Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary (JT10) Toro Review

2026-07-27  Five-Pack · 3/4 My Money

Filed under: Burn Issues · Maduro Is a Process · Nicaragua · Puro

Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4)... the flavor is box-worthy start to finish, but a burn that needed five touch-ups and constant attention has to cost something, and this is what it costs.

Johnny Tobacconaut is Matt Booth's spacesuit-wearing mascot, and the JT10 marks ten years of him... a one-size limited edition (6 x 52 toro) blended with AJ Fernandez, Nicaraguan puro top to bottom, $11.99 a stick in 20-count boxes, released off PCA 2025. I saved this one for the last day of our anniversary trip, which turned out to be the right call.

The Setup

• Cigar: Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary JT10, Toro (6 x 52), Nicaraguan puro... Nicaraguan wrapper, binder, and filler, made at AJ Fernandez
• Street price: $11.99 SRP. It's a limited edition, so street price is whatever you can still find... and mostly you can't
• What I paid: about $12 each for two at my local B&M. My own money
• Storage: my main humidor stock at 65% RH... it's been resting in there several months
• When/where: 4 PM, outside in a covered, shaded spot on the last day of our anniversary trip... 90° with a feels-like of 90 and 65% humidity, barely any breeze
• Food beforehand: lunch about three hours earlier, a leftover smorgasbord... cheesy garlic bread, a double bacon cheeseburger, buffalo wings, and some chicken parm
• Cigar # of the day + pairing: first cigar of the day, paired with water... in that heat, water was the only sane option

Light Up and First Third

Cold draw brings a really light, mild sweetness, and the draw itself is just a smidge tight but really good. Construction looks the part too... double cap, nicely packed foot, a very clean cigar with just a tiny bit of tooth.

The very first light-up is the good kind of surprise: pleasant milk chocolate just from getting it toasted, then an almost cherry sweetness on the retrohale, a good amount of baking spice... not pepper, baking spice... and a bready note underneath. This has a lot going on right out of the gate.

Deeper into the third the spice ramps way down to a very light baking spice, and you can retrohale this one comfortably. It's bready, it's sweet, there's a little nuttiness now, and that cherry from the light-up has faded out... really pleasant while it lasted. The burn is a little wavy, the ash compact at the core but flaky on the outside, and I tapped off a couple scraggly pieces.

By the end of the third the smoke has turned creamy in texture, the sweetness and baking spice are back as part of the experience instead of hiding in the background, and there's a light nuttiness riding along. The ash had gone flaky and a little crooked, so I knocked it off before it landed in my lap and gave the wavy burn its first touch-up. Excellent first third.

Second Third

Right out of the touch-up it's sweet, creamy, baking spice with nuttiness I couldn't quite place... maybe a hint of honey way in the background... and basically zero bitterness whether I single-draw or double-draw. A light spice sits on the tongue and lingers between draws.

Halfway through, the burn went genuinely wonky... about a quarter-inch difference between the fastest side and the slowest side, so I touched it up and knocked the ash at the same time. Here's the surprising part: the flavor never suffered. Usually when a burn goes sideways the flavor takes a serious dip, and that never happened. The profile now: sweetness, a nuttiness somewhere between an almond and a cashew, light baking spice, and just a touch of something sitting on the palate afterward that I first called bitterness... and then realized isn't. It's soft leather, and it's not a bad note at all. It lingers between puffs with the sweetness, definitely a cashew flavor now, baking spice, no pepper. On the retro you get the same flavors turned up, with the baking spice more intense but never crossing into pepper.

The first band came off completely clean... no issues, no imperfections under the wrapper.

One thing I learned through here: you have to pay attention to this cigar. I was doing some other things while smoking, wasn't puffing enough somewhere past the halfway mark, and it nearly went out on me. I don't think that's entirely the cigar's fault, but it's not a giant ring gauge and the smoke thins out fast if you set it down a few minutes. Triple puffs bring it back... though when you do that, the leather shifts over toward bitterness. Keep a reasonably consistent draw rhythm and it never gets bitter at all, and the profile rewards you: cashew, a general sweetness, baking spice, maybe the tiniest bit of white pepper creeping in now. The honey, wherever it went, was gone.

Final Third

The burn is going well again... a little wavy but serviceable... and the flavor is still excellent. The leather has stepped forward, but it's a pleasant leather, not a bitter one, alongside the cashew nuttiness, baking spice, that white pepper, and a nice lingering sweetness between puffs.

Then the burn found a new trick: a spot just below the Tobacconaut's foot... felt like a slightly thicker vein or a looser section of wrapper... that just didn't want to burn, so it got a touch-up too. Another one halfway through the third after I set it down again working on something... and it was 90-something degrees with almost no breeze, so I won't pin that entirely on the cigar either. The flavor stayed solid: the sweetness held, and the cashew turned into more of a roasted cashew.

I took it all the way down to about three-quarters of an inch, with one last touch-up near the end because it almost didn't want to stay lit, balancing puffs against a cigar getting warm on my lips because I didn't want to let it go. The leather ramped up, the nuttiness went to general roasted nuts, and the sweetness never left. An excellent cigar start to finish.

Construction

• Wrapper: dark, very clean, a tiny bit of tooth. Double cap, nicely packed foot, and no imperfections hiding under the first band.
• Draw: a smidge tight on the cold draw, really good the whole way.
• Burn: the weak spot. Wavy most of the day, one genuinely wonky quarter-inch stretch, a stubborn spot near the foot band, and five touch-ups total. Nearly went out once when I set it down too long.
• Ash: compact at the core, flaky at the edges... it wanted to be knocked down early rather than stacked for photos.
• Smoke output: good when you keep a rhythm, thins out fast when you don't. Triple puffs restore it at the cost of pushing the leather toward bitterness.
• Band: first band off completely clean.

Bottom Line

The flavor on this cigar is legitimately box-worthy: chocolate and cherry at the light, a long creamy middle of cashew, baking spice, and sweetness, soft leather arriving late and never turning bitter, and... rarest of all... a profile that stayed excellent through every single burn problem. That never happens; wonky burns usually take the flavor down with them, and this one didn't, which says something about the tobacco. But I touched this cigar up five times and had to think about my puff rhythm all afternoon, and a $12 stick doesn't get that graded away because it's wearing an anniversary band.

Would I smoke it again? Yes... Five-Pack (3/4), and I went back and forth on this one. Pure flavor, it's a Box Buy, and I'd be happy... not just fine, happy... with a full box of these in the humidor. The burn is what holds it back: five touch-ups and a cigar you have to baby is a real deduction at $12, and the tier has to reflect the whole cigar, not just the parts I liked. The limited-edition wrinkle is that the tier is mostly academic anyway... you likely can't buy a box at this point even if you want one. I have exactly one left, I'm a little sad about that, and I'd have been glad to be wrong about four more. That's a strong Five-Pack.

Best for: an afternoon where the cigar gets your actual attention... this is not a yard-work smoke, it needs a consistent draw rhythm to stay lit and bitterness-free. Pairs fine with just water; the blend brings its own sweetness. If you see singles still floating around at street price, grab a couple.

My rating scale, one question only... would I spend my own money on this again? 4 Box Buy (box on hand, always) / 3 Five-Pack (yes, a few live in the humidor) / 2 Hand-Me-One (wouldn't buy it, wouldn't turn one down) / 1 Not Even Free (I'd rather smoke nothing).

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