Now let’s make sure we don’t confuse this with the new release of Maduro cigars that Illusione has put out recently. The new ones are easily noticable by their red and gold band, which signifies the maduro line. A couple years ago in 2010, Dion Giolito, the mastermind behind Illusione cigars, released a limited run of the ~hl~ lancero cigar in a maduro wrapper. There had the same band as normal, but with the obvious difference of the maduro leaf.

You may have also stumbled upon a limited release of the ~hl~ in a Candela wrapper at the time as well. I wasn’t able to get my hands on any of those, but the maduro version caught my attention a lot more anyway. From what I understand, the filler and binder remain the same in this limited release which includes some Corojo ‘99 and Criollo ‘98 lead. Only the wrapper was swapped for a San Andreas maduro leaf from Mexico.

If you’ve checked out some of other Illusoine cigar reviews, such as the ‘888’, Singulaire, ~mk~, ~88~, or the Epernay, you will know that each cryptic name has a special meaning behind it. I won’t reinvent the wheel here, this is Dion’s explanation of the ~hl~ name directly from the Illusione Cigars.com website:
My Lancero , the lance. Get it? Constantine was the first Christian Emperor to lead Rome. It was fabled that he had possession of the very spear that punctured the side of Jesus while on the cross. He was said to carry this relic into battle and, it was said that it helped him win his many battles. It is an artisan blend and, the mildest of all my cigars.

Cigar: Illusione ~hl~ Maduro
Drink: Ayinger Celebrator
Vitola: Lancero (7.5 x 40)
Wrapper: San Andreas Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $9.75
Burn Time: About 1 hour

Construction:
• The Illusione ~hl~ Maduro is wrapped up by a very tasty look dark chocolate leaf that is extremely toothy
• The texture of the wrapper is like sandpaper and it’s a bit bumpy in some areas but the veins few and the ones you can see are all fairly small
• The entire cigar has some firmness to it when squeezed, it has almost no give from end to end
• The cap is finished off with a sort of pigtail, I’m not sure if all mine were damaged but it seemed like a bit of the pigtail is always broken off
• It’s easy to see that the foot is very well packed and neatly finished
• Even though it seemed a little tight on the pre-light, the draw is actually very good

Burn:
• The toasting was fairly quick and easy given that the ring gauge is pretty small on this cigar
• Burn has been spot on through the first couple of inches, no complaints to be had here so far
• I’m very happy with the burn on this cigar for the most part, I tend to have bad luck with lanceros
• I did need to make one correction just past the half way mark as the cigar started burning unevenly
• I needed a couple more small corrections as the cigar continued, I think the cold is factor here today too, hovering at 34F right now…

Smoke & Ash:
• I’m having no problems getting a big mouthful of smoke from each draw, it’s not too thick though
• The ash is quite nice for this lancero vitola, staying clean and strong and holding out for just over half an inch
• The color on the ash is interesting as well with some white and nearly black zebra striping happening
• The resting smoke is moderate and fairly consistent, it pushes out a nice line of slightly sweet smelling smoke
• Subsequent ashes held on to about a half inch each time and stayed clean without any flaking

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on this cigar has a nice sweet chocolaty aroma to it
• The foot has an even more interesting aroma, more sweet chocolate with an addition of cinnamon and nutmeg
• The pre-light draw on this Illusione ~hl~ Maduro brings more of the sweet chocolate but this time with a more peppery spice instead of the lighter cinnamon and nutmeg I got on the foot aroma
• The initial draws brought out a strong coffee flavor to mix with the stronger spices, definitely a burst of flavor at the start here but it might be a little bit charred
• After only half an inch, the flavors seemed to balance out a bit more and the charred flavor disappeared. I’m left with a smooth cocoa and coffee profile with hints of spice peeking in here and there
• The coffee flavors definitely seem ot be developing nicely as the spice slowly drops off
• The retrohale at this point still has a bit of bite to it but the finish is smooth and sweet, very tasty and mostly in the mild-medium range
• The nutmeg and cinnamon flavors started making a comeback in the middle of the cigar, adding another nice dimension to the experience
• All of the flavors continue to be awesomely balanced and taking turns being the prominent ones, there’s also some woodsiness in there too now
• The creamy finish really is the icing on the cake here, makes each draw very enjoyable
• In the last third of the Illusione ~hl~ Maduro the body started picking up into the higher medium range and all the favors started getting more intense
• The intense sweet coffee, cocoa and spices are really making for an enjoyable last third here, they balance together so nicely

Final Thoughts:
Well it’s no surprise to me here but this is another rock solid stick from Dion Giolito of Illusione cigars. It’s no secret that Tony and I are fans of his cigars and from my experience with the ones I’ve smoked he has an excellently high ratio of great sticks. The Illusione ~hl~ Maduro lives up to my past experiences and offered me an interesting and multi-dimensional flavor profile that I think could be enjoyed by a very wide range of cigar smokers. It feels like one of those sticks you could hand to a new smoker or an experienced smoker and get a positive experience either way. Remember that this one has been aging for nearly 2 years so if you tried it earlier I’ve heard they used to pack a bigger punch. The price I paid for mine seems to be around the average price and this is one of those times when I can say the nearly $10 price tag is almost worth it. If i did have one complaint it would be that the cigar didn’t last long enough, I wanted it to keep going, lol!

Pairings:
Tony pointed me in the direction of this brew awhile back. At that time I was only able to track it down while I was vacationing in Florida. But recently I stumbled across it at my local store and immediately stock up on a few of their 4-packs. The maker is the very popular German brwery called Ayinger and today’s offering is the Celebrator. It’s a very interesting dark ale that comes pretty close to almost being a stout. It’s official style is called a “Doppelbock”. Basically, a Doppelbock is a stronger, maltier and comewhat creamier version of Germany’s traditional strong ale, the “Bock”. The flavors in this bottle are overflowing! there’s definitely a ton of maltiness which I really enjoy, theres a helping hand of coffee, some dark chocolate sweetness and a very smooth creamy finish. What a great brew! Did it go well with the Illusione ~hl~ Maduro? Of course it did, and it would go well with a huge variety of other cigars as well. they complimented each other very well with similar flavors. A nice cup of coffee or a stout would have also made a great pairing here today.

The post Illusione ~hl~ Maduro – 2010 Limited Release appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Camacho Room 101

A big thank you again to @cigarsthomas for shooting a few of these over to me. There are six local B&M shops here in El Paso, Texas. But out of the six, only two carry Camacho cigars. The Room 101 has been on order with them for quite a bit, but I’m too impatient, and I wanted to get my grubby little paws on one ASAP. The cigar community has been buzzing applause directed towards the Room 101 even way before it’s release date. The anticipation has been killing me.

The Good Stuff: Room 101 is a joint operation between Camacho Cigars and famous jewelry designer Matt Booth. “Room 101” isn’t just a blend of cigar but a “Global Conspiracy”.  Everything related to Room 101 boasts strong symbolism, and deep meaning. I won’t go into it too much, but if you feel inclined there are plenty of resources out there, but a lot of the symbolism behind the Conspiracy are kept secret. This only adds to the character. From my understanding Matt Booth met up with Camacho Cigar’s Director of Marketing Dylan Austin as well as a few others from the Camacho Family, words were exchanged, and before anyone knew it there was a proposition on the table of Camacho and Matt Booth teaming up to create a cigar that supports The Conspiracy. I can’t think of another cigar manufacturer that could pull something as interesting as this off.

After all was said and done, The Room 101 cigar was amongst a handful on anticipated new release cigars announced at this year’s ICPCR in New Orleans. The Room 101 wasn’t released to the public until a few months later in early October. The Room 101 is a medium bodied cigar manufactured with tobaccos produced in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. The wrapper itself was labeled as “Semilla 101” and was grown especially for the Room 101. The Room 101 comes in 6 sizes (I think), each one named after different US cities area codes. This particular shape is labeled the “702”, after Las Vegas, Nevada.

