Vitola: Toro- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $11.90
- Purchased at Islands Cigar Lounge, Brea, CA
Background
Sometimes it’s surprising how long it takes to get around to smoking and reviewing a cigar. I was out in California at the beginning of October and picked up a few things I hadn’t run across before, including this Room101 Farce Maduro. I had hoped to get to the handful of cigars quickly, but…let’s just say it’s been a very busy autumn.
The Room101 brand has been putting out a lot of new product recently. One of the latest was this Farce Maduro, a line extension of the original Farce and Farce Connecticut releases. Farce Maduro made its debut around time of the 2019 IPCPR trade show. It’s made in the William Ventura Factory in the Dominican Republic, the same factory where many Caldwell Cigar products have been, as well as a lot of the revived Room101 brand. This blend uses Nicaraguan and U.S. (Pennsylvania and Connecticut Broadleaf) fillers, an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper. It is available in 4 sizes wherever Room101 cigars are sold.
This review is based on my first smoking of the blend, which I purchased at Islands Cigar Lounge in Brea, California. I got some information for this background section from Cigar-Coop. If your local shop doesn’t carry Farce Maduro, you can order it from Small Batch Cigar.
Prelight
The box and band for Farce Maduro mostly share the design of the original releases, although with a very different color scheme. This time blue and gold is the theme. The Sakura is white and gold foil on the band, while the background is dark blue with a white trim line. The secondary band is white with gold foil lettering and a blue trim line.
The wrapper leaf had an even milk chocolate brown hue with a little oiliness under my fingertips. It had an aroma that mixed strong, wet earth with milder touches of coffee and cocoa powder. The foot of the cigar was earthy with a stronger chocolate aroma and a touch of wood.
Once clipped, I got a good cold draw that had flavors of cedar and milk chocolate with a little pepper spice.
Flavor
Once fired up, the Farce Maduro had dark chocolate and dark fruit sweetness, hints of espresso bean and earth, and a little cedar and cinnamon heat. The retrohale was smooth and chocolatey, with a little red pepper heat that dissipated quickly. The cigar was medium-plus in body from the outset and had a very nice balance that resonated well with my palate. It changed quickly, though, with a strange almost chemical taste that I didn’t care for as much. There was still a good amount of sweetness and coffee and pepper, so I was still enjoying it, just not as much.
As I got into the second third, the odd note turned more toward an anise flavor and mixed better with the dark chocolate. There was additional pepper spice on the palate while I lost the fruit sweetness in the mix. The retrohale had roasted nuts, cocoa powder and some more pepper.
The last third had more unsweetened cocoa powder along with a disappearance of the anise flavor. There was a moderate amount of pepper, along with notes of cedar and roasted nuts.
Construction
I had a very good draw, even burn line, and solid ash.
Value
The price tag is a little high, but the experience was very good overall, so I’m going to say it’s worth it.
Conclusions
Parts off the Farce Maduro were among the very favorite things I had ever tasted in a Room101 blend…past or present. Other parts were off-putting and mercifully short-lived. Overall, I liked this blend a lot and wonder if other vitolas might be more to my liking throughout. I found it to be medium-to-full overall in body with a complex and varied flavor profile.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
