Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia

RoMa Craft Tobac already has a cigar called Fiorella. It now has a cigar called, in part, Fiorello. It—like the airport in Queens—is named after Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York City from 1934-1945.

Late last year, RoMa Craft Tobac announced that it was replacing the 5 1/2 x 54 belicoso vitola that it sold in its various Intemperance lines with a 6 x 54 toro vitola.

That meant four new Intemperance toros:

• Intemperance BA XXI Treachery (6 x 54)
• Intemperance EC XVIII Fidelity (6 x 54)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia (6 x 54)
• Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion WR 1794 Tully (6 x 54)

Each is a regular production cigar that is sold in boxes of 24 cigars. Introduced in 2023, Volstead is the newest blend of the Intemperance quartet. It uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra hybrid wrapper over a Mexican San Andrés binder. Fillers include corojo grown in La Canela, Dominican Republic and tobacco from the Condega, Jalapa and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua.

Like the Intemperance brand itself, the Volstead VO 1920 line has branding inspired by prohibition. The name references the Volstead Act, the law created to enforce prohibition. While the law was passed in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the law, which delayed its implementation. The Volstead Act went into effect on Jan. 17, 1920.

• Cigar Reviewed: Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Sumatra Hybrid)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Corojo) & Nicaragua (Condega, Jalapa & Pueblo Nuevo)
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $10.50 (Box of 24, $252)
• Release Date: April 1, 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

With the exception of the slightly exposed brush foot that is a hallmark of the Intemperance brand, this is more or less a standard-looking toro. The wrappers have an average amount of oiliness, slightly above average veins and a pretty standard color. If there’s anything that’s truly different, it’s that the cigars—like most cigars from Nica Sueño—feel very dense. The aromas from the wrappers are surprisingly nondescript, around medium with dull earth and some vanilla sweetness and some fire-cured tobacco smells. Aromas from the feet are medium-full and smell like a box of graham crackers or perhaps soggy graham crackers. While that scent is remarkably close to that of a box of graham crackers, I can’t say I find any other scents other than tobacco. Cold draws keep the sweetness, though only the second cigar has some of the graham cracker flavor. The other two cigars have a raisin sweetness and woodiness over some minerals and spices. All three cold draws are medium-full.

The Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia starts quite woody, in that the most intense of the opening flavors is some sort of wood. There are five sensations—wood, earth, peanut, pepper and sweetness—though each one only lasts for a second or so and is typically the only sensation I can taste at once, but the woodiness is at a higher level than the others. The three cigars start medium-full and eventually the flavors are spatially coming together. By the mid-point of the first third, my taste buds are getting more of the earthiness than any other flavor. Sourdough bread, leather, black pepper, peanuts and some root beer sweetness round out the secondary flavors. When the profile is balanced, it’s excellent, but many puffs are too earthy, which oddly brings out more sourness. That intensifies during the finish, which can also be saltier. Bread, leather, earth and pepper are all part of it, but the most noticeable of the subtle changes is that the sourness gets thicker. Retrohales introduce a vibrant cashew and peanut mixture, quite a bit different than the nuttiness that is present in the mouth. Black pepper, lemon and some dry earth round out the list of the secondary flavors, while meatiness kicks in during the finish. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. Each cigar’s combustion just seems to want to die pretty early on. Fortunately, I’m able to correct it before the cigar goes completely out, but it’s still a problem.

During the second third, each cigar heads in a different direction. The first gets sweeter, first due to some rum sweetness but after the halfway point, it’s more like a berry sweetness. The second cigar gets spicier thanks to a more consistent white pepper, while the third cigar gets toastier as there’s a deep burning toastiness that hits the middle of the tongue. It’s hardly as simple as it sounds; for example, the toastiness in the third cigar is the most intense flavor—meaning I find it to be the strongest flavor—but it’s quite limited in that it’s largely restricted to just the center of the tongue and it does not last all that long during each puff. The profile from the Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia’s first third remains: earthy with some other savory accents. While the first cigar’s retrohale creates an interesting contrast between pepper and creaminess, the second and third cigars have pretty similar profiles: nuttiness over some meatiness, creaminess, apple sweetness and pepper. The pepper departs during the finish, which allows for the saltiness and creaminess to shine more. As I get near the final third, the two sensations combine and there’s a a sour cream and onion chips flavor emerging. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. The first and second cigars continue to need help from the lighter to fix combustion issues, but the third cigar is now burning like a champ.

In the context of the final third, the differences between the first and second thirds are subtle. The flavor profile in the final third has gotten surprisingly softer thanks to a lot of creaminess and nuttiness. Whereas the second third of the Volstead added some of the softer flavors, the final third sees creaminess, nuttiness sand saltiness replace—not add—most of the earthy and woody flavors that served as the core of most of the cigar to this point. Some will see those flavors and a dry toastiness rise to the top, but the majority of the puffs are led by the nuttiness. As the cigar gets closer to the end, the profiles combine and there’s an increasing amount of burnt creaminess. There are some puffs that provide some very different flavors—a lemon emerges under the creaminess—but most of the time it’s toastier with burnt earthiness showing up and sucking up those more subtle flavors. While retrohales were once consistent between the cigars, they are no longer. Doing so during the first cigar leads to some soft creaminess, the second cigar is even softer with nuttiness and pencil lead over a generic earthiness, and the third cigar is burnt with some diner coffee-like aspects. Predictably, the finishes lead into the toastiness, making them much more similar to the first third. Flavor ends at full, body varies between medium-full and full, and strength is between medium-plus and medium-full. The first cigar continues to struggle with its combustion, but the other two are able to make it through the final third without any need for a lighter.

Final Notes

• Each size in the Volstead line is named after a person with a connection to prohibition.
• The belicoso vitola that was replaced was the Volstead VO 1920 Roy Olmstead, named after a bootlegger in the Pacific Northwest.
• La Guardia was a vocal opponent of prohibition.
• The box lid of the Volstead VO 1920 line features some of my favorite artwork from a new cigar of the last few years.
• This was a cigar that rarely produced the same profile for consecutive puffs. Instead, the individual flavors—which were generally earthy, savory and spicy—would rearrange themselves at nearly every puff.
• I wish the first third would calm down a bit. Normally, I’d use that phrase to say I wish there was less power, strength or one type of flavor, but in this case, it seemed too jittery. The constant rearranging would have been fine if it hadn’t often led to puffs that were too salty, sour or sharp.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.

• These cigars are listed at 6 x 54. Above are the dimensions I found for the three cigars I smoked for the review.
• Final smoking time varied between two hours and 15 minutes for the third cigar and more than three hours for the first cigar. The third cigar was the best burning of the trio, while the first cigar was the worst. It’s likely those two things are related.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigar Hustler, Cigars Direct, Famous Smoke Shop and JR Cigar carry the Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Fiorello La Guardia.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.