Seventeen Years of Rebellion – Room101 17th Anniversary – Smoke Earned After the Work

There are cigars you light because you have an hour to kill.

Then there are cigars that somehow seem to arrive at exactly the right moment.

The Room101 17th Anniversary was the latter.

I had just finished working Saber at the park. It had been a productive session—sit, stay, recall, distractions, corrections, rewards and plenty of repetition. “Lay” still wasn’t where I wanted it, but that is training. You don’t get frustrated with the process simply because everything doesn’t fall into place in a single afternoon.

He is a work in progress.

So am I.

When the work was finished, I grabbed an ice-cold bottle of water and headed for my favorite bench beneath the oak tree. No agenda. No stopwatch. No more commands.

And then I pulled out the cigar.

A Room101 17th Anniversary Toro.

What happened next caught me completely off guard.

Wow.

Not “pretty good.”

Not “interesting.”

Not “I need to smoke another one before I decide.”

Wow.

And the more I smoked it, the more I realized this wasn’t merely another anniversary band wrapped around a familiar blend. This cigar had something to say.

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The Cigar

The Room101 17th Anniversary commemorates seventeen years since Matt Booth founded Room101 in 2009. For this release, Booth collaborated with A.J. Fernandez, with the cigars produced at Fernandez’s factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The recipe couldn’t look much simpler on paper:

Wrapper: Nicaraguan

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan

Vitola: Toro

Dimensions: 6 x 52

Factory: A.J. Fernandez, Estelí, Nicaragua

Production: 2,500 boxes of 20 — 50,000 cigars total

But “simple” is deceptive.

This is a genuine Nicaraguan puro, with Fernandez growing the tobaccos used in the cigar. It was deliberately designed to be considerably more powerful than Room101’s previous 15th Anniversary release. Booth himself describes these anniversary cigars as snapshots of where Room101 happens to be at that particular moment rather than attempts to duplicate previous releases. (Cigar Aficionado⁠)

That philosophy makes sense once you smoke the 17th.

This cigar doesn’t feel nostalgic.

It feels alive.

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First Impression — Dark, Serious and Beautifully Put Together

Before lighting it, I spent some time simply looking at the cigar.

The 6 x 52 Toro might be one of the most practical formats imaginable for a blend like this. There is enough ring gauge to allow the tobaccos room to interact, but it isn’t so thick that the wrapper becomes an afterthought. There is enough length for the blend to develop gradually rather than revealing everything in the opening inch.

The cigar felt substantial without feeling oversized.

The wrapper had that unmistakable Nicaraguan seriousness about it—dark, oily-looking, earthy and muscular without appearing crude. Running my fingers along it, there was a satisfying density underneath the wrapper. The roll felt firm and deliberate.

No obvious soft pockets.

No sloppy seams.

No sense that this cigar had been rushed out simply because somebody needed an anniversary release on a retailer’s shelf.

The aroma off the wrapper immediately put me in the darker end of the spectrum.

Earth.

Dry cedar.

Tobacco.

A slightly fermented sweetness.

And underneath everything, something that reminded me of roasted coffee beans.

Already, this cigar smelled considerably more aggressive than it looked.

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The Cold Draw

After cutting the cap, the draw was exactly where I like it.

Open enough that I wasn’t fighting the cigar, but not so loose that I felt like I was drawing through an empty straw.

There was resistance.

Just enough.

The cold draw reinforced the aroma from the wrapper: dry earth and cedar initially, followed by a darker sweetness that reminded me of cocoa powder rather than milk chocolate.

Then came a little spice.

Not yet pepper.

More like the suggestion of pepper waiting in the background.

That immediately got my attention.

I hadn’t even introduced flame, and the tobacco was already giving me layers.

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Ignition — And There It Is

I toasted the foot slowly.

The tobacco caught evenly, and within the first few draws the cigar announced itself.

Black pepper.

Not a pepper bomb designed solely to demonstrate strength, but unmistakably Nicaraguan pepper—the kind that immediately wakes up the palate and lets you know that you did not accidentally pick up a mild afternoon cigar.

Behind it came earth.

Then cedar.

Then roasted tobacco.

And finally a darker, almost bittersweet element that started pushing toward espresso and dark chocolate.

The smoke production was impressive almost immediately.

Thick.

Dense.

Creamy in texture despite the darker flavor profile.

That combination was fascinating.

This wasn’t what I would call a “creamy cigar” in the traditional mild Connecticut sense. Instead, the physical texture of the smoke was creamy while the flavors themselves remained dark, roasted and assertive.

That distinction matters.

The cigar wasn’t soft.

The smoke was.

And that contrast made the opening particularly enjoyable.

