Room101 11th Anniversary Torpedo

Anniversaries tend to be a fairly big deal in the cigar industry, and as such, there seems to be a new blend—or a new size in an existing blend—being released to commemorate some occasion or another from various manufacturers on a fairly consistent basis.

That was the case last year, when Room101 released a new cigar that was appropriately named 10th Anniversary, a 6 x 52 toro made with a Nicaraguan rosado wrapper, although the rest of the blend was not disclosed.

Fast forward to July of last year, when Room101 teased a followup to that first cigar named 11th Anniversary. However, it took another four months for the company to release the details of the new cigar, which turned out to be a Nicaraguan puro covered in a maduro wrapper sold in only one size, specially a 6 x 54 torpedo.

Only 1,000 boxes of 20 cigars were produced by an undisclosed factory, with each cigar priced at $10.

• Cigar Reviewed: Room101 11th Anniversary
• Country of Origin: Undisclosed
• Factory: Undisclosed
• Wrapper: Nicaragua
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Torpedo
• MSRP: $10 (Box of 20, $200)
• Release Date: December 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,000 Boxes of 20 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Visually, the Room101 11th Anniversary features a dark espresso brown wrapper with plenty of oil and overt veins visible. The cigar also has quite a bit of tooth to it and is just short of rock hard when squeezed. Aroma from the wrapper is a combination of noticeably sweet oak, earth, strong black pepper, leather, barnyard, hay and dark chocolate while the cold draw brings flavors of dark chocolate, hay, ground coffee, baker’s spices, black pepper, strong raisin sweetness and a noticeable amount of varnish.

The Room101 11th Anniversary starts out with a dominant toasted sourdough bread flavor, interspersed with notes of cashews, cinnamon, hay, espresso beans, oak and earth. There is some raisin sweetness noticeable on the retrohale that seems pulled over from the cold draw, and I am picking up some nice black pepper and spice as well, both of which seem to be happy stick around for a while.  Construction-wise, while the draw is great out of the gate, the burn gives me some issues early on that forces me to touch it up quickly, but it seems fine after that. The smoke production is massive off of the foot and the strength hits a point closer to medium than mild by the end of the first third.

There is a shift in the dominant flavor during the second third of the new Room101, with a distinct powdery cocoa nibs note overtaking the sourdough bread flavor from the first third, although the latter is easy strong enough to remain a major part of the profile. Secondary notes of oak, cinnamon, generic nuts, hay, and bitter espresso beans flit in and out, while both the black pepper on the retrohale and spice on my tongue have receded a bit, the raisin sweetness is still going gangbusters. Thankfully, the burn evens up nicely and the draw continues to give me no issues, while the smoke production remains well above average. Strength-wise, the cigar only increases a tiny amount, but that does put the profile just under the medium mark by the time the second third ends.

Unfortunately, the raisin sweetness that has been just a major part of the profile in the preceding thirds of the Room101 11th Anniversary seems to recede quite a bit during the final third, while the profile continues to be dominated by the same powdery cocoa nibs note. That dominant flavor is followed by other notes of freshly roasted coffee beans, hay, leather, peanuts and generic citrus. In addition, the spice on my tongue and slight black pepper on the retrohale pulled over from the previous two thirds are still noticeable, both have significantly reduced from their high points. In terms of construction, the draw is as excellent as ever and the burn continues to give me no major issues while the overall strength reaches a solid medium by the time I put the nub down with about an inch remaining.

Final Notes

• Room101 started as a jewelry brand in 2003, the two aforementioned anniversary creations are referring to the year when the company released its first cigars in 2009.
• There is a very nice juxtaposition between the strong black pepper on the aroma and exceedingly sweet raisin note on the cold draw that I have tasted on many recent cigars.
• Although the varnish note on the cold draw is very obvious, thankfully it is nowhere to be found in the actual profile of the cigar.

• The words no good deeds are printed on the back side of the main band. Room101 has a long history of placing messages inside its bands.
• While not amazing by any means, the overall construction on my cigars was solid, with nice draws after Dickman cuts and each sample needing only one touchup each.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time for all three samples averaged one hour and 39 minutes.