yet complex despite being creamy if that makes any sense. It’s a cigar you don’t have to thing about. It’s just good as a great cigar should be. I only have one more of these left, and plan on picking up a few more to keep around as I really enjoyed it and want to make sure they aren’t sold out before I have a chance to get my hands on more.