Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Honduran Corojo, Dominican Criollo
Size: 7 x 38 “Lancero”
Body: Full
Price: $8.25 MSRP

A new variation on a theme by Matt Booth. Take the Room 101 Daruma and replace the Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with a Mexican San Andres.

Just recently released, this appears to be another notch in Booth’s belt.

“The Room 101 Daruma Gold introduces a new limited production cigar under the Daruma line available in five sizes. The Room 101 Daruma Gold is comprised similarly to the original Room 101 Daruma –but with a big change using a San Andres Mexican wrapper, replacing the Ecuadorian Habano wrapper found on the original Daruma blend. The wrapper is a beauty, dark brown in color with a wonderful sheen. The blend is also comprised with a Brazilian Mata Fina binder and blend of bold rich tobaccos consisting of a Corojo, Criollo & Pelo de Oro tobacco types from Honduras and Dominican Republic. The result is a bold cigar that’s medium in strength.”

The cigar comes in five sizes: 4 x 42, 4 x 48, 5 x 60, 7 x 48, and 7 z 38. The price range is from $7-$9
MSRP. The price range is the exact same as the regular Room 101 Daruma. The cigar is a limited edition. This Mutante size is limited to only 5000 cigars.

The cigar oozes oil. Very toothy. A hard cigar with the right amount of push. A nice little touch of a pig tail on the cap. Invisible seams and a moderate amount of veins. The wrapper is a dark chocolate color.

I clip the cap and find aromas of dark cocoa, hay, cream, spice, cedar, and peach preserves.
Time to light up.

The first puffs are very earthy. The draw is spot on. Sweetness appears. And a slowly building of red pepper. Which accelerates in the first inch.

Creaminess appears. A fruity flavor of raisin and apricot brandy appear. Very subtle.

The earthiness still is the mainstay of the flavor profile.
Cocoa appears. Again, subtle.

The second third begins. No major changes. Except for a meaty flavor.

Here are the flavors: Earthy, creaminess, spice, cocoa, sweetness, raisin, meaty, brandy, wood, and leather.
The stick becomes a flavor bomb. Bursting with flavor and nuance. The balance is very good with a long finish.

The brandy element has a definite impact.

The strength has been classic medium body but now moves up to medium/full with a chaser of nicotine. Shit. I still have 4” to go.

New flavors appear: citrus and nuttiness. The citrus is lemon zest. The nuts are a combo of almond and black walnuts.

This has become a very complex cigar. Perfect of the experienced cigar smoker with an excellent palate. And a good stick for newbies looking to expand their horizons.

The Room 101 Daruma Gold is a more sophisticated cigar than the regular Room 101 Daruma.

Since the guts are the same as the original Daruma, it must be the San Andres wrapper giving the cigar a whole new twist.

The construction of the cigar has been spot on. The char line has been dead nuts. The cap impeccable. And not a single issue with the wrapper.

The halfway comes and goes. I begin the last third and the flavors intensify.

The nuttiness really becomes a strong flavor. The creaminess right behind. The Mexican earth has done a good job for providing a perfect wrapper.

I can’t get the cigar band and cut it off leaving a small nick in the wrapper.

The last couple of inches are pure nirvana. (Which gives me an excuse for an ex-rock god story)
The cigar hits full bodied and the nicotine has me swirling.

I only gave this stick a week in the humidor. Room 101 cigars have a tendency not to need much humidor time. Except for one blend: Daruma Monstro (5 x 60). That one took a while.

The sun is out. The temp is a balmy 56°. Just perfect. But my heart goes out to the parts of the country undergoing terrible weather; especially San Diego. Being a So Cal boy, we lived in San Diego from 2002-2005. Lovely town if you have money.

While this cigar has a small ring gauge, it took me a good 90 minutes to finish the cigar.

This is a must have cigar. But act quickly.

And now for something completely different:

We were out of herb. We were in fucking Germany. No worse place to be to be out of smoke.

We played at some German town not far from the border of Holland. We announced to the crowd that we needed advice on where to get some hash. Of course, lots of people handed us stuff after the concert but we threw it away. Never trust free dope. Too many horror stories about that.

