Blind Review: Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut (Chapter 1)
The Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut has exclusively reappeared and safely landed at Luxury Cigar Club and their preferred retail partner stores. The cigar is reintroduced with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper and a Nicaraguan binder and filler. The vitola adopted the name “Ranflactic” but featured a new size of 6×56 perfecto. And it is currently being produced out of AJ Fernandez’s factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.
Blend Specifics
- Cigar Reviewed: Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut (Chapter 1)
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
- Binder: Nicaraguan
- Filler: Nicaraguan
- Size: Ranflactic (6″x56)
Blind Review: Johnny Tobacconaught
Appearance & Construction
The figurado shaped cigar has a light amber color wrapper. Visually, I do not see any blemish or even the seam of the wrapper. I run my fingers across the cigar for further inspection, and it is smooth and silky to the touch. I do come across a small soft spot by the cap, but other than that, the construction is flawless.
Flavor & Smoke Characteristics
The Connecticut wrapper has a floral and honey scent to it, and since most of the foot is tapered, I can’t get many scents from there. I tend to v-cut most of my torpedo-esque cap. Therefore, I decided to use my Colibri SV cutter on this one. Once the cap becomes the shape of a crown, I take a cold draw and get tangy dry apricot from it.
I strike two matches together and slowly roast the foot. A stream of smoke slithers its way past my nose, and I immediately smell roasted barley from it. As I draw my first puff, white pepper spice floods my palate from the tip to the back of my tongue. As I expect the smoke, I get dry hay and cedarwood as the dominant profile, followed by white pepper spice. The most shocking part of this cigar is the finish; the flavor reminds me of green grapes. I proceed to retrohale and get bombarded with red pepper spice. Once my receptors calmed down, I get honey, tanned leather, and barnyard.
So far, the cigar is holding its shape. The burn line is even but a little wavy and the ash is still holding on past the 1-inch mark while providing a plethora of smoke from each puff. I am thoroughly enjoying this cigar.
I reach the second third, and the cigar becomes sweeter and buttery while toning down on the pepper spice. The flavor develops nicely with hints of sunflower seeds, syrup, dry hay, and cedarwood. As I retrohale the next puff, the cigar maintains its brightness with flavors of roasted nuts, tanned leather, honey, and red pepper spice. On a side note, the construction of this cigar is still good; it is burning well and even and there are no issues whatsoever.
I smoked past the final third, and suddenly the flavor shifted to highlight roasted peanuts as its main profile, with syrup, cedarwood, and hay tagging along. The spice on the palate withers with each puff. The uniqueness of this cigar though returns on the retrohale: blackberry, maple syrup, roasted nuts, cedarwood, and red pepper spice. The finish on this cigar remains sweet and clean to the palate. With a final retrohale, the fruity, sweet, and nutty flavors remind me why this cigar is out of this world.
Conclusion
Just like Matt Booth, the Johnny Tobacconaut is an eccentric cigar. While the pepper spice set the initial tone for the Tobacconaut, the journey didn’t truly begin until the second third, with the marriage of sunflower seeds, syrup, dry hay, and cedarwood. And it continues to develop from there. Lastly, to go where no cigar smokers have gone, I’ve experienced green grapes and blackberry for the first time in a cigar. Excellent.