RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Noble Experiment

After finishing up this morning’s yard work I venture outback with a newly released RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Noble Experiment.

The Good Stuff:

Skip Martin, founder of RoMa Craft Tobacco unveiled the newest addition to the Intemperance, the Volstead VO 1920 at this year’s PCA show in Las Vegas. Produced at the Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A. in Nicaragua, the blend features an Ecuadorian Sumatra Hybrid wrapper over a Mexican San Andres binder and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 is offered in the following regular production formats: Izzy Einstein (4 x 46), Belle Linvingstone (4 1/2 x 52), Bill McCoy (5 x 50), George Remus (5 x 56), and the Roy Olmstead (5 1/2 x 54 Belicoso). Each comes packaged in boxes of 24 with the exception of the Izzy which comes packaged in boxes of 30. The regular production lines range between $6.75 and $9.25 per stick. In addition to the regular production lines the company is also releasing six different limited-production formats: Blind Pig (8.25), Senator Volstead (5 x 50), Noble Experiment (5 x 56), Revenuer (5 3/4 x 46), Gran Perfecto (5 5/8 x 60), and the Judas Hole (6 1/2 x 44). Each limited production format comes packaged in boxes of 12 except the Bling Pig and Revenuer which comes in boxes of 24. The limited production releases range between $8.25 and $13 per stick. I purchased mine from our friends over at Neptune Cigars.

• Size: 5 x 56
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra Hybrid
• Binder: Mexican San Andres
• Filler: Nicaraguan & Dominican Corojo
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $9.50

Prelight:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 starts out with a beautiful, milk-chocolate brown wrapper that’s very consistent in color except for a few darker areas around the cap of the cigar. The wrapper’s texture is slightly toothy and slightly oily. There are some smaller veins running through the cigar’s body. The wrapper itself feels a bit thin and delicate while the cigar is packed tightly and has a great weight to it. There are no soft spots to be found throughout the cigar. There is a very small, unfinished foot area that exposes some of the cigar’s binder/filler. The wrapper is laid seamlessly over cigar’s soft box-pressed body leading up to its round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with the standard, elegant white and brown Intemperance band along with an additional, reversed color band featuring the Volstead 1920 logo embossed across the front. One note I need to make is the quality of paper stock used on all RoMa Craft’s cigars. It’s exceptional.

The wrapper on the RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 gives off a sweet mixture of tobacco and honey aromas while the foot of the cigar is much more musky with notes of natural tobacco over soft spice and a bit of sweetness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces notes of honey and cinnamon over loads of musky tobacco.

First Third:

The RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 starts off with a soft blast of black pepper which fades almost instantly allowing the cigar to release bold notes of cedar musk and honey over lighter notes of pecan, cinnamon, espresso and vanilla, with a great little nutmeg aftertaste. It kind of reminds me of a lightly Christmas-flavored coffee drink and I totally dig it. The draw is absolutely perfect as each little puff kicks out huge clouds of thick, white smoke which take a white to dissipate while the cigar releases a good amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. As a quick side note that I know my readers have heard my play on repeat since the beginning of time: I absolutely love how comfortable soft box-pressed cigars are in both my hand and my mouth. I with we’d see them a lot more often. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of tightly compacted medium gray ash which held on for about 3/4 of an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 the flavor profile is dominated by musk and honey with bold notes of espresso and cinnamon and light notes of pecan, raisin, and vanilla. There is also this really crazy spearmint flavor that sneaks into the aftertaste every once in a while. I don’t pick I up often at all. The retorhale brings out more spice and a little bit of black pepper. Considering how much I enjoy the flavor profile of this cigar as it sits, I don’t find myself doing it too often. The cigar is still burning like a champ and I close out the second third with nothing in terms of a nicotine kick.

Finish:

The body of the RoMa Craft Tobac Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 has really ramped up now as it sits well in the full-bodied arena. The musk and honey still lead the charge with a more balanced mixtures of vanilla, cinnamon and raisin at this point. The cigar burned much slower than I anticipated which I am happy about as it took me almost 2 hours to take it down to the nub. I experienced no harshness nor any extended heat. I never once had to reach for my torch to touch-up or relight my cigar as it burned flawless from start to finish. I close out with only a very minor nicotine hit.

Overview:

There aren’t too many brands out there currently that kick out stellar releases one after another like RoMa Craft. I honestly don’t think I have ever come across a RoMa Craft I didn’t just enjoy, but thoroughly enjoy and the Volstead VO 1920 is no exception. The flavor profile is balanced, yet complex enough to keep me entertained. The profile itself marries up really well with my subjective palate as I really enjoyed the flavors. The construction was top-notch and the price is very affordable and the full-production releases will always be easily available. This makes this a perfect, box-worthy cigar that will find its way into my everyday rotation.