Quinquagenario

This site has featured a seemingly countless number of stories about anniversary and birthday cigars, so much so that I often find myself running out of ways to talk about them other than by acknowledging just how many of them are.

Yet when it came to the November 2021 announcement of Quinquagenario from RoMa Craft Tobac, the cigar was notable for being more than simply a way to celebrate the 50th birthday of Skip Martin, co-founder of RoMa Craft Tobac. Specifically, it gave Martin the opportunity to work with one of the modern-day cigar industry’s most lauded cigar producers and release the first RoMa Craft Tobac cigar not made at Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A., the home of every other RoMa Craft Tobac release.

To create Quinquagenario, he enlisted the help of Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., both to blend the cigar and produce it at Tabacalera La Alianza S.A. in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

The cigar is a 5 x 50 robusto, with the blend featuring an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican fillers.

 

“Ernesto and I spent the week looking for, and smoking tobaccos for this project,” wrote Martin on his Facebook page following a trip to the Dominican Republic in September 2021. “Almost all were new to me, and more than a few were new to him as well. Throughout the process, we talked…a lot…mostly me…and shared stories about our life, our families…about tobacco, about cigar making, about our companies, our factories and our people. It was an amazingly productive week with an intensive exchange of ideas…and we barely scratched the surface.”

In describing the cigar, Martin said that the goal was not only to make a truly Dominican cigar, but “our kind of Dominican cigar…and to absorb every drop of knowledge shared with me throughout the process.”

Pricing is set at $15 per cigar, with production limited to 50,000 cigars, though that number ended up being a close approximation once sorting and quality control were done. The cigars are being offered in two packaging formats; the first, a 24-count box, with 2,000 boxes released. The other is a 24-count bundle, with 83 bundles produced as a way to release the remaining cigars from the original production.

As for the name of the cigar, it is pronounced as kwin-kwah-jin-ar-ee-oh, with the word being a Spanish term to describe someone in their 50s.

• Cigar Reviewed: Quinquagenario
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera La Alianza S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Sumatra)
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Length: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Vitola: Robusto
• MSRP: $15 (Box of 24, $360)
• Release Date: September 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: 2,000 Boxes of 24 Cigars and 83 Bundles of 24 Cigars (50,000 Total Cigars)*
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

*The number of bundles released is an approximate number.

The Quinquagenario is unassuming in its presentation, yet its classiness and refinement are immediately evident by way of its band. My best comparison is a clean, well-tailored suit-and-tie; in this case, a solid navy suit with a white shirt and silver tie. The wrapper has some visual richness by way of oiliness, though there is variance as to how oily or dry it feels to my fingers. Because it feels a bit more delicate than I would have expected, I avoid handling it any more than necessary. The cigar is rolled fairly firmly, though just a tick or two softer than what I think of coming from a RoMa Craft cigar, which makes sense since it doesn’t come from the factory that has made every other RoMa Craft cigar. Beyond that, the seam lines are nearly invisible and the roll looks clean, though the caps don’t look circular enough to be visually ideal. The foot has aromas that remind me of beef jerky and sausage without sauce or glaze, a bit meaty but not overpowering. The smell is a bit damp, a sensation I’d compare to sticking my nose into a jar of grape jelly, though that actual aroma varies from cigar to cigar. There’s a touch of either pepper or peppercorns present, as well. The cold draw is smooth with its airflow, stopping several ticks short of what I would describe as being loose, but it’s hard to find much restriction. The flavor initially reminds me of a very simple root beer, leading to wood, rich earth and a bit of pepper. There are also times I pick up just a touch of oiliness in the cold draw, an experience that seems to correlate with how oily the wrapper looks.

It’s remarkable how easily the Quinquagenario starts off with a profile that is very familiar and impressively refined. There’s a familiar rich earth that isn’t too heavy, wood that is bright but not mouth-drying, and pepper that is used effectively to give the profile depth while stimulating the taste buds with its brightness, all in balance individually and in harmony collectively. Retrohales are a tick tamer than I was expecting, but they still deliver some solid pepper that lingers in the nose. As the burn line progresses, the wood picks up some subtle sweetness, and there are spots where I get touches of an aperitif, in particular, Amaro Nonino, though the intensity is nowhere near that of the spirit. Most of the first third’s evolution is guided by changes in the earth and pepper, as both hit my senses with a bit more intensity and fervor than they did when the cigar started. For my palate, the more nuanced expressions of these flavors are preferable, though the more robust ones don’t offer much to complain about beyond lacking smoothness and replacing it with a bit more grittiness. Flavor is generally medium-plus but can nudge up to medium-full with some irritation, body is medium-plus, and strength is on the higher end of mild thus far. Construction is generally very good, with only an occasionally uneven burn line as my only note of concern.

