By now most of us are familiar with Ricky Rodriguez, the previous CAO Cigars brand ambassador who recently this year launched his own company – West Tampa Tobacco. He launched with two blends, the West Tampa White and West Tampa Black. Now, to close out the year, Ricky has reached deep into his stored thoughts and experiences of his past and created what will be known as the West Tampa Tobacco Attic Series line of cigars. The series will feature limited cigars that ultimately tell stories of Ricky’s life.
The first cigar in the series, was released to retailers in December 2022 and is called the “Attic”. It is a nod to his Grandfather who was a cigar maker both in Cuba and Tampa, FL. Each release in the series will have imagery (Easter eggs) that help tell a story. In the case of the “Attic” that imagery includes a old chaveta leaning against a lone chair in an attic – a deep memory of his grandfather.
The Attic is expressed in a single (6 x 54) toro and comes packaged in 14-count boxes with an MSRP of $12.99/cigar.
Ricky describes the blend as:
- Wrapper – Mexican San Andrés
- Binder – Nicaraguan (Condega)
- Filler – Nicaraguan (Condega and Estelí)
The company has produced only 2,000 boxes of the Attic and each cigar has a footer band with a QR code that can be scanned to learn the story.
Pre-Light Examination
The West Tampa Tobacco Co. Attic Series – “The Attic” is cloaked with a toothy, dark brown wrapper that has light oily sheen. It exhibits a few veins running through the leaf. The cigar has a solid and firm bunching and is expertly rolled including the well applied triple cap.
Two bands adorn the cigar. The primary band uses a grey, white and gold motif and simply declares this as the Attic Series – Attic. The secondary band is wider and is applied on the foot of the cigar. It too identifies it as the Attic Series – Attic but also includes an image of an old chaveta along with the aforementioned QR code.
Running The Attic along the nose I picked up a smokey wood aroma along the barrel with an added natural sweetness and pepper off the foot.
Using my CigarMedics Baller cutter, I opened the cap perfectly and gave the cigar some cold draw puffs that offered salty and peppery notes with a touch of earthiness – keep cold puffing and the pepper reveals as more cayenne pepper warming the cheeks. The draw has an excellent restriction.
I used my double flame torch to warm the foot to an even orange glow and drew in the first introductory puffs of peppery spice and fruit to start the journey. Follow along as I burn the Attic to ash.
Cigar Review Notes
- The journey into the Attic starts with peppery spice and fruit
- A sprinkle of natural sweetness quickly adds to the mix
- A solid white ash forms on top of a thin burn line
- Beautiful sweet aroma wafts off the foot
- Ash fell in solid chunk revealing a well formed burn cone
- Mouth watering citrus notes fills out the early profile
- Dark chocolate develops as it moves into the second third
- A dry fruit component builds in the background
- Spice notes build comfortably on the palate
- Sweet caramel adds additional pleasure to the profile
- Cream nuances balance everything out with a touch of coffee moving into the final
- Medium plus in strength
- Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 40 Minutes
Final Analysis
West Tampa Tobacco Co. Attic Series – The Attic was a well constructed cigar that offered a delicious array of flavors and an enticing sweet aroma. The burn was error free and the draw was smooth and offered a full volume of smoke on every puff. The flavors were very well balanced throughout the journey and I especially enjoyed the mouth watering citrus notes and the sweet caramel and dark chocolate. This medium to full strength cigar may be the best offering yet from Ricky Rodriquez and should be enjoyed by any seasoned cigar enthusiast. Even if you relatively new to the cigar world I strongly recommend you pick up some of these to expand your smoking experience . This is most certainly worth a box buy. I rate this a solid 97.
Point Deductions: NONE
Bonus Points: (+1) Box Worthy; (+1) Positive experience through multiple samples; (+1) Clean even burn through the journey
