Room101 OSOK Filero (Prerelease)

Sometime around August of 2011, word started spreading about a new cigar that Matt Booth of Room101 Cigars was giving away at events on his Cigarmageddon Tour. Dubbed OSOK, which stands for One Shot One Kill.

Very little is known about the cigar blend-wise and until now, as Room101 has been extremely tight-lipped on the subject. However, what is known is that the One Shot One Kill is that it is a collaboration between Booth and southern California photographer Edgar Hoill, whose nickname is One Shot One Kill due to his ability to get an amazing photograph with one click of the shutter. Hoill is a photographer known for taking moving photographs in some of the worst situations and surroundings from Cuban slums to Mexican border towns. He also has his own clothing line, which you buy here.

There are scheduled to be three different vitolas, all Perfecto/Diadema shapes, of the OSOK when they launch in January. They are:

• Filero — 52 x 42 x 4 1/2 — $8.00 — 10,000 Cigars Total Production
• Trucha — 30 x 50 x 19 x 6 1/2 — $10.00 — 10,000 Cigars Total Production
• Chingon — 60 x 44 x 8 — $12.00 — 10,000 Cigars Total Production

 

And here’s what the boxes look like, via Room101 blog:

 

While the blend has remained largely a secret, we can now tell you that the Room 101 OSOK uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper with a Honduran Corojo binder and Honduran Corojo and Dominican Piloto Ligero fillers.The Filero, which is the smallest size, is size-wise somewhere between a Fuente Hemingway Short Story and Work of Art, in other words, a small Perfecto. However, unlike the Fuente’s versions, these have the pointed-head found on Diademas.

• Cigar Reviewed: Room101 One Shot One Kill Filero
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Tabacos Rancho Jamastran
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Honduras (Corojo)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Piloto Ligero) & Honduras (Corojo)
• Length: 4 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52/42
• Vitola: Petit Perfecto
• MSRP: $8 (Boxes of 10, $80)
• Release Date: January 2012
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 2

Looking at the cigar, you are immediately struck at how similar it is to the Fuente Short Story and Best Seller vitolas. A small Figurado with a pointed cap and pointed foot. The wrapper is a great mocha brown and smells strongly of sweet cedar, milk chocolate and barnyard. It has the perfect amount of give when squeezed and the wrapper has a bit of tooth and a bit of oil on it.

The First Half of the Filero starts out with a nice sweet floral note, cedar, as well as some milk chocolate and just a tiny amount of fruitish flavor that I can’t quite place. There is quite a bit of spice on the tongue and lips from the first puff, but the amount recedes by the tenth puff or so. Interestingly, the draw is perfect, which is not normal for a cigar of this size (there are usually problems with the draw on Figurados until after the thickest point of the bulb).

The Second Half of the OSOK has the same major flavors in the profile (chocolate, floral and wood), but loses quite a bit of the spice from the first half. It l also loses quite a bit of the sweetness that was present from the First Half, although it was still noticeable in the background (and I realized that it was actually a citrus flavor). I  could also feel the strength building until the end and the Room101 ends at a solid medium-plus.

Final Notes

• The Room101 One Shot One Kill was supposed to be released in December of 2011, but delays pushed the release date back to January. Word is these are set to arrive January 21, 2012.
• As you may or may not know, the Namakubi packaging was on my list of “Most Unique Cigar Packaging” for 2011 and won Charlie’s award for that as well, and it looks like the OSOK will make the list again this year. Easily some of the most interesting presentations for a cigar in the last couple of years at least.
• Edgar Hoill is actually a very interesting personality, and you can see some of his work on his site here
• The flavors out of this cigar were extremely rich, very distinct. For the most part, you easily knew what you were tasting (eventually).
• The cigar was fairly densely packed, and took quite a bit longer to smoke then I thought it would, considering the small vitola. The Final Smoking Time was almost an Hour.
• The OSOK has quite a punch for a cigar of its size and I am interested to see if the larger vitolas are stronger or not.
• The price is a bit high for the smaller vitola, but just think of it as about $2 less than what a Viaje of the same size would cost. Also, it’s not the easiest shape to roll.
• The draw was perfect, but the burn was uneven at multiple times throughout the smoke, not horrible, but bad enough to have to correct.