Cigar Review: Uncle Lee by Room101

• Vitola: Ranfla
• 6” x 50 ring gauge 
• MSRP $10
• Purchased from Burns Tobacconist

Background

This was a cigar that almost didn’t happen…or almost happened a different way. The initial version of Room101’s Uncle Lee that was slated to ship late last year was going to have an outer box that looked like a cereal box complete with toy prize inside; also inside would be a wooden box with the actual cigars in them. Call it “not wanting to put a cattle prod into the hornets’ nest” if you want to, but Davidoff (corporate owner of Camacho, which is the partner company to Room101 Cigars) vetoed that concept. Really it was probably the prudent choice after the industry went to great lengths to say that none of us tries to market to children.

The final release has just the wooden box with the cartoon caricature of Matt Booth’s Uncle Lee, the man who introduced Matt to the world of cigars. The cigars themselves are then wrapped individually in tissue paper, then a colorful paper wrap that proclaims “Uncle Lee” along with a bunch of dollar signs. It’s definitely not the understated, restrained look of the Master Collection series, but it is consistent with Matt Booth’s multiple-personality disorder way of attacking the cigar business. This fits more into the side of Matt that did the Big Delicious cigar with Abe and Smoke Inn a couple years back.

I bought a couple samples of the Uncle Lee when they showed up at Burns and decided after the first one that I would feature it here in a review. The cigar is made of Dominican Piloto Cubano and Honduran Corojo fillers, a Nicaraguan Corojo binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper leaf.

Prelight

I already commented a bit on the outer packaging. Once you get past the box and the two extraneous wrapping materials, you finally get to the cigar itself. The band here proclaims “Uncle Lee” in the same comic book-ish writing that is shown on the box lid. There is a sakura (cherry blossom) to the left of “Lee” then a slightly crazed looking drawing of Matt Booth. To the right of the name is a dollar sign, then a comic book drawing of Lee…smiling, not looking crazy…makes you wonder if he’s really related to Matt Booth.

The wrapper leaf was a slightly lighter shade of brown than you would expect from milk chocolate. It was oily and shiny with a couple veins running through it and a bit of rough toothiness. It had a sweet, molasses and hay aroma to it. The foot tapers almost to a point before being chopped straight; I couldn’t get any real aroma from it.

The prelight draw was very good and the cold flavor was of hay and cedar mostly, with just a touch of mild pepper in it.

Flavor

The tapered foot did not allow for much aroma to come through in the prelight, but it did make for a quick start to the burning of the cigar. Right away, I picked up grassier notes that I expected from the Dominican leaf, then some earth and cedar and pepper from the combination of Corojo and Habano leaves. The combination was medium in body but very flavorful, especially when you combine the effect of the smoke on the palate and on the retrohale.

As I kept puffing and got deep into the second third, I picked up some nice leathery notes and a touch of graham. The pepper wasn’t as prevalent as I thought it would be with two types of Corojo leaf present, but it did maintain a nice low burn.

The pepper did come back some in the last third and the flavors of mildly sweet graham and earth kept playing an interesting roll in the proceedings.

Construction

I had a solid ash, perfect draw and very even burn line throughout the cigars.

Value

At north of $10 (most places, if you include tobacco tax) the Uncle Lee is a bit pricey, but it is a very good smoking experience, so I will give it the “value” nod.

Conclusions

I enjoyed the Uncle Lee and found it a very nice tribute from Matt Booth to the man who got him started in cigars. The cigar was medium bodied for the most part, just kicking up to medium-full during the last third, and it had a good amount of complexity to keep the whole burn interesting. I’d call this another winner from Room101, which seems to be on a roll lately.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10