 |
| Namakubi Monstro |
Room 101 came about some years after Matt Booth was in the United States Marine Corps. He spent much of his career with the Marines in the Far East, and when he returned to the States, he brought back his love of their historic culture with him. Before producing cigars, Matt Booth incorporated his love of Eastern heritages in other luxury items such as jewelry, clothing, luggage, and more. When he decided to enter the cigar industry, he built a relationship with the Eiroa Family of Camacho Cigars, and since then they have made all his cigars. Camacho Cigars, and their factory, Rancho Jamastran, is located in Danli, Honduras, and they are known for growing the original strain of Cuban-Corojo tobacco. There blends are typically Honduran puros that are very flavorful and full bodied.
This year, Matt Booth released his new line, Room 101 LTD. Namakubi. The line shows a much more Eastern influence to it than past lines, and that is present in the name. Namakubi comes from the book title The Namakubi, which is composed of a collection of sketches of decapitated/severed heads. The artist who drew the pictures is Horiyoshi III, who is a tattoo artist who typically draws Japanese Traditional full-body suits. I looked at some of his tattoo works, and it is pretty incredible. His book, The Namakubi, is not my type of art, but we all have our own tastes. To be honest with you, I would be more interested in seeing sketches of men committing Seppuku, but I am pretty messed up. What is the old joke, "Seppuku, when sorry just isn't good enough."
 |
| Monstro Foot |
 |
| Monstro Wrapper |
As I said earlier, The Namakubi line is made by
Camacho Cigars in Honduras, and is composed of tobaccos from multiple
countries. The cigar is draped with a beautiful Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, and
has a binder from Honduras that is grown from proprietary seed which they call Generoso. The filler is a blend of
Honduras and Dominican tobacco, and Matt Booth emphasizes “Vuelta Abajo”
afterwards. Vuelta Abajo is a region in Pinar del Rio, so he might be referring
to the fact that the tobaccos are Cuban Seed tobacco original from that region,
but other than that I am not sure. The size I chose for this review was the Monstro.
The cigar measures 5” with a 60 ring gauge, and is along the
lines of a gordito/gordo vitola. As I mentioned earlier, the wrapper is just amazing, being very silky to touch. It has a beautiful cap, minor veins and a color of
khaki (between Natural and Colorado). The cigar is firm in hand, and has
wonderful aromas of wood, leather, hay, spice and some floral notes as well. As
I light up the cigar, and let it get some way into the first third, I begin to
pick up a lot of unique flavors. The cigar is very complex, and I am noticing
hints of lemon, hay and wood, with heavy core flavors of coffee and floral
notes. There is some spice to it, not very peppery, but more of Chinese
Five-spice powder. The cigar is around medium in body and it is burning a
little wavy, but not unevenly.
Getting into the second third, I am getting a lot of flavors
from the first third, but the coffee notes have died down some. There is an
emergence of toast and nutty notes in the cigar, but I am still getting the
flavors of wood, lemon peel and leather. The spice has lessened some in this
third, similar to the coffee flavors, but it is still present and pleasant.
With a larger ring gauge I am getting a nice cool smoke, and its smoking
characteristics are identical to the first third as well. It is still medium in body, and I imagine it will stay this way throughout. When I get into the
final third of the smoke, the flavors return to that of the first third, but the cigar continues to be rocking. The floral and lemon peel notes are
definitely the most two present flavors in this third, but they are accompanied
by espresso bean notes making a very unique flavor. I smoke the cigar down to its thick nub, and
it remains cool all way to the end because of the ring gauge.
I really enjoyed this smoke, I am typically not one for such
big ring gauges, but I really didn’t care with this smoke. I thought the cigar
had tons of unique flavors to it, and just a gorgeous wrapper. This was really
an incredible cigar, and I think the crowing achievement of Room 101 Cigars so
far. He has definitely been making better blends every time he creates a new
line, and I am eager to try future productions of his. I would say this cigar is
very complex, and not a cigar that a new or amateur cigar smokers would truly enjoy.
I say this because of how difficult all the flavors are to pick up. Some
smokers would not get them and think it was a boring smoke, when it is really far from that. The strength is a true medium
bodied smoke, and I think any cigar smoker could enjoy it. I will
definitely be enjoying these often in the future, and I give this cigar a 93.
Excellent job Matt Booth, excellent job!
 |
| Namakubi |
0 comments:
Post a Comment