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| Aging Room Quattro F55 |
The Aging Room Quattro F55 is the third blend to be released in the Aging Room Cigars line. It was a cigar launched at the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show. Last year, Oliveros Cigars started a new line of cigars called Aging Room Cigars. Aging Room Cigars line is based on a concept where often there are some very good and rare tobaccos that are made available, but not enough to make a cigar to satisfy production level targets. The Aging Room Cigar line seeks to do limited short batch releases of cigars with these tobaccos. Earlier this year, Oliveros spun the Aging Room Cigars line (along with the Swag Cigars line) into a spinoff company called Boutique Blends Cigars. According to Oliveros president Rafael Nodal, the purpose of this move was to allow the company to focus on “the creation of more exciting and complex blends“. With the Aging Room Quattro F55, they do succeed in creating a very exciting blend. This proves to be another gem in the Aging Room Cigars line which top to bottom has proven to be a great line for Boutique Blends and Oliveros.
The Aging Room Quattro F55 has two distinguishing characteristics.First up, it is the first box-press to be added to the Aging Room Cigars family. Second up, it is the Sumatra wrapper which is a special tobacco incorporated by Aging Room Cigars.The story behind this wrapper is that Nodal was able to acquire it from a machine-made cigar factory going out of business in Europe.
The Quattro refers to the fact that this cigar has a box-press shape. The F55 represents the date of which the blend was finalized. The F stands for “February” and the 55 stands for the day of the year (which would translate to February 24th). A similar concept was done on the first Aging Room Cigars release – the Aging Room M356.
Let’s take a closer look at the Aging Room Quattro F55 and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
In addition to the nine year old wrapper from Sumatra, the Aging Room Quattro F55 leverages Dominican binder and filler – a staple of not only Aging Room Cigars, but the Boutique Blends line.
Wrapper: Sumatra 2003
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Vitolas Available
There will be five vitolas initially released. As mentioned above, each of the cigars will be a box-press. The vitola names continue a theme with Aging Room Cigars with musical names – a known passion of Nodal.
Concerto: 7 x 50
Vibrato: 6 x 54
Maestro (Torpedo): 6 x 52
Espressivo: 5 x 50
Stretto: 4 1/2 x 46
Appearance
For this cigar experience, I selected the Vibrato vitola – which is basically a toro box-press. The Sumatra wrapper is medium-brown in color with some dark spots. The wrapper itself is somewhat oily and very smooth to the touch. There are very few visible veins, but there are some visible wrapper seams. The box-press itself is well-packed and firm. From the cigar’s foot, there is a sweet tobacco aroma that can be detected.
There are two bands on the Quattro. The main band is pretty much the same Aging Room band that was found on the M356. The top portion of the main band has the Aging Room logo on a brown background. There is also some white and gold trim around the top and bottom of that upper portion of the band. The bottom portion is mostly brown with gold design on it. In the middle there is brown pinstriping over a white background that represents a musical staff. Toward the left of the staff it says “Small Batch” in brown font. To the right of the staff it says “Aging Room” also in brown font. In the middle is the text “F55” in blue font.
The secondary band is a footer band. It is mostly brown. It has the text “Quattro” in an ivory-like color. There is gold and red pinstriping along the top and bottom of the band. The remainder of the footer band has gold designs on it.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
For my smoke of the Quattro F55, I opted to put a straight cut into the cap of the cigar. It was on to begin the pre-light draw experience. The dry draw notes yielded me notes of coffee, natural tobacco sweetness, and cedar. Overall I considered this to be an excellent pre-light draw. It was now on to firing up my Quattro F55 and see what this cigar experience would deliver for me.
Flavor Profile
Overall I found the flavor profile of the Aging Room Quattro F55 not to be one that would provide a large number of flavor transitions, but one that would provide a lot of flavor nuances during the smoking experience.
The flavors at the beginning of the Quattro F55 were similar to what I got on the dry draw notes. There was a mix of coffee, pepper, and natural tobacco flavors. The coffee and natural tobacco were primary notes early on, and the pepper took on more of a background note. The pepper also seemed more present on the retro-hale early on.
Later in the first half, some citrus notes emerged into the flavor profile. The Quattro F55 then saw the coffee, citrus, and natural tobacco notes interchange as far as which flavor was in the forefront. There were times the pepper spice also made an appearance in the forefront. As the Quattro F55 moved into the second half, the pepper’s role became increasingly more present. The spice took over in the last third. As the Quattro F55 came to a close, it was spicy, but the cigar never got harsh. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and lukewarm in temperature.
Burn and Draw
From examining the Aging Room Quattro F55, you can tell this is a well-constructed cigar. This is reflected in the attributes of burn and draw. From a burn perspective, I found the Aging Room Quattro F55 to burn straight from start to finish requiring minimal touch-ups. The resulting ash was salt and pepper in color and at times a little loose. The burn rate and burn temperature remained ideal from start to finish. The draw was outstanding as well I considered this to be an effortless and low maintenance draw – making for an enjoyable smoking experience from start to finish.
Strength and Body
I found the Quattro F55 to be the kind of cigar that will not sacrifice strength nor flavor. It does a good job at balancing both of these components while not short-changing the cigar enthusiast on either. From a strength perspective, the Quattro F55 has a little more kick than you might think. I assessed this has having enough strength to qualify as a medium to full strength smoke. The flavors to the Quattro F55 have some depth to them. I also assessed this to be medium to full in body – very close to full-bodied.
Final Thoughts
All of the indications are that Aging Room Cigars is going to have another winner on their hands with the Quattro F55. I found this to be a well-made cigar that is balanced in both flavor and strength. I also found it to be very flavorful. It’s a known fact that the majority of the flavor comes from a cigar’s wrapper. In the case of the Aging Room Quattro F55, there definitely must have been something special about that wrapper from Sumatra. While I had this in the medium to full category for strength, this would still be a cigar I’d encourage a novice to try if they are looking to graduate to something stronger. I’d also recommend this to an experienced enthusiast who likes a well balanced medium to full strength/medium to full-bodied cigar. As for myself, this is definitely a cigar I’d smoke again.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 91
Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from Outland Cigars in Charlotte, North Carolina.
