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| RoMa Craft Tobac Fomorian |
The RoMa Craft Tobac Fomorian was announced in early February 2013 as a special event only cigar by RoMa Craft Tobac. The cigar was made in specifically for the DC Tweet Up Cigar event that was held in March, 2013. This cigar is a special candela wrapper version of RoMa Craft’s popular CroMagnon cigar. Given the DC Tweet Up took place St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the timing seemed perfect to bring this cigar along to the event. I recently had a chance to sample the Fomorian. Candela cigars have been making a comeback over the past few years and this particular blend ranks as good as any candela I’ve had in recent time.
RoMa Craft Tobac was formed last year as a collaboration between Skip Martin and Michael Rosales. Last year, we identified the company as one of our “Five Boutiques to Watch” at the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show. The CroMagnon is one of the core lines offered by RoMa Craft Tobac. The way the Formorian was born happened during the production process of the EMH vitola of the CroMagnon. Martin said aesthetic issues with some of the Connecticut Broadleaf CroMagnon cigars caused him to set aside about 250 of the EMH vitolas from production. He then asked the factory to place a candela wrapper on that batch and thus the Fomorian was born. As for the name, it comes from Irish Mythology and also has been a character in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game.
Without further adieu, let’s break down the Fomorian and see what this cigar is all about. As a disclaimer, this cigar assessment is based on a single cigar smoking experience.
Blend Profile
Based on the fact the Fomorian has its roots from the original CroMagnon blend, we can infer the following makes up the Fomorian.
Wrapper: Candela
Filler: Nicaraguan (3 Fillers): Esteli, Condega, and a ligero leaf from a small farm north of Esteli on the Honduran border.
For the Fomorian, I went with a straight cut to start the cigar experience. Once the cap was clipped, I proceeded to begin the pre-light draw. The dry draw notes yielded what I would term classic candela flavors – namely notes of cream and wood. Overall, I considered this a satisfactory pre-light cigar experience. It was now time to toast the foot of my RoMa Craft Tobac Fomorian and see what the overall cigar experience would bring to the table.
Flavor Profile
The start to the Fomorian started out with the notes of cream and wood that I detected on the pre-light draw. This was soon followed up by notes of black pepper. The black pepper mixed nicely with the cream notes. The retro-hale provided a sweet pepper spice – definitely one of the more unique retro-hale profiles I have detected.
As the cigar experience of the Fomorian moved through the first third, I also detected notes of natural tobacco and citrus. The flavors of the cream, citrus, and natural tobacco went into a rotation where at different points, one or more of these notes surfaced as a primary flavor while the others were secondary. The pepper spice was still very much present as well, but played more of a complementary role in the flavor profile.
As the Fomorian moved into the second half, I detected some notes of chestnut – which replaced the natural tobacco flavors. The chestnut flavor became a primary flavor note. The citrus, cream, and pepper still were secondary notes.
In the last third, the citrus notes diminished significantly. The chestnut and cream notes were very much primary flavors at the end, while the pepper remained a secondary note. The flavor profile held right until the end. There was a little bit of harshness at the end of the Fomorian, but nothing major. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.
Burn and Draw
The burn line to the Fomorian did require several touch-ups to keep it burning straight. The touch-ups with my butane lighter did the trick to keep it burning straight, but there were more touch-ups than I preferred. The resulting ash was a salt and pepper color and was prone to flaking along the way.
The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal. I was really surprised how the burn temperature never got hot. My personal experience with candela wrappers are that they do have a tendency to burn the cigar warm. I was a little more worried about this given the Fomorian had a larger ring gauge. While I was careful not to over-draw the cigar, I still was very surprised temperature never became an issue.
The draw of the Fomorian was ideal – not too tight and not loose. This made for a very enjoyable cigar to puff on.
Strength and Body
For the most part, the Fomorian didn’t really push the boundaries in terms of strength and body. There isn’t going to be too much of a nicotine kick with this cigar. I assessed the strength of the Fomorian to be mild to medium. As for the body, for most of the cigar experience I felt the flavors were subtle, yet effective. I assessed the Fomorian to be a mild to medium-bodied cigar, but toward the end, the flavors did progress to medium-bodied. Overall, the strength and body balance each other very nicely – although toward the end, there is an edge to the body.
Final Thoughts
RoMa Craft Tobac has been doing a lot of experimental, event only and retail-exclusive cigars in 2013. As for the Fomorian, we just don’t know if this is a one time release or not. What I will say is that Martin and Rosales produced one outstanding candela cigar. Yes, this is a milder cigar offering – but I expect that from a candela. Yes, there also were a couple of burn issues, however the flavor profile to me was excellent. In fact, this is one of the more complex flavor profiles I have gotten from a candela wrapped cigar. Personally I call this a “candela plus” cigar. Overall, I’d recommend this to a novice cigar enthusiast as this cigar shows the potential a candela cigar can deliver. Experienced cigar enthusiasts who smoke candela (whether occasional or not) will like this cigar quite a bit. As for myself, if this cigar were available in boxes, I would not hesitate to pick it up.
Summary
Burn: Good
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Mild to Medium
Body: Mild to Medium (Medium toward end)
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 92
Source: The cigar for this assessment was gifted to me by a friend. Special thanks to JP.
