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image courtesy Davidoff
Vitola: Toro
- 6” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $10
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
A couple years back Cigar Dojo (a cigar-oriented social media group) worked with Smoke Inn to get Camacho to make an exclusive cigar called the Imperial Stout Barrel-Aged, a limited edition cigar with only 400 bundles of 10 produced for a total of 4,000 cigars. I received one from a friend and gave it the “Cigar Extra” treatment in August 2017. I seem to recall that they did a second run of them shortly afterward and I thought about buying a bundle at that time, but had to defer…probably because of finances. A few weeks back I got an email from my shop’s Davidoff/Camacho rep, though, that said the blend was back and it was available to all brick-and-mortar accounts.
This time around they did 4,000 boxes of 10, for a total of 40,000 cigars. At first blush that may sound very limited, but last year’s 75,000 cigar run of Camacho Candela lasted for no less than 8 months (they might actually still be available from Davidoff for B&M shops, to be honest) and the 100,000 stick runs of Room101 limited editions back in the day were available for 4 to 5 years after their initial debut. So I’m guessing this cigar will be readily available for at least the first half of 2019, if not longer.
Camacho uses Stout Barrel-aged Original Corojo Maduro from Honduras, Brazilian Maduro, and Dominican Maduro leaf for the fillers, more Honduran Original Corojo Maduro for the binder, and a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper leaf. The overall makeup of the cigar is similar, though not exactly the same, as the Camacho Triple Maduro.
I bought a couple of these at Burns, where I work; smoked one the same day and saved the other for this review. Neither of our sponsor retailers had the Imperial Stout Barrel Aged in stock at the time of this writing, but both Small Batch and Cigar and Pipes do carry Camacho, so be on the lookout for it.
image courtesy Davidoff
Prelight
The box for the Imperial Stout Barrel Aged is a departure from Camacho boxes of late, using just plain wood with black print on them. Fans of the highly lacquered, shiny, almost plastic-looking boxes Camacho has used since their rebranding are sure to be disappointed, but I’m glad they took a step away from it, while maintaining the word salad they had on their other barrel-aged lines, and still making an attractive-looking box that is sure to stand out on the shelf with other Camacho lines.
The bands use the same type of banding used by the other barrel-aged series, this time in black and white and words like “Dark,” “Full On,” and “Titanic” describing the cigar. There is also a Cigar Dojo logo on the band, as a reminder of the origins of this blend.
The wrapper leaf was not really much darker than a milk chocolate brown color, with a nice oily feel to it and just a bit of a sheen in the light. I got a fairly strong earthiness from the wrapper, along with a bit of espresso bean aroma. The foot of the stick had more earth, some leather and bittersweet chocolate.
After clipping, the prelight draw was excellent and I got flavors of chocolate and wood and coffee bean.
Flavor
The Camacho Imperial Stout Barrel-Aged started out with notes of dark earth, semisweet chocolate, wood, and a mild pepper spice. The retrohale exhibited more wood and malty stout, with just a little more pepper than I got on the palate.
As the first third burned into the second I noticed a definite uptick in the amount of “stout” flavor I was getting. It came through in a combination of maltiness and black coffee, while the rest of the flavor profile got sweeter with a stronger chocolate influence. The pepper spice was still hanging around as a mild accenting note.
The last third had even more dark chocolate and coffee while the pepper faded to almost nothing. The oak woodiness had faded as well, leaving just a faint malt note to indicate that this was barrel aged.
Construction
Great draw, solid ash up to an inch, very even burn line…all equals great construction.
Value
Excellent price tag for what really seems to be a variation of the Triple Maduro. Even better considering the limited nature of this release.
Conclusions
I really enjoyed this Camacho Imperial Stout Barrel-Aged. I found it to be a complex, rich and satisfying twist on the Triple Maduro formula, and it’s something I would smoke often if it were a regular release. As it is, I’ll be picking up at least half a box before they go away so I can have a few during the next year.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
