A decade ago I was working at Burns Tobacconist full-time and Matt Booth’s Room101 brand was part of the Davidoff catalog. I remember when Johnny Tobacconaut first showed up, a space-traveling character that clearly demonstrates the whimsical sense of humor of Matt Booth. Time-traveling a few years from 2015, the brand skipped over to Forged Cigars when Booth’s Room101 found a new home and the blend changed from all Nicaraguan leaf rolled in the Camacho factory in Honduras to mostly Nicaraguan (with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper) leaf rolled by AJ Fernandez’s shop in Nicaragua. This new 10th Anniversary release (JT10) is all Nicaraguan tobacco…and also made by AJ Fernandez’s factory. It would have been out several months ago if it hadn’t been for the fire the factory sustained earlier this year.
I smoked my first of these without noting the blend details and felt like it could have been a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. Hearing that it’s Nicaraguan (I’m assuming Maduro still) is surprising, but looking at the distinct veining on the wrapper, I’m not all that shocked that it’s not Broadleaf…the veins are very light and stand out very well against the dark brown leaf and showing off the veins structure very well. It did have a earthy, barnyardy aroma to it, with a touch of anise, while the foot was rich…chocolate and coffee notes, most prevalent, but plenty of earthiness, too.
The cold draw was sweet…definitely more chocolate along with something like a dark fruit. Fired up the Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary had earth and cedar, cocoa powder and espresso bean, along with a decent amount of pepper spice on the palate and an absolutely nasal-passage-searing amount on the retrohale. It’s really a very classic Nicaraguan blend profile, enhanced by the sweeter notes of a wrapper I truly believe is a Maduro of some sort. I’m planning to buy some more of these before they disappear forever…if any of this sounds like it’s in your wheelhouse, plan to do the same.
