After inking his deal with Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Matt Booth has kept very busy…he has revamped nearly every mark in the Room101 lineup and helped revive and reimagine Sancho Panza and Los Statos Deluxe brands. I have tried the original Los Statos Deluxe and the Connecticut, and I have to admit to not really being very impressed with either…but I decided to give this Maduro a try anyway. It features Dominican and Honduran fillers, a Nicaraguan binder, and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper.
And what a very dark Broadleaf wrapper it is! I found myself trying to remember the last time I saw a leaf that dark unless the color was “helped along.” Giving it a sniff, I got dark chocolate and leather notes, while the foot had more grassy and bready notes. I clipped the head and got a very nice cold draw that featured a distinct berry sweetness…not the first time I’ve experienced that with Honduran leaf.
I fired it up and was immediately rewarded by a deep chocolatey sweetness, with a bit of red pepper flake and some leathery notes. I sipped some Benchmark Full Proof along with it…and there will be more about that at a later date, but suffice to say…it’s hotter than hell out of the bottle, but add in some ice or water, and this is a pretty fantastic pour from a bottle that only runs $25. The cigar had some coffee bean bitterness on the finish, balancing out the sweeter notes up front. I was prepared to find this cigar kind of “meh”…but this could be the one blend in the line that I enjoy enough to buy more.
