Room 101 HN | Cigar Review

By Cigar Reviews by the Katman on January 13, 2014

Wrapper: Honduran Criollo ’98
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Honduran Criollo & Ligero, Dominican Navarette
Size: 5.5 x 44 “213-Corona”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $6.00

First, the term “H” stands for Honduras and the “N” stands for Navarette (a Dominican coastal region that produces leaves noted for their creaminess and sweetness.)

Second, this cigar was released in 2013 at the IPCPR trade show, and each size was produced in 800 box increments making this a small batch cigar. (Yet, I read on a couple big online stores that this is a regular production cigar.) Go figure.

Third, Room 101 has released a new blend, once a year, for the last 3 years. This is the 4th year and its 4th release. The first three were: Room101 LTD Conjura, Room101 LTD Namakubi, and Room101 Daruma. All of which I have reviewed here.

The Room 101 press release states:
“Introducing the NEW Serie HN, the latest edition to the Room101 core line of cigars. Following the success of our most recent core offering, the Room101 San Andres, we’ve decided to take yet another unique journey with this new blend. Honduran Criollo is widely-known for its signature taste; rich, rugged and filled with intense spice.
“By itself, Criollo can be slightly one dimensional. However, when expertly combined with tobaccos such as Mata Fina from Brazil and a creamy Dominican Navarette, the richness and spice of Criollo comes to life in an unimaginable way. The result is a multi-dimensional and full-flavored, medium-intensity cigar with a level of balance unmatched by most.”

Go to the Room 101 web site and it seems they are more consumed by upwardly mobile lifestyle including baubles and jewelry than they are about cigars. I was not able to find any information about their cigars. Granted, Matt Booth’s main career is a jeweler, but why no cigar info? Click on the Cigar icon and it takes you back to the main page.

The stick comes in five sizes: Papi Chulo: 4 x 42, 305: 5 x 50, 213: 5 1/2 x 44, 615: 7 x 48, and 808: 6 x 60

I chose the corona size due to its probability of being a flavor bomb. The cigar is a bit on the rustic side with exposed seams and loads of veins. The cap is sloppy and it could be a single (most probably) or it might be a double. There is a nice oiliness on the wrapper and it feels baby tush smooth.

I clip the cap and find aromas of cocoa, strong red pepper, sweetness, baking spices, and some coffee.
Time to light up.

The draw is good. Spice comes slamming home. It’s a very smoky cigar in that billows of smoke fill the room and the fan behind me can’t work hard enough to push it out.

The char line is wavy. A minor correction may be required to set things straight.

The first flavors, besides the spiciness, are a sweet creaminess, nuts, and leather. A nice combo to start with. The strength begins with classic medium body. The cigar is packed fairly tightly but with a proper amount of give; therefore making it a slow burner. This is a good sign as I get the best of both worlds with this corona: A flavor bomb and it takes its time.

Another dreary day in Milwaukee by the temps, My God! Are in the low 30’s. Tee shirt and shorts weather. I remember growing up in So Cal that when the temps got down into the 60’s everyone bundled up and shivered. LOL. I’d give anything for a 60 degree day right now. But after that frigid weather I am just glad it’s over.

The early onset of sweetness and creaminess are wonderful. I am surprised that I am not yet receiving the cocoa and coffee flavors. No cigar worth its weight in Colombian cocaine is without the cocoa/coffee cartel. But then this cigar is totally without Nicaraguan tobacco. These days, that is very unusual not to have it in some part of the blend.

Halfway through the first third, not much has changed. The spiciness is still ever present and the sweetness is outstanding with the runner up being the cream and nuts.

I want to thank Garland Centrella at Atlantic Cigars for sending me samples for review. Nice man. He has been very supportive over the last couple of years.

The second third begins and there are noticeable changes…first, the spiciness has lessened. The sweetness and creaminess have become more important to the flavor profile. And the missing coffee element has shown itself.

Since making those minor corrections to the burn line early on, the burn has been acting like a champ ever since. Catch it in the bud and there is no excuse for it getting out of hand; even if it means doing it 2-3 times. Just be careful not to let the flame hit the cherry. I use a single flame torch when fixing the char line. A triple torch is like using a flame thrower…and chars the wrapper. I’m sure you are saying to yourselves, “Katman, you shmuck, I know what I’m doing so shut up. Ass.”

I near the halfway mark and the sweetness has moved on to greener pastures. The spice has reached its peak which is a medium level of intensity and just plops there. The nuttiness and coffee are stronger. And the beginning of a rich earthiness begins. The strength begins its climb to medium/full. The leather component makes resurgence. As well as some nice cedar to balance things out. I would not classify this blend as a flavor bomb but it is most interesting and enjoyable, all the same.

A few moments later, I get citrus notes. A nice tanginess. Clearly, there will be no cocoa flavors in this blend.

This is a great size to enjoy this cigar. I’ve been smoking for a good 45 minutes or longer. And I still have 2-1/2” to go.

