Tag Archives: Room 101

July 12, 2026 · 9:52 am

New England Cigar Militia 250 Years of Independence, Villiger 1888 and Room 101 Cigars

You know how sometimes I smoke with a theme in mind, and sometimes it just works out that way? This time it was cigars with numbers in the name I guess. Totally unintentional. I’m starting out with a cigar from the New England Cigar Militia, which is a facebook group founded by Kevin Parow. This cigars is the New England Cigar Militia 250 Years of Independence. There isn’t a lot of information about this cigar out there, and I was rather hoping to have more info before I wrote this. I suppose I’ll be updating a few things later. This is a perfecto, or salomon cigar, it’s 6″ x 54 by my measuring and, best I can tell, it’s made at American Caribbean Cigars S.A. in Esteli. This is the factory that makes Rock-A-Feller Cigars. I really should have smoked one of these last weekend, given the overall theme of the cigar. I think it’s probably good all year, right? Even with the nipple at the foot, it had a great draw. I got some sweet, nuttiness over the course of the smoke. The wrapper wasn’t the prettiest, and I suspect it was a Habano of some sort. I probably am safe saying this is a limited edition cigar, and, once again pending an update, I don’t know where one would purchase these cigars. This part of the article is pending updates.

Next up was the Villiger 1888 San Andrés toro. People seem to dump on Villiger as a brand, and I’ve never been able to figure out why. A lot of cigars aren’t widely available, and a lot of brands are on the market for years and don’t get a lot of traction. In the probably 15 years I’ve been smoking Villiger cigars, and I mean the premium ones, I haven’t had a bad one, and there’s quite a few I’ve really enjoyed a lot. Sure, they screwed up many years ago when they eliminated their sales staff, really screwed up (leaving people stranded away from home isn’t right). Since then Renè Castañeda has been leading the brand in the U.S. and making some excellent cigars. This 1888 San Andrés is one of the better ones. I smoked the 6″ x 50 toro, which is box pressed. I see they make a Churchill, I really want to get my hands on some of those! I like a traditional Churchill, even though this one is 7″ x 50, I’m willing to give it a shot. Anyway, this has a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers, and it’s made at Villiger de Nicaragua, which is a factory within the Joya de Nicaragua factory. The wrapper is beautiful, dark with some oils showing. I get some dark chocolate and espresso, without the earthiness that one sometimes get with Mexican tobacco. I’ve been a fan of the Mexican leaf since I started smoking Te-Amos back in the 90s, and this one is far more refined.

I came across a Room 101 Doomsayer toro in the humidor and realized I’d never smoked one, so I lit one up last night. This line has been around for a few years, if comes in two styles, the Passive and the Aggressive. I smoked the Passive, which has a Ecuador Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder and fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. It’s a 6″ x 55 toro. This line came out before Scandinavian Tobacco Group acquired Room 101. It’s made in the Dominican Republic at Tabacalera William Ventura. I think these came in a box of 55 for some reason, and they appear to be still available here and there. This cigar smoked very well for me, burn and draw were perfect. There was a nice spiced bread sort of flavor that was intriguing. the number 55 must have some significance, the ring gauge and box count both being 55, but I sure don’t get it! It was a good cigar, seems to be a value price, and I would recommend it.

Tonight we are attending a Diner en Blob, which is based on the Diner en Blanc, which is a pop-up white party we have attended in years past. This is in conjunction with Blobfest, which is held every year in nearby Phoenixville, PA. The 1958 classic “The Blob” was filmed at locations around our area. This dinner is being held at a secret location, we dress in red, bring our own food, and we’ll see how it goes. I have a selection of Red cigars picked out for the evening, if the opportunity present itself to smoke. Bariay 1492 Red, West Tampa Red, Macanudo Inspirado Red, Red Meat Lovers and Hoyo de Monterrey Rojo cigars will be in my pocket. We anticipate a good time. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

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Tagged as 1888, 250 Years of Independence, cigar, cigars, Doomsayer, New England Cigar Militia, Passive, Room 101, San Andrés, Villiger

November 9, 2025 · 9:46 am

La Flor Dominicana Suave, Rocky Patel Emerald and a Room101 Namakubi Cigar

Another week down. We’re well into November, I have to start thinking about putting up Christmas lights, and decorations, and as fast as time is going I’m wondering what’s the point? I’ll no sooner get them up and have to take them down. My grandmother always told me the older you get, the faster time goes by and she wasn’t wrong! Things need to slow down! Anyway, my daily vacation is a cigar, and I try to slow things down for the hour and a half I spend with one. This week I had a trio of new-to-me cigars (actually four, but one needs a second look. I’ll try to get that in next week). The first two I purchased on a visit to the Wooden Indian a couple weeks back. I’ll start with the La Flor Dominicana Suave Grand Maduro No. 6 . This is a 5¾” x 54 torpedo, with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, binder from Jalapa, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic fillers. It’s a throwback to the original LFD blends back in 1994, before they were known for making powerhouse cigars. I likened the flavors to bakers chocolate, there was a dryness to it, cocoa without sweetness. As it warmed up it got some spiciness, but was never what I’d call strong, just a really nice, medium cigar. I’d recommend trying this, it’s a really nice cigar.