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First Third — Nicaraguan Muscle With Discipline

During the first third, pepper remained the dominant accent, particularly through the nose.

The retrohale brought substantially more intensity.

Black pepper first.

Then cedar.

Then that roasted quality again.

But after several minutes, the blend began showing considerably more sophistication than the opening blast suggested.

The pepper stepped backward slightly.

Earth moved forward.

Dark cocoa began developing.

And then came something I absolutely loved: a roasted espresso characteristic that sat underneath the entire profile.

Not sweet coffee.

Not cappuccino.

Espresso.

Dark roast.

Slight bitterness.

Roasted bean.

The kind of flavor that provides depth rather than sweetness.

Room101 itself positions the cigar around pepper, spice, earth, dark chocolate and roasted espresso, and smoking it I understood exactly why those descriptors were chosen.

But tasting notes alone don’t explain this cigar.

The real magic was in the balance.

Pepper didn’t erase the chocolate.

Earth didn’t smother the cedar.

Strength didn’t destroy nuance.

Everything seemed to occupy its own little section of the palate.

I took a drink of ice-cold water.

No coffee.

No sweet tea.

No elaborate pairing.

Just water.

And in hindsight, I’m glad.

The cold water completely reset my palate between draws and allowed the tobacco to remain the entire focus of the experience.

Every return to the cigar felt fresh.

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The Burn and Construction

By this point, the construction deserved its own mention.

The burn line remained controlled.

The ash developed tightly.

The combustion stayed consistent.

And most importantly, the cigar did not demand attention for the wrong reasons.

That’s something I appreciate more and more.

A great premium cigar should give me something to think about because of its tobacco—not because I’m constantly rotating it, touching up the wrapper or wondering whether it’s about to extinguish itself.

This one simply burned.

And smoked.

And performed.

A cigar with this much flavor can easily become exhausting if the combustion runs hot. The Room101 didn’t.

I deliberately slowed my cadence and let it rest between draws.

That was the right decision.

The cigar rewarded patience.

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Second Third — This Is Where “Wow” Happened

The second third was where this cigar went from very good to something considerably more memorable for me.

The aggressive pepper from the opening had now settled into the architecture of the blend rather than sitting on top of it.

The profile became darker and rounder.

Espresso.

Dark chocolate.

Earth.

Cedar.

A little roasted nut.

Leather began appearing intermittently.

And somewhere in the background was a subtle natural sweetness—not sugary, not syrupy, but enough sweetness to keep the earth and pepper from becoming dry.

This was the point when I sat back against that bench and really started paying attention.

The smoke seemed heavier now.

It rolled slowly from my mouth and hung in the humid South Florida air beneath the oak.

And I remember thinking:

Damn, Matt.

This is good.

Really good.

Knowing Booth personally probably makes me scrutinize a Room101 cigar more closely, not less. Friendship can make it easy to praise something automatically.

But that’s not what happened here.

The cigar earned the reaction.

This felt distinctly Room101—unconventional enough to have personality—but the fingerprints of A.J. Fernandez and Estelí were unmistakable.

There was Nicaraguan power.

But there was also refinement.

That’s an important combination.

Plenty of cigars can hit hard.

Much fewer can hit hard and remain interesting.

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The Retrohale

Anyone smoking this cigar and completely avoiding the retrohale is missing part of the blend.

But respect it.

This is not one I would aggressively push through the nose.

A controlled retrohale dramatically amplified the pepper and cedar while exposing aromas I didn’t get nearly as strongly through normal draws.

Pepper became brighter.

Cedar became sharper.

The espresso note seemed slightly more roasted.

And that dark cocoa character became more aromatic than sweet.

Afterward, returning to a regular draw almost made the smoke taste richer.

That’s the kind of interaction I look for in a complex cigar.

The retrohale shouldn’t merely hurt.

It should reveal something.

This one did.

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Final Third — The Gloves Come Off

The final third finally showed me why Room101 positioned the 17th as a fuller-bodied anniversary release.

The strength had been climbing gradually rather than arriving as a cheap nicotine punch.

Now it was unmistakable.

The earth became heavier.

The espresso darkened.

Leather became more apparent.

Black pepper returned with greater authority.

And the chocolate moved from something recognizable on the palate into something closer to bittersweet cocoa.

The sweetness that had balanced the middle portion became less obvious.

In its place came deeper roasted tobacco.

This was the cigar getting serious.

But even now, it didn’t become muddy.

That’s one of my biggest criticisms of some powerful Nicaraguan cigars: eventually every flavor collapses into strong tobacco + pepper + heat.

The Room101 17th never completely fell into that trap.

Even toward the end, I could still distinguish the core components of the blend.

The cigar became stronger.

It became darker.

It became more concentrated.

But it remained composed.

