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Presmoke thoughts:

I’ve smoked a few RoMa Craft cigars over the last couple years. Most I’ve liked, and some of those may have been the RoMa Craft Intemperance. I stopped buying them for a while because they didn’t previously band their cigars, so I could never remember which I had smoked, much less which I liked and which I didn’t. I’m happy that has since changed.

This RoMa Craft Intemperance BA XXI The Intrigue (what a name…) is almost “Right Off The Truck” as it was delivered Wednesday, and I’m smoking it Friday. I’ve let it sit outside of the coolerador all day as it was suggested these be dry boxed. Not quite the same, but hopefully enough.

This is the COTM (Cigar Of The Month) on the cigars subreddit on reddit.com and the organizer suggested using Small Batch Cigars as the purchase source as he had arranged a 10% off coupon with free shipping. I picked up a 5-pack of these and a 5-pack of the Herrera Esteli Short Corona Gordas, which I will have a review forthcoming for.

So what’s up with the name, right? It’s weird. There’s Roman numerals. A word that visually looks like several other words, but — as I found out with some research — is a word with an interesting history, and as much as I liked the brand RoMa Craft previously, this new info made me appreciate them all the more. I’m basically going to copy/paste a chunk of info from their site here, but feel free to click here to read their full info on the RoMa Craft Intemperance.

The branding for Intemperance evokes the history of prohibition and features a logo inspired by a famous artifact of the temperance movement, a propaganda poster/political print produced by a temperance hymnodist, A.D. Fillmore in 1855. Intemperance EC XVIII (Ecuador Connecticut) In the 18th century a global temperance movement began in rural Connecticut. After World War I, the movement began to spread like wildfire throughout the United States, and across the globe, as religious and women’s groups spread the gospel on the evils of alcohol. In 1919, the temperance movement achieved their goal when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States established a national prohibition on the consumption of ‘intoxicating liquors’. Intemperance BA XXI (Brazil Arapiraca) Following the ratification of the 18th Amendment, an intemperance movement was born. The Volstead Act had effectively turned every consumer, merchant and producer of alcohol into a criminal; organized crime took root. Without market and regulatory controls, alcohol became more dangerous to consume. The court system was brought to the brink of failure under the weight of criminal and civil cases related to prohibition. After a little more than a decade, public opinion had been turned and the effort to repeal prohibition emerged victorious with the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Despite the dismal failure of this ‘noble experiment’, the temperance movement marches on. Perhaps this is no better represented than in the form of the modern tobacco control movement, also known as the anti-smoking movement.

So the Roman numerals XVIII and XXI correspond to the 18th Amendment and the 21st Amendment respectively. Cool stuff, I personally appreciate their willingness to tie-in the cigar’s name to real-life current threats to cigars and their history.

Construction:

I love the unfinished foot. I don’t know why, I just do. There’s maybe a quarter inch of un-wrapped binder exposed and it’s just something unique that I don’t see often. I like the color of the wrapper, the seams are tight, there’s a couple defined veins, no noticeable hard or soft spots, and the cap is applied neatly.

Prelight:

Very earthy, farm smell on that nose. Slightly floral in a “freshly planted with manure” way.

Major chocolate espresso on the cold draw with a hint of raspberry. Wild combination, it’s like one of those chocolate bars that has the raspberry centers — this is definitely the first time I’ve tasted a profile quite like that. Fairly tight draw.

Stats:

Cigar Brand: RoMa Craft

Cigar Name: Intemperance BA XXI

Factory: Fabrica de Tobacco NicaSueno

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Brazil Ariparaca

Binder: Indonesia

Filler: Nicaragua/Dominican Republic

Vitola: The Intrigue (Petito)

Length: 4″

Ring Gauge: 46

Cost: $4.14 each (I bought a 5-pack for $20.70 — $23 w/ a 10% off coupon code of ‘RCIGARS’)

Where purchased: www.SmallBatchCigars.com

Strength: Medium

Smoked: 2014-05-09

Where: Backyard

When: ~5:30pm

Occasion: n/a

Meal: n/a

Where: n/a

Drink Pairing: n/a

Link: http://romacrafttobac.com/intemperance.html

First Third:

The draw did not open up on first few pulls. This is my ideal size cigar, love it. The nose smells like chocolate raspberry and it’s incredible. Very light and fruity.

The burn is incredibly bad. I’ve touched it up once and it’s already back to as bad as it was. Major bummer there.

Nearing end of first third we have a huge flavor change to a meaty oak flavor, very intense!

Second Third:

Second Third starts to bring in some sweetness to the savory. It’s a really great balance, though I think the flavors might be slightly muted because of how fresh and unrested it is. I’m absolutely loving the flavors I am pulling out though. At this point I’m really looking forward to seeing how these smoke in a few weeks and a few months.

Final Third:

We switch to some nice leathery flavors. It’s not often I enjoy leather, this is absolutely a positive leathery though. It’s been burning really hot for the last part of the second third and final Third. Not problematic, just a note from my fingers.

When I’m getting to the end of where I can hold this without burning my fingers it turns into a slightly bitter toasted nut taste. I think the bitterness might be from how hot its gotten, but it’s not bad as it’s more toasted nut. This finishes having only briefly tasted the slight bitterness and ends with a fantastic toasted nut flavor. Fantastic.

Burn:

Not perfect, and it required some touching up. I look forward to what changes in the burn after resting for a few weeks.

Final Thoughts:

Love it. Happy I bought a five pack. Again, these weren’t rested at all so as of right now I’m attributing the burn problems to their need for rest. I will almost certainly post a second review of this stick in a few weeks, unless it ends up being totally identical in experience.