The second third loses the majority of the sweetness while keeping some of the wood around. Pepper shines brightly while exhibiting the right balance of restraint on both the palate and through retrohales. During the first puffs of this section, it’s notable how the sensations on puffs and retrohales now intertwine much more closely than in the first third and how positive that result is, an experience that I rarely find in cigars and one which will reward this cigar’s score. There’s a bit of creaminess appearing in this section, a fairly subtle note that doesn’t take away from the main flavors but rather ties them together while giving the profile some added body and depth. The damp wood moves into the forefront of the profile as this section comes to a close, a change that provides a new mouthfeel to the smoke as well as shifting the flavor a bit. Flavor is medium-full for the most part, body is medium-plus and strength has moved up to medium-minus. Construction remains very good across the board, but one cigar has trouble staying lit and needs some relights.

The final third starts by shifting the pepper into the forefront of the profile, while also making it a bit fuller of an individual sensation. It’s a change that makes me wonder if this is the first time I’ve sensed ligero in the blend, as while the previous two sections had a good amount of pepper, it was never this concentrated, rich, or strong. The profile of the three cigars remains fairly similar in the final third, and each takes on a bit gruffer character, something I’m inclined to latch onto the shifting earthiness, as I find it a bit challenging to pin down exactly what is changing. The cigar doesn’t have quite the richness that it did earlier, and in turn, it elicits more of a lingering tingle on the finish. It’s a change that ties into the black pepper as well, which continues to be vibrant and lingering. The wood note then begins to taste drier than it has thus far before picking up just a touch of light char. The cigar finishes with its fullest profile yet, driven by the change in black pepper, which seems to accentuate the earthiness as well. Flavor finishes in full territory, while body is medium-full and strength reaches medium-plus in one cigar while being closer to medium in the other two. The draws, smoke production and burn lines of the three cigars are all very good, with one cigar struggling to stay lit and needing more attention from my lighter.

Final Notes

• While we try to aggregate our experiences with the three cigars in the paragraphs above, that sometimes means the experience with one cigar gets overshadowed. In smoking the Quinquagenario, the second cigar easily stood out, to the point where it is one of the highest scores I have given to an individual cigar all year. This was the result of the cigar doing all the things mentioned in the first two thirds essentially without flaws, while the final third dodged any of the issues found in the other two.
• To further expand on that second cigar, if you’ve ever found yourself “in the zone,” or seen a musician, athlete or other performer in their zone, that was the second cigar. As a baseball fan, smoking the second cigar was like watching a pitcher throw a no-hitter or a batter hit for the cycle. It was as locked in at a high level from start to finish as any cigar I have smoked in recent memory.
• Skip Martin credited his visits to the Dominican Republic to work on this cigar with giving him a better understanding of Sumatra-seed wrappers from Ecuador, which helped Martin in developing Intemperance Volstead VO 1920, RoMa Craft Tobac’s newest regular production line.
• The Quinquagenario’s boxes are impressive, if not lavish. I particularly like the lid design and that the company went with a thicker cut of wood than that found on a typical cigar box.

• While it is not immediately noticeable, the Quinquagenario wears two bands, the blue one with the Quinquagenario word in script, and then the white band underneath. That white band is embossed with a pair of years in Roman numerals: MCMLXXII, which is 1972 and the year of Skip Martin’s birth, and MMXXII, or 2022 and the year he turned 50.
• In his video from the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Martin mentioned that there would be both a Baka release and a CRAFT release by the end of the year.
• Back in 2013, Brooks Whittington visited the original Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A., which was located in the back of a house.
• I had the opportunity to visit the current location as part of the 2018 Puro Sabor Festival.
• Only one of the three cigars gave me much of a nicotine sensation, but it was enough to warrant a bit of white sugar in hopes of neutralizing the effect.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours on average.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigar Hustler, Cigars Direct, Famous Smoke Shop and JR Cigar carry the Quinquagenario.