Second Look: Room 101 LTD Conjura

4.75" x 50 ring gauge / $8.40, Burns

The initial release of Room 101 cigars was highly praised by many in the cigar community. It is a medium-bodied cigar made by Camacho with a proprietary hybrid wrapper leaf and a flavor profile that turned out to vary widely depending on which vitola you chose. A year later Matt Booth and the folks at Camacho released the first in their "Limitado Series" of cigars, the Conjura Edition (Conjura is Spanish for conspiracy). It uses Dominican and Nicaraguan filler, a Honduran binder and a Honduran Rosado wrapper. My partner in blogging, Keith, got his hands on a pre-release sample a few months ago and was left completely unimpressed. When the actual production sticks hit the shelves at my local tobacconist, though, I bought a couple and smoked them both (different vitolas) before writing this review.

Right out of the cello, the appearance was mostly excellent. the cigar had a nicely squared-off box press, the bands were similar enough to the regular cigar to be recognizably "101," and the wrapper leaf was smooth and virtually vein-free. The one thing that was slightly lacking was the cap, part of which seemed significantly darker than the rest of the leaf and part of which was not firmly glued down--it was poking up just a bit in a couple place. Giving the wrapper a sniff, I picked up cedar and some kind of spice--maybe paprika; on the foot I noted a woodsy, almost compost note. The prelight draw was easy and had flavors of natural tobacco and wood.

Once lit the Conjura Edition greeted me with cedar and a slight sweetness on the palate and a retrohale that had a significant peppery punch. The sweetness became more clear as I smoked through the first third; it was a citrusy, mildly sweet note, almost an orange peel. It was a nice counter balance for the cedar that provided the major flavor, while the black pepper kept my nostrils burning the whole time.

As the second third started I noticed a fairly large change in flavor profile. The notes on the palate went from cedar and orange peel to a chocolate and cayenne pepper mix; this reminded me of the original 101 release which had a nice amount of cayenne, especially in the smaller ring gauges. On the retrohale, the pepper was replaced by roasted nuts. Draw and burn line were almost perfect thus far and the body was in the high end of medium.

The last third saw the sweetness of the chocolate subside as the flavor became more of a cocoa powder and the body ramped up to the low end of full. The cayenne pepper ramped up, too, much as it does in the regular 101. I really enjoyed this cigar; the overall flavor profile is similar enough to the original 101 that it is recognizable as part of the same family, but this is bolder and fuller. If you liked the original, but wanted something a little stronger, I think you will love this cigar. While the overall score for this cigar ended up being about the same as what I gave the 213 vitola of the regular release, I preferred this one slightly to the original and can see buying it frequently until it disappears--it is a limited edition, after all. Kudos to Matt Booth and Camacho for a great entry in this series and for keeping the price of the LTD in line with the original. And for those of you who have already tried and enjoyed this cigar, you may not have seen all it can do...rumor is that a similar filler/binder blend will be paired with a different wrapper some time in the future (as all rumors go, though, that is totally subject to change and I could just be part of some grand conspiracy to mislead you!).

Body: 8/10

Strength: 8/10

Complexity: 8/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2

Construction: 2/2

Flavor: 4.5/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 9.5/10

Agree, disagree or just have something to add to the conversation? The Comments section is open below!