I’ve been making an effort to sample more Rocky Patel cigars, the trouble is, I have a problem remembering what I’ve tried and what I haven’t. I will often search my own website to check, which is kinda why I started doing this in the first place, to create a record of what I smoke, a web log, I guess. There should be a word for that. Anyway, I knew I hadn’t tried the Rocky Patel Emerald yet, I’d have remember the green sleeve on the cigar. It reminded me of Christmas, even though it’s not supposed to. I smoked the Toro, and I’ve mentioned before that I like that a lot of Rocky’s toros are 6½” x 52, I like that extra half an inch. Of course, if it’s a bad cigar, that’s no good, but I don’t think I’ve come across a Rocky Patel cigar that was bad. I digress. The Emerald has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, over a Mexican binder with Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. They say that this is their first box pressed cigar that’s on the lighter side of medium. I think the green snuck into my subconscious, because it had a Christmasy flavor, baking spices like Christmas cookies. I liked it a lot, so much so that I went out and bought another one. Oddly, my Facebook post about this cigar had more engagement that most of my posts.

I’ve smoked a couple of these Room 101 Namakubi Chingon. I love the blue presentation, long considered a bad color for cigar bands, it’s come around and it really works on this. This is made in partnership with William Ventura in the DR, I’m guessing at his factory in Tamboril. It uses the Ranfla vitola, a 6½” x 50 perfecto. Interestingly, the size is incorrectly stated on the press release (twice) as 5½” x 60, and I’ve seen that parroted on other sites, certainly by people who would know the difference. I’d actually like to try this in a 5½” x 60, I almost feel cheated if I got the wrong samples….almost. This is an exceptional cigar, and it should be for the $25 price tag. It has an interesting herbal start, switching to cane sugar in the second two thirds. I enjoyed the first one so much that I had to go back for a second one, which unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy as much because I was trying to watch the Flyers game, and the sketchy websites I was using were giving me fits. I would pay someone a nominal fee (or send cigars?) for the use of their cable credentials so I can watch on the NBC app, I’m too cheap to spend $38 a month for Peacock, that negates my savings dropping cable. I’m bitching about $38 a month while smoking $25 cigars, first world problems. I like this new Namakubi better than my memory of the old one, and I had an excellent well aged Namakubi Papi Chulo not long ago!

That’s all I have for today, until the next time.

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Chingon, cigar, cigars, Emerald, Forged, La Flor Dominicana, Namakubi, Ranfla, rocky patel, Room 101, Suave

May 11, 2025 · 9:15 am

Some Olmec, Room 101 and La Gloria Cubana Cigars

Thank you again to Craig Gilpin, the Breadman, for pinch-hitting for me last week. It’s been another rough week (parents can accumulate a LOT of crap over the years!), and cigars have been very therapeutic. I thought Craig did a great job, and the door is always open to him. I have posted about the Foundation Cigar Co’s Olmec Claro before, but not the Maduro for some reason, so I recently picked up a couple of each and figured it would be fun to smoke them back to back. I local shop was having a buy two, get one sale o the entire stock for some reason, so I bought some cigars I generally wouldn’t spend the extra scratch on. The Foundation Cigar Co. Olmec were some I picked up. These are in the $15 range, not terrible, but not inexpensive. I picked up the Grande size, the 6″ x 60, because the box press makes it look smaller (and I don’t mind a 6″x60 cigar). I smoked the Claro first. The Claro starts out with a citric twinge, which doesn’t last long, and turns bready with some cafe con Leche flavors. I liked it, good cigar, but the ash is flaky, I needed to dust off after this one! I then (later that day), turned to the Maduro. Both of these cigars have a San Andrés wrapper, difference is very obvious. The website lists binder from Esteli/Jalapa and undisclosed fillers. As I noted the last time I wrote about this cigar, it’s either a dual binder, or a typo on the website. If I liked the Claro, I really liked the Maduro, which should surprise nobody. The Maduro had loads of sweet chocolate with some spices thrown in. It’s a cigar I would love to have in my humidor. If you enjoy many of the cigars I enjoy, this is up your alley.