One audience member said we could follow him to a hash club right on the border where we could buy enough for the rest of the tour.

We finished around 11pm. We quickly changed. Darryl didn’t do drugs so he went to a local bar and drank. He was half through with his beer when we taunted him into coming. We all grabbed our instruments.

The other four of us got into the Lincoln town car driven by our road manager and we followed the bloke to a nice little town. Can’t remember the name of it.

A band was playing. The club was huge. With a really nice stage and sound system. The good fellow from the concert showed us where the dealer was. The dealer had set up a little station for selling hash. He sat in a big overstuffed chair with a big chalk board standing behind him. There were the names of different types of hash and the prices.

The dealer wouldn’t take our money but we foisted it upon him because we got a lot of hash. Probably an ounce. That’s a lot.

Then we took the stage. We didn’t ask if we could play. We were Curved Air. The crowd went nuts. The band that was playing were thrilled we would be using their equipment and they had a good sound guy.

Stewart, Mick, Sonja and I lit up a big bowl of hash a couple minutes before jumping on the stage.

Within minutes, it hit us. Holy shit this stuff was strong. And because we hadn’t had any in several days, we were gluttons.

We stumbled on to the stage and giggled the whole time. Darryl downed an English pint in two minutes to catch up with us.

We tried to play but couldn’t stop laughing. The crowd knew what was going on and they began to laugh. Must have been 400 of them.

We broke into playing and Sonja nudged me. Standing in the middle of the crowd was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. I just about shit myself.

The heavens had aligned perfectly. I grew up a huge fan of Zep. And the best band I ever played with, prior to CA, was named Homegrown. Subtle, huh?

We had a singer and guitarist that could perfectly mimic those two guys in Zep. So we were damn near a tribute band. And of course, we got booked constantly.

After a few songs, Plant and Page got on stage with us. Curved Air was a progressive band based in classical music. These guys had not an ounce of blues in their background. That is, except for our guitarist, Mick.

We played an obscure blues tune that the drummer, guitarist and I followed without a single glitch.

I asked if we could play some Zep music. Page asked what I would like to play and I said, “Dazed and Confused.” Plant smiled as I began that iconic bass line that started the song. Darryl freaked and left the stage when he couldn’t keep up.

Page had his famous Les Paul with him. I damn near fainted.

Mick sort of stayed in the background but since Zep was basically a musical trio, all they needed was for me to know the songs. And I DID!

Word got out and the audience swelled by two hundred more people. No one could move in that place. 600 people in a large bar was still a lot of people.

I got to be John Paul Jones.

We played 3 more songs: “Whole Lotta Love,” “Stairway to Heaven,” and “Rock and Roll.”

Page and Plant shook hands with the band and gave me a big bear hug. I could barely speak. All I could utter was a meek “Thanks.”

And you ain’t going to believe this. Clapton was in the audience the whole time. Plant went to where he was standing and they talked for a few minutes. Next thing I knew, Clapton was on stage.

They had decided to do some Yardbirds songs. Both Plant and Clapton were in the band. Different times of course.

No one was left on the stage except for me and Copeland the drummer. CA chickened out.

We started with “Over Under Sideways Down.” Then “Heart Full of Soul” and finished with “For Your Love.”
It was 3am and the bar closed long ago but the bar owner would have been lynched if he tried to shoo everyone out.

I was still in my stage dress. Leather pants. And I was schvitzing like crazy. Totally soaked to the bone from a long night and the excitement of playing with my heroes.

We got back to the hotel around 5am. Couldn’t sleep because I was so jacked up. I used the hotel phone to call all my friends at home to tell them what happened. I later got into trouble with management for spending the dough on the phone calls.

But we made the cover of Melody Maker in the following issue with photos. Management eased up on me when they saw that. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

I’m a broken old man now but those memories. Life, and the recession, has taken a lot away from me but those wonderful memories are with me til I croak.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, matt booth, room 101 cigars, Room 101 Daruma Gold Mutante Cigar Review