Room 101 Big Payback and Matt Booth at the RMCF, an Island Jim and a Tatuaje

As I’m starting to sort out the videos I took at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival last weekend, I figured I’d start off with Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars and just get it over with. One never know’s what to expect with Matt, always entertaining and after all is said and done, he’s a class guy.  His table was right next to the Halfwheel table, hence the comment a few moments into the video. Last night I smoked the Room 101 Big Payback Chavala, which is a 5″ x 50 classic robusto.  This is a value line for Room 101, made in Nicaragua, and coming in around the $5 mark.  I see this trend of value cigars, with the Tatuaje Tattoo and Illusione‘s Rothchild and Gigante, and it’s not bad.  The Chavala was a really great smoke, it burned perfectly and had a nice tobacco sweetness that I really enjoyed. I think this is a great smoke and will be picking up some more of these in the future.

Here’s the video with Matt.  I really need to better prepare myself for these things….

Friday was my birthday, 51, if you’re counting, so my wife took me out to Cigar Mojo down in King of Prussia, PA and we ordered a couple pizzas and sat around smoking cigars and watching TV!  I selected the new Island Jim by Oscar Valladares Tobacco and Company for my birthday smoke. Island Jim is Jim Robinson who owns the Leaf and Bean shops in the Pittsburgh area. He’s probably a Penguins fan, but I won’t hold that against him. This torpedo with the shaggy foot appealed to me for some reason, and of all the great cigars available in that shop, this one was the one I decided on.  The head of this has a Connecticut band and a Maduro band and is not capped, but does need a cut midway through the Connecticut stripe for a great draw.  I smoked this just about to that Connecticut stripe, it was that good. I don’t have any regrets at all about choosing this for my celebration cigar, it was smooth with a nice sweetness, and a unique flavor I couldn’t pinpoint. I suppose I’ll have to smoke another one eventually to see if I can nail that flavor down. The high point of the evening was having a childhood friend stop in and share a smoke. We’ll call him “Pat Smith”, and we grew up in the same neighborhood and played in our first garage bands together in the ’70s.  I hadn’t seen this guy in over 30 years, and closed the Mojo talking and smoking.  It was a very nice evening, although I wish people in the lounge had taken me up on the pizza offer…we had to bring a whole pie home!

Saturday I selected a special cigar that Will Cooper sent me last year for my birthday, a Tatuaje Monster Series Mummy. This is a 7¾” x 47 cigar that had what I thought was a very Cuban smoking experience. It burned like a Havana, that is to say it was a little loosely rolled and burned pretty fast. The flavor also reminded me of a Havana a little, I can’t say specifically, which line, but the overall experience was reminiscent of a fine Cuban cigar. It has a little zing, but was still smooth and rich. I enjoyed the heck out of this cigar. I don’t have a great deal of experience with the Tatuaje brand, but what I have smoked I liked, and this was a really nice Saturday afternoon smoke. Thank you, Mr. Cooper, for this gift.  Sorry it took me a year to get to, but I think I timed it perfectly!

That’s it for now. Not sure what’s on the block for today, but it’s a holiday weekend, so I’ll be selecting something good for sure. Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for reading along!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig