The Good Stuff: The OSOK is the latest release from room101, created by Camacho. Room101 is a brand masterminded by fashion/jewelry aficionado extraordinaire Matt Booth. Not only is Matt one of the more unique people in the cigar community, but during a recent trip to the Dominican Republic with a handful of fellow bloggers we were each talking about who the nicest, most down to Earth people in the industry are and his name was mentioned by just about every single one of us there.

On the tail-end of last year’s Namakubi and Connecticut releases, Matt decided to release a small-run, brick and mortar exclusive blend, the One Shot, One Kill. I’m not positive how many boxes were released in the limited edition release, but I know that there aren’t many left out there. We were lucky enough to find this box at Smoke Inn, but I don’t know how many, if any at all they still have left.

The OSOK starts out with Honduran Corojo and Dominican Piloto Ligero fillers, bound by a Honduran Corojo binder and a Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. The Cigar comes in 3 sizes, all of which are figurados, the Chingon (8 – 60×44), the Filero (4.5 – 52×42), and the Trucha (6.5 – 30x50x19) come in boxes of 10 and run from $8 – $12 a stick.

 Size: 6.5 – 30x50x19  –  Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano  –  Binder: Honduran Corojo  –  Filler: Honduran Corojo/Dominican Piloto Ligero

Prelight: I don’t know if unwrapping the OSOK is fun, or more of a curse. There is a lot of room for error, but luckily I was able to cleanly remove the Chinese fingertrap looking outer wrap (which looked something like a cool Asian, sugar skull, bandana theme, to reveal another layer of tissue paper which easily came right off. After “undressing” the cigar I am finally greeted with a simple, black and silver Oval band with the “O.S.O.K.” logo, “Room101LTD” and “Exclusivo Para La Familia 101” underneath. I love the artwork on the packaging, although the band looks somewhat similar to some of the Zino bands.

The cigar itself is a beautiful dark, rich, oily chocolate brown with a nice toothyness and over a few smaller veins running through the cigar. As most Figurado’s the foot of the cigar starts out at a small point as the body widens up before tapering up to a very pointy double cap. The wrapper feels really tough and durable as the cigar actually weighs a lot less than I thought it would. It’s light and very comfortable in hand.

The wrapper gives off only a very light cedar and floral aroma while the foot of the OSOK boasts of strong cedar and spice. The cap cut clean and quite easy using my double bladed Palio cutter. The OSOK produced a nice, super sweet, cedar infused cold draw with just  a touch of spice. I’ve always applauded Camacho’s thick cedar flavored tobacco and I hope this one carries matching characteristics.

First Smoke: It takes a little bit, but the foot of the Room101 OSOK finally get’s lit using my single flame butane torch. I’m always skeptical on how well figurados will burn. Expecting the OSOK to start off with some powerful cedar flavors, I was surprised when I was greeted with a much deeper, dark chocolate, coffee, and roasted nut flavor with just a hint of spice. The draw started out really tight, but after the foot finally toasted up the OSOK began to produce massive clouds of thick, white smoke with every little puff. The cigar gives off a decent amount of amazingly cedar-scented stationary smoke. Startling enough, the burnline is dead even right off the bat, producing a semi-flaky, dark grey and black ash which flowered up a little on the tip. The ash held on for an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: There’s the cedar! Into the second third of this Room101 OSOK, the cedar has finally jumped up to what I expected. I know a lot of readers don’t like the strong cedar cigars, but I absolutely LOVE it when done well. And Camacho tops the list of perfectly balanced, cedar-heavy cigars. Outside of that, the coffee and chocolate are still in there, just very mild along with the spice that’s only really evident in the aftertaste. The retrohale, needless to say, is awesome and primes with a massively strong cedar flavor/aroma. I am not feeling any nicotine from this cigar yet, and it’s still burning dead even with a razor-sharp burnline.

Finish: Along with the spice, the body and chocolate started to really ramp up into the final third of this Room101 OSOK. Even with the strong and bold flavors this cigar has remained smooth, yet complex throughout. I am only feeling a very slight nicotine kick as I took this 2 hour cigar down to the nub. No harshness, no heat, just smooth and enjoyable. Even though its dry and winder here in the desert, I had no dry mouth either which is always a huge plus.

Overview: Camacho has always created quality smokes in my opinion. I didn’t know what to think about the Room101 when it first debuted. From my experience with Matt Booth’s bends, they are really hit or miss. Either they are decent cigars, or just amazing blends. Even through all the hype that surround these cigars, there have been a few blends that surpassed the hype as exceptional cigars, and the OSOK is one of them. I went into this smoke a bit apprehensive as there is a lot of marketing, design, and hype put into this limited edition run. I am happy to say the OSOK lived up to it in every possible way. The cigar is outstanding, from the flavors, to the construction, and yes, even the crazy thought and design that went into these. This cigar may be a bit pricey, but know that you are paying for a quality, enjoyable smoke and not the packaging. The $10 price tag is well worth is for any seasoned smoked as well as the novice looking for a premium experience.  If you can find them, spring for a box, you won’t regret it.

Pairing: Going out on a limb here, I wouldn’t recommend this pairing for the faint of beer-heart. New Belgium La Folie is a yearly limited-run series. It’s a Flanders-style reddish brown sour ale. That’s right, another sour. And probably one of the most sour beers I have ever had. Each sip make’s my lips pucker up with hints of cinnamon, orange, cheery, apple, barley and hops. La Folie is brewed once a year at the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. Coming in at 6% ABV this beer made a perfect non-traditional pairing with the Room101 OSOK. While the OSOK is smooth and flavorful the sourness from the La Folie really pushed some crazy citrus flavors through the experience and added a whole new dimension to an already complex cigar. If you haven’t had a sour ale before, do not start with this one. You will hate it. If you are on the fence when it comes to sour ales, don’t try this one. But if you like Flanders/sours then La Folie is the epitome of a perfect sour ale. At $14 a bottle and aged for 1-3 years in French oak barrels, it’s not for the weary.

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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

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