Review: Room 101 LTD Namakubi Papi Chulo (Prerelease)

For those of you that don’t know…

Introduced at the IPCPR Show last month, the Room 101 Namakubi made a splash, not just for it’s interesting name origins (below), but also for it’s box design. Room 101 also released a new Connecticut blend, which uses a wrapper sourced from Davidoff.

The Namakubi actually has an interesting origin:

“Although in many ways long gone, Samurai culture is believed to live on in spirit within certain groups. In ancient times when two Samurai clans would gather for competition there was a great deal at stake. Normally, the losing party would die as a result of wounds sustained in battle or be executed upon defeat. The Namakubi, or freshly severed head of the losing party would be prepared on a wooden tray then tagged in a regimented manner and presented to the leader of the winning clan as a gift.”

There will be 100,000 total cigars released among five different vitolas with MSRPs starting at $6.00 and ending around $10.00.

They are:

• Papi Chulo — 4 x 42 (MSRP: $6.00) — 400 Boxes of 50 Cigars
• Roxxo — 4 x 48 (MSRP: $7.00) — 1000 Boxes of 20 Cigars
• Tiburon — 6 x 44 (MSRP: $8.00)— 1000 Boxes of 20 Cigars
• Sucio — 7 x 48 ($9.00)— 1000 Boxes of 20 Cigars
• Monstro — 5 x 60 ($10.00)— 1000 Boxes of 20 Cigars

The boxes the Room 101 Namakubi come in look like this:

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But enough of that, let’s get down to business, shall we?

• Cigar Reviewed: Room 101 LTD Namakubi Papi Chulo
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Tabacos Rancho Jamastran
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
• Binder: Generoso-seed(Honduras)
• Filler: Dominican & Honduran Vuelta Abajo
• Size: 4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 42
• Vitola: Petit Corona
• MSRP: $6.00 (Cabinets of 50, $300.00)
• Release Date: August 2011
• Number of Cigars Released: 400 Boxes of 50 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)*
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 3

*20,000 Cigars Per Vitola, 100,000 Total Cigars. (see above)

The cigar is a nice looking cigar, with a lightish brown wrapper that has a nice amount of oil on it. There are some veins present, but nothing overly distracting. It is fairly hard when squeezed, but does have a bit of give. The wrapper smells faintly of wood and chocolate. Predraw notes include cedar, pepper and a hint of sweetness.

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The First Third starts with an interesting combination of flavors: wood, leather and espresso, but also a nice sweetish floral note that really set everything else off. There is a bit of spice on the tongue, just enough to notice and comment on.

The Second Third starts much the same as the first, but I can feel the strength increasing by leaps and bounds. The profile does not change much, but there is a bit more dark/bitter chocolate flavor, and the floral note is still around.

The Last Third REALLY ramps up the body, getting noticeably stronger at the end, about full minus in my estimation. The flavors don’t really change much in the final third, but the cigar never got hot, and I was able to nub it easily.

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Final Notes:

• I smoked three different vitolas for this review (Papi Chulo, Tiburon and Sucio) and found the Papi Chulo easily topped the other vitolas, both in flavor and strength. This is a blend you want to smoke in small sizes.
  
• I LOVE the packaging of these cigars, easily one of the Top 10 of the Year so far. (I wish I had taken better photos of the boxes in Vegas, but did not have a bunch of time, and the light was not overly pleasant.). Great looking logo (black box with red logo) and I love how the Papi Chulo vitola is presented  in boxes of 50 sitting vertically foot down.
• I smoked this cigar before breakfast, and that was not the best I idea I have ever had, I was feeling it by the end of the cigar.
• The draw was perfect on the sample I smoked, but the burn was a bit wavy — nothing horrible, but noticeable.
• The Final Smoking Time was about 45 minutes.

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The Bottom Line: Although I was not impressed with the first Room 101 release back in 2009, I enjoyed the Conjura line, especially in smaller vitolas. The Namakubi is in the same vein, enjoyment wise. The Papi Chulo vitola, while not overly complex, was surprisingly (and impressively) strong for such a small cigar, easily a full minus in body by the end of the cigar. The Papi Chulo was also the best in the line, in my opinion. Easy to smoke, nice flavors, great construction and a great size — a winner in my book.

Final Score: 89

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.