Next up was the Room 101 15th Anniversary. Room 101 started in 2009, the same year that I started this site. I’ve always wanted to sync up smoking one of their anniversary series, which comes out every year, just never found them around when I was thinking about it. These fell into my lap (TY STG). This is made with A.J. Fernandez, and it’s a Nicaraguan puro, and that’s about all I can find about the blend. This cigar has a lot going on. There’s some fruitiness, some spice, some wood, and cocoa. One of the best Room 101 cigars I’ve smoked. This cigar was almost a year late, but worth the wait, I can’t wait for the 16th! CigarCraig.com turns sixteen at the end of August, by the way!

My appreciation of the La Gloria Cubana brand goes back 30 years, and there have been some winners over the years, but a lot of misses for me along the way. So when I received some of the newest offering, the La Gloria Cubana Los Gloriosos, I was interested immediately. Along the lines of the Colección Reserva (back in 2017), this is blended by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., who launched the brand in the US in the’70s. La Gloria Cubana in Cuba goes back to the late 1800s. The cigar is a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos, the press information doesn’t give any more information than that. This is the best cigar with the La Gloria name in a long time, at least for me. I really liked the Colección Reserva, and the La Gloria Esteli, and this tops the list for me. There’s a really interesting spice I can’t put my finger on, but is distinctive. I will smoke more, maybe I’ll smoke a Colección Reserva too and see how they compare! I’ll always be a fan of the brand, there’s just some I avoid and some I enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day to all. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 15th Anniversary, cigar, cigars, Claro, Foundation Cigar Co., La Gloria Cubana, Los Gloriosos, Olmec, Room 101

September 22, 2024 · 9:28 am

New Big Payback and CAO Cigars, a Jaime Garcia and a Vegas Cubanas

This week I smoked some cigars I received from General Cigars and Forged, along with a couple cigars I picked up locally that I hadn’t smoked before. I couple of them were obnoxiously large! First off was the Room 101 Big Payback 70s Maduro. I rather enjoyed the Olancho San Augustin (which they are now referring to as Sumatra, I never made that connection!) wrapped version that came out last year, despite its size. This one has a US Broadleaf wrapper (Connecticut? Massachusetts? Pennsylvania? My guess is the PA) over a Nicaraguan binder with fillers from the DR and Honduras, and it’s made at their factory in Honduras. I smoked this cigar for about two and a half hours and it burned well and had a pleasing flavor. It’s pretty much what one would expect, although the excessive ring gauge makes it fairly mild. It has earthy cocoa and some sweetness. Very nice cigar if you have a long time to do something like chat with friends or watch a game or a movie, as it doesn’t necessarily demand your attention. It has a $9 MSRP so it’s a good value.

I smoked a couple of the new CAO Arcana Thunder Smoke this week. After the Arcana Firewalker debacle, I was a tad concerned. This is an interesting blend, it has the Olancho San Augustin wrapper, a San Andrés binder and fillers from Africa: Zimbabwe, South Africa and Cameroon. I watched the final episode of The Grand Tour on Prime yesterday, and it just made sense to smoke a cigar with tobacco from Zimbabwe. I watched this on the recommendation of Nick from The Cigar Pulpit podcast, and a great recommendation it was. I’ve been a big fan of Top Gear, The Grand Tour, and many of the presenters offshoot shows for many years. This cigar, third in the Arcana series, the first was the Mortal Coil, followed by the abysmal Firewalker, then this one. This was a really enjoyable cigar for me. It’s got a unique Mesquite flavor going on, something rather different and pleasing. The band is oversized, but that’s about the only bad thing I can say about it! I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the Mortal Coil, which I liked a great deal.

I realized that My Father cigars were severely underrepresented on my site, and in my rotation, so I decided to branch out and pick something I haven’t tried before up every now and then. I grabbed a Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Super Gordo a week or so ago at a local shop. The Super Gordo is 5¾” x 66, in a torpedo format so the excessive girth isn’t quite so unwieldy. This does come in a 7″ x 70, which they didn’t have, nor would I have bought. It has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, an Ecuador binder and fillers from the Garcia farms in Nicaragua. Now that I remember, I smoked one of these last May in the Toro size and, although I had a cold, recall enjoying it. These are reasonably priced, hovering around $10 depending on the size. This Super Gordo might have been around $11. This was an exceptional cigar, I really liked it. It started out spicy, and the strength built up as it smoked, to a pretty full bodied cigar near the end. It had the sweet coffee/cocoa that I like in a Broadleaf wrapper. This was excellent. I want more.

Finally, I spied the Don Pepin Garcia Vegas Cubanas on the shelf, the green band is ey-catching. This is another line that has been around a while, but has eluded my attention. This is another reasonably priced cigar, I think the Generosos (6″ x 50) was under $9. Funny, ten years ago buying an $9 cigar to me was like buying a +$15 cigar today, it was very hard for me to justify! This cigar has a nice looking Habano Rosado wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This is one I’ll pass on revisiting, I’m afraid. It was nice enough, although it had a floral component that didn’t really do it for me. Maybe it would be better in the morning, although floral isn’t ever really in my wheelhouse. I tolerate it, but it’s not a preference. If you enjoy floral cigar, this is for you! Next time I’ll pick up some other cigars in the Don Pepin line, I haven’t had any of them in a while.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Arcana, Big Payback, CAO, cigar, cigars, Don Pepin Garcia, Jaime Garcia, Reserva Especial, Room 101, Super Gordo, Thunder Smoke, Vegas Cubanas

April 28, 2024 · 10:16 am

Two More Panacea Cigars, a Room 101 and a Diesel Vintage

I finished off the sampler of Panacea Classic line cigars I bought from them a couple weeks back. I’m to understand there are a few shops that carry the Flatbed Cigar Co. line, but they mostly are selling direct via the website. I’ve placed a couple orders and both were easy transactions and the cigars came well packaged, presented well and in a timely manner. Of course, the company is located barely an hour from me, which helps with the shipping. I’m going ot have to arange a visit one of these days! I had the Blue Label and Black Label left, and smoked the Panacea Blue Label on Thursday. This was the Toro size, a 6″ x 52, with a Cameroon wrapper. I had thought that the Green Label was my favorite, bt I might have to amend that after smoking this Blue Label. This was a delicious cigar, it had a nice white sugar sweetness, along with the nuttiness I get from Cameroon. This was a fine, medium bodied cigar that I really enjoyed. I might have to see if they offer a sampler of these like the Green Label sampler I got!

The Panacea Black Label, which I keep wanting to call the White, I guess because I associate Connecticut wrapped cigars with white. Probably something Davidoff and Montecristo put into my head. The Black Label was their first line launched in 2007, If I’m not mistaken. Like I mentioned, it has an Ecuador Connecticut shade wrapper, and the rest is Dominican and Nicaraguan. I had the Perfecto shape, which is 6″ x 51. I was impressed with the flavor, it had a hint of that white sugar I got with the Blue Label, along with some of the classic shade grass and nuts. I wish this had a better draw, I thought it would open up after the tapered foot burned down, but it really didn’t. This would have been an outstanding cigar otherwise, certainly a Connecticut I’d smoke again. After smoking thought the line, I think I’m most looking forward to sampling the Green and Blue Labels again, or maybe I’ll explore their Panacea Grande line. Good stuff.

Yesterday I got some yard work and errands done, and spent a little time i the afternoon with a Room 101 Hit & Run Redux Robusto. This 5″ x 50 has aSan Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder, and Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers. This is made at the William Ventura factory in Tamboril, DR. I have to start out saying two things: Is it weird that a 5″ x 50 seems like a small cigar now days? It used to be y go to size, now I avoid them because they seem to smoke too quickly. I suppose an hour isn’t that quick, but I guess I like to spend a little more time smoking now than I used to. Second, I have not historically cared for a lot of cigars from William Ventura. I’m not entirely sure why that is, they seem to smoke well and have a large following, I just can’t seem to get into them. Given the blend, I should have really liked this cigar, and I did like it, just found it a little underwhelming. It had a nice toasty cocoa, almost a dark chocolate flavor. The presentation is nice, and I’ll give another one a try after a while.

Finally, I smoked the Diesel Vintage Series Natural in the Robusto Gordo size. This is 5″ x 56, made by A.J. Fernandez in Nicaragua, with an Ecuador wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and five to seven year old Nicaraguan Jalapa fillers. I’ve smoked a lot of Diesel cigars over the years, And I really liked the original Diesel Vintage, which had a San Andrés wrapper. I have a rather basic palate, I got some saltiness, along with some citrus and nuts. Burn and draw were exceptional, it was a pleasurable smoke. I would suggest you read my buddy Kaplowitz’ review of this if you would like a more colorful description. I hit the basics, Kap digs deep into the flavors. This probably falls near the bottom of my list of favorite Diesel cigars through no fault of the cigar, it is a more refined Diesel, which misses the point of the brand in my eye. I think there’s some 13 year old Unholy Cocktails in the humidor, I might have to smoke one later.