Vitola: Toro- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- ~$10
- Gifted by a friend
Background
This cigar was a surprise to me. I have a Cigar Dojo account, but I must admit to rarely looking at it…I just have too much to do. Dojo has been getting some clout over the last few years, though, as evidenced by the fact that this is not their first “exclusive” cigar. This time around, they partnered with Camacho and Smoke Inn to make 4,000 sticks (400 bundles of 10) of a blend that features tobacco aged in Imperial Stout barrels.
To be more specific, the barrels start out aging Heaven Hill Distillery Bourbons (Elijah Craig, Evan Williams) before they are sent to Colorado to age Oskar Blues’ Ten FIDY, what has been called the “gold standard of imperial stouts.” After that aging is done, the barrels were sent off to Honduras to age some of Camacho’s coveted “Original Corojo.” The barrel-aged leaf was combined with Brazilian and Dominican maduro to make up the filler, then bound with a Honduran Corojo Maduro leaf and wrapped in a San Andrés Maduro leaf.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because this special cigar is based on the Camacho Triple Maduro, which is a powerhouse that is one of the company’s best sellers. For this project, they made some adjustments to help the barrel-aged leaf shine through.
Cigar Dojo’s information page states that 4,000 cigars “have been rolled for the first batch of this project,” and currently that first batch appears to be sold out. There is the potential for more in the future, though, so if this sounds like something you’d like, you might want to bookmark the page.
I was given a stick by a friend recently when the Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged came into the shop. He wanted me to try another one they had done…and I expect this to be a really different animal.
Notes
The wrapper of the Imperial Stout Barrel-Aged cigar was a dark chocolate brown. It had a slightly oily appearance and a strongly earthy aroma. The foot of the cigar had more earth, some chocolate and wood, then notes of leather, oak and what I can only imagine in the maltiness of the beer. The cold draw was excellent and had a very high amount of sweetness to it.
The ISBA opened up full-bodied and dirty…tons of earthiness, a little sweetness in the form of dark chocolate, some anise, a bit of leather and pepper spice. Again, just faint notes of oak and malt…not really a “beer” or “stout” flavor…but that’s okay as flavored cigars really aren’t my bag.
I bought a couple 4-pack boxes of Mantra’s Guru Gish a couple months back and just put the second one in the fridge. This is a milk stout with caramel, vanilla, and peanut flavorings added. I thought it might actually be a very good pairing with this cigar.
I believe the first cigar I paired this beer with was a Tatuaje Especiales Broadleaf and it was nothing short of spectacular. Due to the heavy Maduro content of this cigar, I expected this pairing to work well, too…I was not disappointed. Another excellent pairing, with the sweeter aspects of the beer filling in the blanks where the cigar was a little lacking.
Continuing on, I got some twang from the cigar as I finished up the first third, which I do think was the influence of the barrel-aged leaf. Almost a sour zing. The whole experience was very good and the Guru Gish only amplified the good times.
It’s been so long since I had a Camacho Triple Maduro that I can’t honestly assess how different this was from the blend it was based upon, but I will say that this cigar was very good and the beer pairing was excellent, as well. I would go out on a limb and say that the regular Triple Maduro probably will pair pretty well with most Stouts (as well as many other dark beers) and the Stout Barrel-Aged version would probably do even better. I’m already making plans to buy some of these when (if?) they become available again.