The price point ($6.00) on this stick is exemplary. The New Breed Tattooed Ones tend to deliver cigars in the $7-$8 range. Of course, there are exceptions. But Booth could have easily charged a bit more here.

I begin to get a small amount of nicotine kick as the cigar hits medium/full.

The last third begins with more changes. The coffee has moved to the background. The earthiness has moved to the front of the line with the spiciness and nuts right behind.

Then, out of the blue, the creaminess returns in force. Giving the flavor profile a real kick in the pants.

I highly recommend that you join the Atlantic Cigar VIP Club for $60 a year. The savings can be redeemed in two box purchases, or less. I can’t tell you how much this cigar is via the club membership but it is substantial. I told my readership once what that savings was and Garland read me the riot act.

But I will say this, that if you bought a box of the coronas for the VIP price, you would almost pay for the club fee in one felled swoop. And the pricing goes for the 5 packs and singles as well.

In addition to that, members get first crack at really hard to get cigars via an email alert.

The last third just about reaches flavor bomb status. And the nicotine has me swirling. At this point in the review, I usually down a bowl of cereal to regain my senses.

The cigar band is removed with ease.

I made up my own invention of sugar free cake last night and I’m munching on it now. Half chocolate cake, half cheesecake…with raisins. I could sell this. It’s that good. If you want the recipe, email me. You’ll thank me if you are also a diabetic.
The cake does its job and settles the swirls.

The cigar finishes out very flavorful. It is not a multi flavored blend but it is a solid premium cigar that stands on its own with the flavors it presents. The spiciness has all but disappeared. The earthiness and the creaminess and the nuttiness make a perfect trifecta.

I would definitely buy a box.

And now for something completely different:
“The Wife Chronicles..continued…”
Lake Tahoe 1984

Our dating process went quickly from seeing each other to me moving in with her and her room mates. Although, it was her place.

I had been living like a bum since the Eddie Munster and Sound Sorcery recording studio project collapsed in on themselves like something from the Hadron Collider.

I spent my time in Tahoe living in the band group house in a sleeping bag. I didn’t have back problems when I was 34; but nonetheless, it was humiliating after what I had just experienced by being on top of the world.

I shared a room with a woman who was a friend of the band leader. She was a dealer at one of the casinos. Didn’t say much and kept to herself and had a secret crush on me.

One night, during a graveyard shift, she was dealing black jack to a single man in his 50’s most of the night. Without a how do you do, he pulls out a gun and blows his brains out all over the table and the dealer.

She spent 3 days in the fetal position at the house.

Moving in with Charlotte was great. A real bed.

Her room mates were morons. But they paid rent on time. I avoided them as much as possible.

I was a kept man as my only income was being paid as if I was a 5th band member. This meant I averaged $200 a week. Of course, I had no bills. I had skipped town.

So Charlotte and I went out for dinner a lot and my money didn’t last long. As I said, I was a kept man.

I had grown weary of the egos of these band members. I had been a big shot and I was listening to small time potatoes whine and piss and moan about everything. These guys were going nowhere fast.

So after 4 months in Tahoe, I convinced Charlotte to come with me to Long Beach where my father lived and owned a steel fab shop.

I went, hat in hand, and asked for a job. I was made a structural draftsman, or detailer. My degree stead me well.

I was paid $400 a week. My father’s partners paid their kids three times what I made and they had no experience. They insisted I be paid very little to show my dad his place. And my weasel father put up with it. I lasted two years and moved on and with it a commensurate wage.

Charlotte and I lived in a bachelor apartment. No bedroom. No refrigerator. A cooler.

No one was going to pay for our wedding. Her mother was estranged. Her father died two years before I met her.

So we went out to Indio, near Palm Springs and got married in the clerk’s office with a giant American flag on the wall. A judge’s chamber was not available.

There was a large window and from which people paying their parking tickets were watching us get married. Man oh man, that was humiliating.

My dad lent us his two bedroom condo that he rented out for our honeymoon. A dinner was thrown for us and their uber rich friends gave us cheap and shitty gifts.

When my father found out I was marrying a German Catholic, he almost had a heart attack and my grandfather was spinning in his grave.

But after 6 months of getting to know her, they determined they liked her better than they liked me. I get no respect.

A jump ahead to when our daughter was in the third grade. We moved her to a Jewish day school because we had trouble with the Mormons at her school in Mesa. Mesa has one of the largest populations of Mormons outside of Utah. And we found out three months after the fact that our kid was forced to sit at her desk, in the corner of the room, facing the wall because she said, “Oh my God,” too often. Mormons.

Anyway, she had Hebrew school and the kid had three hours of homework each night…In the third grade!!

I was working killer hours so Charlotte ended up learning Hebrew and helped the kid with her homework. That still cracks me up to this day. I’m sure her dead relatives were spinning in their graves.

The last house on the right is where Charlotte grew up in Fulda, Germany: