Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary

In April, the American cigar industry gathered in New Orleans, La. for the annual PCA Convention & Trade Show, the big cigar trade show. My first booth visit was to Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s (STG) Forged Cigar Co., the company that distributes Room101’s cigar brand in the U.S.

While there, I saw Matt Booth, Room101’s founder, as well the brand’s elaborate 15th anniversary humidor and this product, the Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary. I also saw a large, gold-painted statue of Johnny Tobacconaut. It’s a cool-looking prop, but I didn’t think much beyond how detailed it was. I figured it was just another prop for the booth, one of many props in the booth.

Two days later, I was regularly distracted by the statue. Mike Szczepankewicz—who is part of the family that owns Powstanie and Cigar Hustler, a Florida-based store and podcast—was walking around with the statue. Eventually, I saw it in the Powstanie booth, then in other booths. I’d then see STG employees retrieving the statue. Quite frankly, Szczepankewicz’s habitual theft of the statue was probably better marketing than any of the banners that any cigar company purchased.

Johnny Tobacconaut is a fictional character that was introduced to the world in 2015, back when Room101 was still manufactured and distributed by Davidoff. The idea was an astronaut who was searching for tobacco. While I don’t believe I’ve ever asked to confirm this, my initial impression of the marketing was that it was mocking Foundry, an STG brand that, a year earlier, announced a line called Worm Hole 2064 Hell-i-en that the company had promoted as using “Martian tobacco.”

The original, 2015 era Johnny Tobacconaut announcement was one of my favorite press releases I’ve seen. Here are a few sentences from the press release:

GET LIFTED

One small puff for man, one giant cascade of flavor for mankind is what our dear friend and comrade in arms Johnny Tobacconaut seeks to deliver unto you. We escape the day-to-day ether we know so well in search of intergalactic adventure with our latest offering hailing from the Room101 family. Unsheathe this smoke wagon of funkadelic flavor and afford yourself a micro escape from your day. The mini vacation you are about to embark upon, should you choose to accept it, will bring you one step closer to becoming that gentleman or gentle-lady of leisure we all know is within you.

Elevate and emancipate in a cloud of delicious smoke, mined and procured from the depths of the seventh planet from the sun. Johnny Tobacconaut is passing you the torch.

The original release was limited, but the brand returned in 2021 and 2023.

For the 10th anniversary release, Booth worked with Abdel Fernández to create a limited edition release that is offered in a single 6 x 52 toro vitola. It’s made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco, though I don’t believe any of the varietals were ever disclosed.

“I’m beyond excited to celebrate the tenth year of the Johnny Tobacconaut brand,” said Booth in a press release. “It’s ten years in space for Room101, and it tastes incontestably delicious. I’m looking forward to the next ten years and beyond of galactic disruption.”

This cigar was expected to be released in the Spring, but on March 31, a fire broke out in the packaging department of the main AJ Fernandez factory. This caused issues for a number of companies that have cigars made at AJ Fernandez, but no cigar seemed to be more affected than this release, which didn’t begin shipping until September.

• Cigar Reviewed: Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $11.99 (Box of 20, $239.80)
• Release Date: September 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: Undisclosed
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The last time I scored a Johnny Tobacconaut, it was the Connecticut-seed version that uses a golden wrapper. This is not that. While I’m not great at guessing tobacco varietals by appearance, my guess would be a habano-seed varietal. The dark wrapper is covered in a good amount of smaller veins that have lighter colors. To the touch, the wrapper has a lot of texture, though it’s certainly not dry. The aromas are remarkably consistent: a semi-sweet barnyard leads some cedar and a white gravy smell. All three are medium-full; the only difference is the second cigar, which has slightly more muted scents. Smelling the feet continues the trend of consistency: they each smell medium-full with a very dense chocolate flavor that overwhelms some earthiness. Based on what happens before I cut the cigars—weighing, measuring, smelling the wrapper, smelling the feet—it’s difficult to find much of any difference between the trio. Bravo for consistency. Cold draws are also quite consistent, though not identical. The first and third cigars have a core of dense milk chocolate and wood over citrus and some more isolated sweetness, each around medium. The second cigar doesn’t have any chocolate, but creaminess takes its spot and joins the sweet citrus. The biggest differences are that it’s medium-full and there’s white pepper on the tongue and spiciness on the lips. Of note, the cold draws on the second and third cigars are loose.

Resistance-wise, the first and second cigars start with loose draws that lead to below-median amounts of smoke volume. Each cigar is led by a dense wood flavor, albeit not as heavy as the chocolate on the cold draw. Secondary notes include earth, white pepper and creaminess, at least on those two cigars. Oddly, the first cigar has more physical smoke but only has the wood flavor. Flavor varies between medium-plus and medium-full. The first and second cigars remain similar: earthiness and pine alternate turns being the leading flavor, there’s also buttermilk creaminess, mild white pepper and an underlying sweetness. The third cigar is different with nuttiness and leather, though there’s rarely anything else beyond a generic tobacco note and some burning sensations when the smoke increases. During their finishes, the first two cigars don’t change much, just getting a bit creamier. In what seems very logical: the third cigar changes, but my notes are listing out the same flavors that I tasted during the other two cigars. Retrohales, especially after the first inch, are led by a pistachio flavor with earthiness, floral sweetness and acidity showing up. The flavors are, again, very consistent; however, the third cigar tastes a bit more like an aged version of the profile. The finish has earth and wood with some olive oil and grape juice accents. Flavor ranges from medium-full to full, body is medium to medium-full, and strength is medium-plus. While the draws started a bit loose, they are more than manageable and I get through the first third without any construction woes.

As I scan down my notes of the second thirds of the Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary cigars, the first word of each section is the same: creamier. The main flavor is a lot creamier, outpacing the earthiness and pine flavors. There are touches of acidity, sourness, white pepper and burnt earth. For the first part of the second third, the finish isn’t all that creamy, but after the halfway mark, things change and as the second third nears, the creaminess is the strongest flavor on the finish. White pepper, saltiness and muddy earth are the other flavors that remain, more medium compared to the creaminess’ medium-full. Retrohales vary; the first and third cigars have leather, coconut and saltiness, a combination that reminds me a bit of sunscreen. The second cigar is very different with dense earth, pencil lead and dry pasta flavors. Leather, citrus and herbs emerge during a retrohale finish, though the initial flavors are still stronger. Flavor is medium-full to full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus to medium-full. The second and third cigars need a touch-up each, but the construction is still pretty good.

Each Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary’s final third is led by earthiness, though there are some differences. The first cigar is much more bitter, the second is burnt but also has some added lemon that helps to counteract the sensation, and the third cigar is sharper and has more of the herbal flavors. White pepper is present on each cigar, though its presence isn’t consistent, varying between a main flavor and a secondary note. The finish of the first cigar has a great syrup flavor, not a real maple syrup but the most basic store-bought varietal. The second cigar’s finish is the least exciting: earthiness, black pepper and lemon. The third cigar is led by rosemary, though there’s some bitter earthiness in there too. Retrohales are very similar: earthiness with some saltiness, the latter of which can sometimes be like table salt and other times is more like a salty cracker. Unfortunately, that saltiness becomes a tad too strong during the finish, though at times, I can find some lavender and poultry. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength noticeably reduces to medium. Construction is pretty good, though the first cigar needs two touch-ups to help with declining smoke production.

Final Notes

• While the Johnny Tobacconaut character is not new, it’s typically been displayed in a single color. For this release, more colors and detail have been added. I especially like how the blue looks, each time I looked down, it popped off the band and my eyes were focused on that color.

• Unfortunately, removing the secondary band from the first cigar did not go well. It was making a lot of noise but not moving. Had I not been reviewing that particular cigar, I would have undone the band. Quite frankly, had I known how much wrapper was going to be taken off, I would have done that as well. Fortunately, the other two bands came off without any issues.
• At least for me, Johnny Tobacconaut is about as iconic as any fictional character in the cigar industry. It’s branding that is burned into my brain. Considering that it’s had just one regular production release, that’s super impressive. The branding is so good and very easy to understand.
• It’s been a while since I had a cigar that ashed all over my clothes, but these three seemed like they were on a mission to get as much ash on me and my computer as they could. While half the ash ended up in the ashtray, a lot of it didn’t. What was weird was that I never could tell when it was going to happen.
• STG advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel. 

• These cigars are listed as 6 x 52 toros. Above are the measurements I found for the cigars, probably the most consistent numbers of any cigar I’ve weighed and measured in the last two years. Hats off to the AJ Fernandez factory for this performance, a complete unicorn.
• Final smoking time is right around two hours.

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.