Cigar Review: Room101 Master Collection 3

• Vitola: Mutante (Lancero)
• 7” x 38 ring gauge 
• Price $10.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

In doing a little research before writing this review, I ran across Will Cooper stating that this was Room101’s 15th blend since the brand began in 2010. 15!!! That seems like a lot from a guy who was, at the time, known as a silversmith. Matt Booth has been a busy man, though, continuing his silver business, expanding it into more affordable stainless steel versions, and starting and growing a cigar brand (with more than a little help from Camacho and Davidoff, if we’re being honest).

So Master Collection 3…and still no “Servant Collection,” which is a bit disappointing for us fans of ‘80s music. Anyway, this is the last of the MC series and it is designed as a “limited edition” cigar, although in this case that means a run of about 100,000 cigars. That’s the same number as the original Namakubi and there are still plenty of them on the shelf, so while this is not going to be around forever, you don’t really have to worry about buying every box you can get your hands on right this moment (although if that’s your choice, call me up at Burns and I can hook up you).

The fillers of this cigar are from two growing regions of Nicaragua. The binder is Dominican. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano. I’m not at all certain that this is the first Room101 blend without any Honduran leaf in it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s unusual in the grand scheme of things (since they have basically operated as an outgrowth of Camacho, a strongly Honduran company). This review is based on my second smoking of this blend and this vitola; I bought both of them at Burns.

Prelight

From the piano-white boxes with the black sakuras to the matching white background, black design bands, the MC3 is a good looking and understated cigar, very unlike some of Booth’s other designs (Uncle Lee, OSOK, and Big Delicious were particularly outlandish). They also continue the themes begun in the earlier Master Collection installments, with differentiation by color. This Lancero (Mutante) vitola is finished off in a perfectly tight pigtail that’s among the best I’ve seen.

The oily wrapper leaf was the color of milk chocolate and had a few veins that probably felt larger simply because of the small ring gauge. Giving it a good sniff, I picked up on rich molasses, cocoa powder and hay notes, with the foot being earthy with a bit of black coffee. The cold draw was excellent and featured notes of earth and creamy coffee with slightly sweet and peppery notes.

Flavor

Once I lit the MC3, I got a little bit of a bread note that surely came from the Dominican binder, but it was wrapped up in stronger notes of earth and espresso bean and red pepper flake. The Nicaraguan earth, Dominican bread and Habano spice really set up an interesting beginning to this blend…multilayered, complex and engaging.

As I puffed my way through the second third, the spice died down a little but didn’t disappear. The earth and coffee notes increased along with a slight uptick in sweeter flavors. The bread notes diminished a bit.

Pepper spice came back in a big way in the last third, not quite overpowering everything else, but the earth, coffee and chocolate notes were definitely subdued.

Construction

I had zero construction issues with this cigar, which is something to celebrate when you’re talking about a 38 ring gauge.

Value

$11 is a bit spendy, but when the cigar ends up as good as this one, it’s not hard to justify.

Conclusions

Could this be the best Room101 blend yet? With it’s heavily Nicaraguan blend, punctuated by some Dominican and Ecuadorian Habano leaf, I’d have to say…”Yes!” Great smoke, lots of complexity and never a dull moment from initial light to nub. Excellent full-bodied smoke with a medium-to-full strength that I will enjoy again and again. Get ‘em while you can…you probably have 3 to 5 years.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10