Cigar Review: Aging Room M356

Rondo (Robusto), 5” x 50 ring gauge / price, Silo Cigars

I had heard a bit about Aging Room Cigars, but truthfully not that much. A couple reviews from other blogs, the name thrown around...but “out of sight, out of mind” is pretty normal for me...unless it’s something I see (or am going to see soon) in my local shops, or is something that there is significant buzz about, I tend to let it drop out of my head. Unfortunately, blogging doesn’t really pay all that well, so I have to have a “real job” that keeps me from spending all my time obsessing about the latest and greatest cigars from every company and keeping them all catalogued in my head. Such is life. I was at Silo Cigars recently and saw that they had Aging Room in stock so I asked about them and bought the sample that I’m smoking for this review today.

Aging Room was created by Oliveros Cigar Distributors out of Miami, while they were working on blends for their popular Swag brand. This particular M356 blend came from Jochy Blanco and the website says this cigar “made us crazy with desire.” They found out there was not enough tobacco for a complete new release so they decided to work it differently: Aging Room will bring “blends made from rare and limited tobacco, whose limited availability would be insufficient for regular release and is made only in small batches.” The M356 is available in four sizes and is made from Dominican filler and binder with a Habano wrapper leaf (the country of origin for the wrapper is not noted on the website).

The banding on the Aging Room is attractive and original overall. It has an interesting, semi-urban lettering scheme with gold foil brass knuckle images in various places and a design that is quite original. The wrapper was oily and quite mottled; the veins stood out really strongly because they appeared quite a bit darker than the rest of the wrapper, but they really weren’t all that large. Taking a big whiff of wrapper, I got notes of leather and hay; the foot had a stronger aroma of earth...ripe and with a bit of manure in it. I used my favorite Xikar Xi series cutter and got my usual flawless cut from it, leaving a very good draw that had flavors of natural tobacco, damp earth, and hay.

As I lit, and directly afterward, I got a distinct maple syrup note. The predominant flavors after the Aging Room M356 was burning, though, were lighter notes of hay and earth, along with some spicy cedar on the palate, along with more wood and pepper spice on the retrohale. Out of the chute, the cigar seemed pretty much medium in body. As I got around halfway through the first third, it seemed like the major flavor component was cedar...and lots of it. I guess that is appropriate, though, as aging rooms are usually lined with wood...this tastes like a real aging room, I guess!

Construction was near perfection...a straight burn line, great draw and solid ash...actually, I guess that would actually BE perfection. As the second third started to burn, I noticed a stronger earthiness starting to emerge from the cedar flavor. Before the third was done the flavors of earth and cedar were fairly equally balanced with a little bit of sweet hay flavor to round it out.

During the final third, the Aging Room M356 didn't change much...more earth, cedar and hay...but it was good and satisfying. I found this cigar very good, while not being quite at the level of the hype the manufacturer is trying to generate or at the level of the other reviews I have seen. Very good...but in my opinion, not a classic smoke. The body wavered in the medium to full range and there was a bit of strength, but not too much. A good cigar for almost anyone but complete newbies.

Body: 7/10

Strength: 7/10

Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2

Construction: 2/2

Flavor: 3.5/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 8.5/10