And because I was drinking nothing but cold water, there was nowhere for imperfections to hide.

No sugar covering bitterness.

No coffee reinforcing the espresso notes.

Nothing manipulating the experience.

Just tobacco.

That made the performance even more impressive.

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Strength vs. Body

These two get confused constantly.

For me, the body of this cigar was firmly full by the latter half.

The smoke was dense and the flavors saturated the palate.

The strength, however, developed more progressively.

I didn’t feel as though the cigar was trying to knock me over during the first inch. The nicotine presence accumulated gradually and became considerably more noticeable during the final third.

That’s how I prefer a powerful cigar.

Give me progression.

Give me warning.

Give me somewhere to go.

If a cigar begins at ten, it has nowhere left to travel.

The Room101 17th had a journey.

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What Impressed Me Most

It wasn’t simply the pepper.

It wasn’t simply the espresso.

It wasn’t even the construction.

It was the cigar’s ability to combine power with restraint.

That sounds contradictory until you smoke a cigar capable of doing it.

There was plenty of muscle here, but the blend didn’t constantly flex in front of me.

There were dark flavors without excessive bitterness.

Pepper without pointless aggression.

Strength without sacrificing complexity.

Smoke volume without overheating.

And enough transitions to make me keep wondering what the next several draws might reveal.

That is exactly what I want from an anniversary cigar.

Not nostalgia.

Not fancy packaging.

Not a number on a band.

A blend worthy of commemorating the milestone.

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The Setting — Only Because It Mattered

Saber had worked hard.

Some things clicked beautifully.

One didn’t.

“Lay” remains unfinished business.

That’s okay.

Training isn’t about demanding perfection from one session. It’s repetition, patience and consistency.

Afterward, that bench beneath my favorite oak became the dividing line between work and everything else.

Saber could simply be Saber.

I could simply sit.

The ice water was cold enough that condensation ran down the bottle.

The park had begun settling into that later-evening South Florida rhythm.

And in my hand was this ridiculous purple-banded celebration of seventeen years of Matt Booth refusing to do things conventionally.

For a little while, nothing else mattered.

No schedule.

No phone.

No next command.

Just smoke.

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Pairing Recommendations

Even though I smoked mine with ice-cold water—and would absolutely do it again—this cigar has enough structure to handle stronger pairings.

For someone who wants coffee, I’d choose a straight espresso or dark Italian roast. The roasted character would complement the espresso and cocoa inside the cigar beautifully.

For something sweeter, a vintage-style cream soda could create a fascinating contrast. The vanilla and caramelized sweetness would soften the pepper and earth while allowing the darker tobacco to remain intact.

Sweet iced tea would work, particularly through the second third, although I would keep the sweetness moderate.

For drinkers, I could see the cigar standing confidently beside a dark rum, aged bourbon or similarly rich spirit—but this cigar absolutely does not require alcohol to feel complete.

In fact, after this particular experience, I might argue for water first.

Sometimes the best pairing for an exceptional cigar is simply a clean palate.

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Final Thoughts

Matt Booth once described the Room101 anniversary releases as snapshots—representations of where the brand happens to be at that particular moment.

If the 17th Anniversary is that snapshot, Room101 is in a very interesting place.

This cigar feels mature without becoming predictable.

Powerful without becoming obnoxious.

Dark without becoming monotonous.

And unmistakably Nicaraguan without simply becoming another Nicaraguan pepper bomb.

A.J. Fernandez supplied the tobacco and manufacturing expertise.

Matt Booth supplied the personality.

Together, they created something that feels entirely appropriate for Room101.

A little rebellious.

A little excessive.

Completely unapologetic.

And damn good.

I went into the park that afternoon to work my dog.

I sat down afterward simply looking for a few quiet minutes.

I lit a cigar.

And somewhere between the pepper of the opening and that dark espresso-and-cocoa heart of the second third, an ordinary Monday evening became something else.

That’s what a great cigar can do.

It doesn’t need to manufacture the moment.

It simply makes you realize you’re already standing inside one.

My Verdict

Construction: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Smoke Production: Dense and luxurious

Body: Medium-full progressing to full

Strength: Medium-full progressing toward full

Complexity: Excellent

Balance: Exceptional

Best Third: Second

Dominant Notes: Black pepper, earth, espresso, dark chocolate, cedar, leather, roasted tobacco

Would I Smoke It Again? Without hesitation.

Box-worthy? After this first experience, absolutely worthy of serious consideration.

Sarge Rating: 95/100

Some cigars are good enough that I finish them and think, I’d smoke that again.

This one made me think:

I need more of these.

Purchase Room101 17th Anniversary at Smoke Inn.

“Savor the moment, mute life and embrace the richness of the smoke.” — Sarge 08/24/2026