Cigar Review: Liberty Series 2005 Throwback by Camacho

• Vitola: 11/18
• 6” x 48/54/48
• MSRP $22
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

I was not familiar with the Camacho brand in 2005, so I missed that year’s Liberty Series release. Turns out it was one of the “most heralded” entries into the limited edition blend series, so Camacho (and their parent company, Davidoff) decided to make the 2018 Liberty Series a “2005 Throwback.” They tried to replicate the blend of the 2005 version as closely as possible in a newly rolled batch of cigars.

The Liberty Series 2005 Throwback is a Honduran puro, featuring Corojo binder and filler, along with a Honduran Maduro wrapper leaf. Going one step further in explaining the origins, the marketing literature sent out for this cigar states that the binder and filler use “hand-selected, top priming leaves of our Original Corojo tobacco.” With the Maduro wrapper, I’m immediately thinking of the gone-but-not-forgotten Corojo Maduro line that was part of the Camacho rebranding effort but was discontinued shortly thereafter.

The Liberty Series 2005 Throwback comes in boxes of 20 individual coffins, which alternate in color between white and red in the box. The lid of the box is decorated with Old Glory. They made a total of 30,000 cigars for this release, so 1,500 boxes. In researching for this review, I saw that the 2005 Liberty retailed for $13.50. I’m not sure if it’s inflation or FDA or simply the cost of tobacco going through the roof, but it does seem like an $8.50 bump (about 63%!) is a bit much.

I bought one of these for this review and I reviewed it on July 4th.

Prelight

The packaging for these cigars is awesome. The outer box is stunning. The small coffins are very well-done. Someone mentioned that the elaborate packaging probably drove the price way up. I wish it could be explained as such, but from my experience, the packaging they used here added perhaps $.50 to $1.00 per stick wholesale. That’s not completely insignificant, as it becomes double that at the retail level…but the original Liberty 2005 was arguably more elaborate in packaging (with white and red stripes on each coffin) so I still don’t see it. After opening the coffin, the cigar is wrapped in tissue paper to protect it.

The wrapper leaf was an even dark chocolate brown in color with some oils in evidence in the early evening sunlight. The oils were very heavy when touching the wrapper, as well. I got an aroma that mixed rich natural tobacco, leather, and earth from the leaf. The foot of the stick had a mix of earth and hay.

I clipped with a straight cut and got a very good draw that had flavors of sweet berries and cedar.

Flavor

I know the Camacho Corojo as a fiery, spicy cigar, while the Corojo Maduro traded some of that pepper for some sweetness. How would this smoke? Initial puffs indicated it was going to be indeed be closer to the Maduro version. There was earth and semi-sweet chocolate and cedar on the palate, with just a ghost of some pepper spice on the finish. The retrohale had a little more pepper, but not nearly as much as I expected from high-priming “Original Corojo” by Camacho. The first third continued to burn rich and earthy and refined, with touches of sweetness and leather and that ever-present ghost of pepper spice (which was more welcome than ghost pepper spice, truth be told). The ash held on through the entirety of the first third.

As I got into the widest part of the cigar, the flavor practically exploded, with the chocolate becoming sweeter and better defined, while the woody notes morphed into a definite cinnamon flavor. There was also an increase in the pepper heat on the palate, while the retrohale became more complex with notes of roasted pecans mixing with wood and pepper.

The last third had more increase in pepper spice while the cinnamon notes mellowed out a bit. The supporting flavors had more dark chocolate and earth, while leather was present on the finish.

Construction

The build quality was exemplary on this cigar…great draw, very even burn line and solid ash for more than an inch at a time.

Value

The value question here is really tricky. I definitely enjoyed this cigar more than I thought I would, but I still have trouble with the price tag being so far above what the original sold for. Still…it was a really great cigar, so I’m going to award a full point for value.

Conclusions

Simply put, this was the best Camacho Liberty I’ve ever had. I will note that I haven’t had a lot…maybe 2 or 3 previous to this…but I’ll go a step further and say it was the best Camacho I’ve ever had. I’ve given Perfect 10 scores to the Connecticut and Corojo Maduro before, so I have no choice but to put this in the same rare category. The Liberty 2005 Throwback is an amazing cigar. For me: Best Liberty ever, Best Camacho ever, and Best Honduran puro ever. Because of that, it’s worth the exorbitant price tag.

Addendum: I know it’s not the best practice to give a cigar such a high rating based on a single stick. So I smoked another after I did this review, simply to confirm what I felt. I haven’t changed my mind. Furthermore, other people I know and trust tried the cigar and felt pretty much the same was as I did. This is an amazing cigar.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 10/10