Initial Thoughts

It’s been awhile since I’ve smoked an Aging Room brand cigar. I had a couple a year or so ago and if you remember my review, I wasn’t impressed. However, tons of people have told me how great they are and that I should give them another shot. I haven’t gotten around to smoking another M356, but I did pick up their latest release the Aging Room Maduro. This cigar was announced at the IPCPR show this year and was set to release in July. It just hit my retailers shelf this week so I went and snatched it up.

This cigar is blended with Dominican Habano filler and binder. The wrapper is a Nicaraguan maduro that has been aging for 5 years with their proprietary aging and curing process. I guess that makes sense why they call themselves the Aging Room. Not much more to the back story of this cigar so we’ll just have to hop right into the review and see what comes out on the other end.

Looks

This Aging Room Maduro is a fairly large cigar at 6×54 they’re calling it the Mezzo size. It’s a parejo shape, no fancy pants shapes on this line. The wrapper is a dark chocolate looking wrapper. Very difficult to find the seams on the wrapper they are placed perfectly together.

The band on this stick is a nice dark red it’s actually very similar to the Ortega band in my opinion. It has the Aging Room font, but it has a bold dark red background to make it really pop. It’s a good deviation from the band on their initial release. This way it lets you know that you’re smoking the maduro and not their initial release. The packaging on the box isn’t anything too crazy it’s their standard pine colored box similar to what they’ve done in the past. I’ve got no problem with the packaging it just makes it a little harder to stand out on the shelf sometimes when you don’t have anything to draw your eye in.

Luckily when I picked this up at my local shop (UPtown’s) Marcus had put out the Aging Room sign in front of these which helped draw attention to the new stuff. So that was helpful in me being able to find them, otherwise I might have just passed them up. Let’s get into the pre game and get this thing going.

Function

When looking through the selection in the humidor I picked up the first stick and rolled it through my fingers doing the pinch test on the spot. This cigar was ready to go it felt perfect in my hands so there was no need to pick up a different Aging Room Maduro I was ready to burn.

I took the cello off and began giving it the checkout. The foot looked great, nice and evenly packed. As I said the filler had a nice bounce back no soft spots through the barrel. The head on this stick was constructed perfectly. The wrapper was so dark I had trouble seeing any cap lines. I saw one, but that’s it so I’m not sure if it’s a triple cap or not.

I smoked this at the shop and I forgot my cutter and torch so I’m now I’m having to resolve to using the free cutters that everyone else uses up at the front counter. Just a little side story real quick. So I walk up to the counter to pay for these sticks and I’m looking at all the little trinkets they have. I see a lazer pointer that has a cigar punch on the end. Someone has used the punch and then left their cigar parts in the cutter! Seriously? What’s wrong with people. There is a punch a foot away for common use and you use the one on the counter for sale? That’s just absurd. So after I buy the stick I go over to where all the cutters are and I open up the Xikar. Someone had left it closed after they nipped their cigar. Apparently, this person didn’t know what the hell they were doing either because they clipped their cigar with the cellophane around it still. So not only did this cutter cut through the cigar it also had to go through cellophane. That’s just outrageous to me. Some people just don’t have a clue and it’s sad. I can forgive the cellophane cut, because that person probably just didn’t know better, but the person that used the punch that was for sale, that’s just wrong.

Ok back on track now. So after I clear out the cellophane from the cutter I go ahead and nip the head of my Aging Room Maduro. I take a couple of puffs and test out the dry draw. It’s excellent, just a bit of resistance and a decent amount of flavor is coming through so that’s a good sign. Everything appears to be in good and working order so I think it’s time to light it up and let it burn.

Smoking

There were plenty of lighting options at the counter for me to use, but for some reason I  felt a bit nostalgic and wanted to use matches. I think I just like playing with fire and matches is always a fun way to do that. It’s more fun that using a giant butane torch. Even though it’s harder to touch up an uneven burning wrapper it can still be done. Because I’m using matches I obviously can’t toast the foot, so I have to make to rotate the cigar really well while lighting to get it burning straight from the get go.

It only took me 2 matches to get this Aging Room Maduro going and burning straight. Then it was off to the races. The smoke out put was fantastic. One thing I love about smoking at lounge is that it allows the smoke to swirl around you a bit more than sitting outside. This cigar was burning nice and even through the first third and it was incredibly easy to pull through the barrel.

I didn’t have an issue throughout this entire cigar. The burn and draw was excellent all the way through the final two thirds of this stick. The smoke output stayed consistent and it was a very pleasurable smoking experience. Well that’s enough about how it smokes, time to get into the flavor.

Flavor

On the pre light flavor of this Aging Room Maduro I picked up a lot of sweet cocoa notes, especially on the foot. When I began drawing air through the barrel I was picking up on some nice spice on my lips that lingered for quite a bit. So I was expecting a good deal of spice to come in later. The wrapper had a nice sweet and earthy note to it as well.

Once I got this cigar up and running I was picking up on a lot of spice. Not much sweetness which is what I was expecting to find. It is a Nicaraguan wrapper so I guess I should have been expecting the spice, but I didn’t know it was Nicaraguan at the time so that explains that, I guess. One interesting flavor that I experienced was how the spice reacted with the sweetness. There was a good dose of spice on the front end of the retrohale, but on the back end the sweet followed. It created this hollow flavor that coated the roof of my mouth and wasn’t overpowering in fact it was very subtle but I noticed it and I was excited to experience it. It’s kind of hard to describe other than just a hollow / thin flavor coating the roof of my mouth.

During the second third this Aging Room Maduro mellowed out quite a bit. The spice wasn’t as pungent as it was during the first third. I began picking up a few more earthy notes and a slight coffee flavor as well. There were blended quite nicely and complimented each other fairly well.

The final third was more of the same. It didn’t really change in intensity at all for me and stayed around a medium-full bodied smoke for me. The spice stayed at a reasonable level, but the sweetness never really picked up like I thought it would.

Would I Buy It Again?

Yes I believe I would.

Is It an Every Day Smoke?

Potentially, maybe in a smaller vitola.

Would I Buy a Box?

Potentially, if I found a good deal on a box I might pick one up.

Conclusion

I definitely enjoyed this Aging Room Maduro much more than their initial release. I felt like the flavors were more complex and I didn’t have any burn or draw issues on this stick so that always makes it easier to enjoy. If you’re a fan of maduro cigars give this one a try and see what you think, it might surprise you!