Size: 48×54×48×6  –  Wrapper: Semilla 101 from Honduras  –  Binder/Filler: Honduras/Dominican  –  Strength: Medium – Full

Camacho Room 101

Prelight: The Room 101 702 has many unique characteristics that you won’t see from a lot of other cigar manufactures. We’ll start with the band. The band represents the Jewelry very well with is all black ink, supported by all silver prominence. It’s clear from the secondary band that this wasn’t produced by Room 101 for Camacho, but the other way around. Camacho is supporting Room 101 and the conspiracy with this special blended cigar. The band is covered in symbols. If you want to discovery on what these symbols actually mean feel free to browse over to www.room101cigars.com to find out more. The shape of the 702 is very unique as well. It starts off quite bulky on the head, with a nice rounded cap. And just after the band booms from a 48 ring gauge into a boasting 54 gauge through a little more than half the body before returning to a 48. Hopefully this meaty area produces a complex, powerhouse smoke. The wrapper is a dark, chocolately color, very leatheresque with lots of lighter brown areas. There were really no large veins, and absolutely no signs of misconstruction. the foot of the cigar carries lots of loosely wrapper filler tobacco. I honestly think this, from the prelight, is one of the finest constructed cigars I have seen. The wrapper didn’t really carry a lot of strong aromas, but what a did pick out were A graham crackery, cocoa smell with what I could only describe as a tart grape.The cold draw was very similar to the scents I pulled off of the Room 101.

Camacho Room 101

First Smoke: The Room 101 702 releases a nice, smooth draw, with lots and lots of thick tobacco/cocoa scented smoke. The smoke itself wasn’t too pungent, it won’t be as annoying to non-smokers as most other cigars will be. There was a lot let of a pepper taste pulled off the Room 101 than I expected. I think most of the newer Dominican cigars have boasted large pepper tastes and the Room 101 doesn’t follow that guideline making for a much smoother experience. Outside of an incredibly smooth smoke the Room 101 sports a chocolate, cocoa taste with hints of almond and black current. The room 101 is burning very evenly leaving behind a very nice white ash.

Camacho Room 101

There is some flaking from the ash, but nothing that will cause the ash to fall off quickly. The burn itself is a bit faster than I expected, but I have a feeling that will change once I make it into the sweet spot of the cigar. I made it almost 2 inches in before the Room 101 finally ashed off for the first time.

Camacho Room 101

Halfway There: Ahh, the sweet-spot. Almost immediately after hitting the 54 ring gauged portion of the cigar the experience switched up on me. The flavors remained constant, very Ovaltineish with hints of raw coffee. Where as the draw increased significantly. The Room 101’s draw became much looser, and increased in flavor as well as density of smoke. The burn didn’t actually burn slower, but I didn’t need to hit the cigar as hard or as often as I did to produce the draw I was looking for. The burn line got a bit wavy at this point, but no touch ups are needed. The ashed increased in flakiness a bit, but that was mainly due, and expected from opening up the ring gauge of the cigar.

Camcho Room 101

Finish: Towards the end of the smoke the head itself cracked, and unwrapped a bit. I think a lot of that was due to me babysitting this cigar. I didn’t want it to end and actually smoked it quite a bit slower than I would normally. The flavors throughout the entire smoked remained very consistent and the finish was no exception. The chocolate undertones carried through to the finish, and the favors became a bit more tobacco/earthy based. The burn line never got out of hand, and I never felt the need to touch up this cigar, nor did it require any relighting. Considering the size of this cigar I was surprised to see that I had almost no light-headedness or any signs of nicotine for that matter.

Camacho Room 101

Overview: This cigar was well worth the wait in every way imaginable. From the remarkable construction, to the flavors, I feel Camacho knocked this one out of the park. The Room 101 is a direct representation of the hard work, and research that goes into each one of Camacho’s cigar blends. The Room 101 will be in my regular rotation for a long time, and I would recommend everyone else to add it as well. This cigar will be a huge consideration in not only mine, but everyone elses list of top cigars for 2009.

Camacho Room 101

The Room 101 by Camacho was paired with a Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock. One of my favorite Belgium beers. The dark, coffee based double bock beer accompanied the Room 101 every step of the way and even helped distinguish some of the fruity notes of the cigar.

Camacho Room 101 with an Ayinger Celebrator

The post Camacho Room 101 702 Cigar Review appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.