Quinquagenario

RoMa Craft Tobac

• 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)*
• Original Score: 91

*The total production run was 50,000 cigars.

Special cigar releases celebrating a birthday are quite prolific, but a few things make the Quinquagenario a bit more unique.

First off, the name is something I think most people will stumble over pronouncing at first; I certainly did. Let me help with that—kwin-kwah-jin-ar-ee-oh—which translates to in his fifties. This celebratory cigar was a passion project of RoMa Craft Tobac’s co-owner Skip Martin to mark his milestone birthday. Besides a unique name, this is also of note, the first RoMa Craft Tobac cigar not to be produced at the company’s Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A. factory. Instead, Martin teamed up with Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr. to make this cigar at the Dominican factory best known as the home of E.P. Carrillo.

I had the chance to talk to Martin about the Quinquagenario at the 2022 PCA Convention and Trade Show while the blend was still in development. While manufacturers are usually passionate when they talk about new projects, there was an obvious excitement in his eyes when he talked about the hunt for what tobacco to use for this release. One specific strain of tobacco he sourced was even from a region in the Dominican Republic that doesn’t grow tobacco anymore, meaning this special, limited-release is a true one-and-done blend.

As for how the cigar performed, Patrick Lagreid noted in his review that one sample stood out so prominently that it was one of the highest individually scored cigars he had reviewed all year. The rest of the team thought that the profile exhibited a rich, complex profile with many flavors that all worked harmoniously to create something truly impressive. Only some minor construction issues hindered the overall score. Personally, the biggest complaint I had from smoking my sample was that I didn’t have more of these to smoke, something that obviously did not detract points. I plan on remedying that soon and can highly suggest doing the same because, as Martin said, once these are gone, they’ll be gone for good. — Brian Burt.