Initial Thoughts
It’s that time of year, all the cigar brands are starting to release their 2015 releases right before the IPCPR show. This Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar is one of the first ones on the market this year and it’s making a huge splash. It seems to be the cigar every one is talking about right now. It’s even spurred some interesting conversations / editorials that are challenging the industry to not be ‘copycats’.
This cigar however is something that out the outside really looks to appeal to my vices. It uses a unique blend of tobaccos, one of which is aged in Kentucky whiskey barrels. How could you not get excited about that? Going back to Camacho’s roots, they have incorporated the use of an original Corojo leaf in the filler. That Corojo leaf is from Honduras while the rest of the makeup of the cigar is all grown right here in the good ole US of A!
This Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar is the first release from Camacho’s ‘Master Built’ series. So I’m sure they have a lot more up their sleeves with some exciting new blends coming out very soon. The process of aging this tobacco sounds incredibly tedious. Apparently, they rotate the leaf by hand every few weeks for 5 months. With around 2,000 lbs aging at any one time, you can imagine the amount of manual labor that would ensue. Knowing, all that I’m ready to sit back relax and light up this Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar!
Looks
After Camacho took on a re-brand around 2 years ago they’ve been ‘bold’ to say the least with all of their new packaging. This Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar is no different. The packaging is metallic black lots of orange. To me, this would be Harley Davidson’s signature cigar. It’s almost the exact same color palette. It looks great and really catches your eye on the shelf at the cigar store.
The cigar has two bands, a foot band and the oversized band placed in the normal spot up by the head of the cigar. The foot band is specific in telling you that it’s the American Barrel Aged cigar while the normal band totes more of the Master Built Series lingo. What I love is the unique print on the backside of the band that says things like ‘5 Months’ in different opacities of metallic black. You have to catch it in just the right light to see it clearly. Overall, great packaging as usual from Camacho.
Function
I’m excited to get this cigar cut and pouring some through the barrel. I pulled out the trusty Xi cutter and nipped the cap to test the dry draw. Nice and open, and I was able to really get some good air flow coming down through the barrel. When I was rolling the cigar between my fingers I couldn’t detect any soft spots and in fact it was near perfect. Just a little bit of bounce back and give to it.
The wrapper leaf looked great, no seams from what I could tell and it has a nice bit of texture. That American Broadleaf always has a nice texture to it. It has also that beautiful deep chocolate brown color to it that makes me want to jump right in and smoke it.
Smoking
This Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar took right to the flame without hesitation. It’s like it had some whiskey fueling the burn and lit right up. With the great draw this rather large cigar only took about an hour to smoke. I plowed right through it. I didn’t have a cigar issue. I thought I would have to relight it after helping the wife unload the groceries, but when I came back out it was still burning perfectly and after a couple of puffs I was fully charged again. What more can you say, that’s a great burn profile!
Flavor
Here’s what everyone is wanting to know. What does the barrel aging do to the flavor of the cigar? With all the American tobacco and the whiskey aged Corojo it should create a rather unique experience. That’s exactly what it did. When I took this Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar out of the cellophane I was hit with an instant rush of aromas. A sweet tobacco note and nice mixes of earth along the way too.
The first puff of the cigar brings out a nice mix of char, spice and sweetness. In the retrohale I get more of the spice and some earthy notes as well. That char seems to be the backbone of the flavor profile throughout. Occasionally I’ll pick up on more sweetness coming through and some hints of that rich earth note as well. The char and spice work really well together and I can certainly think about just sitting back here and enjoying this cigar with a big glass of whiskey. I would probably opt for something a bit sweeter than usual though to counteract some of this spice in the cigar. The flavors are certainly bold and very tasty.
To me, the cigar wasn’t overly complex, it was well balanced. I’m not quite sure what I expected in terms of flavor. I never really picked up on a whiskey flavor though. I’ve read others that say it was quite apparent, but I never really came across it. Overall a great cigar, and a unique cigar that definitely has some staying power. That is of course assuming they can keep up with the demand of barrel aging all the leaf. Only time will tell about that.
Would I Buy It Again?
Yes, I enjoyed it, just wish that the price would come down a bit.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
Probably not for me, but I could see it once a week.
Would I Buy a Box?
Potentially, I would love to see how they age.
Conclusion
Overall this Camacho American Barrel Aged Cigar is a great release for 2015. It’s going back to Camacho’s roots by using the Corojo leaf and it’s creating something that we haven’t seen in the cigar industry in a while. Bringing back the use of barrel aged tobacco. I of course love the mix of tobacco and whiskey so I’m never going to turn that down. The unique flavor profile on this cigar should keep people coming back for more and I would definitely recommend going out and picking up a couple of sticks and matching it with your favorite whiskey.
