Review of Room101 Big Payback 70 Cigar

About This Cigar

Room101 Big Payback 70 Redux cigars measure 7 x 70, and are made in Honduras with a blend of Nicaraguan, Honduran and Dominican filler tobaccos which are bound by a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and wrapped in a Honduran wrapper leaf. The brand was created by Matt Booth, but this particular vitola has been out of production since 2016, and was reintroduced in June 2023. Room101 Big Payback 70 cigars are now distributed by Forged Cigar Company, and have a suggested retail price of $8.99 per cigar. For more information about these cigars, please check out the press release.

About Extra Large Cigars

Although a freakishly large cigar, Room101 Big Payback 70 is not the largest cigar in production, nor the largest cigar reviewed by CigarCzars.com. As the ring gauge of cigars continue to increase too far beyond the 60's, they start becoming less practical and more of a novelty than serious smokes. Extra wide cigars can be too large for most guillotine cutters, so a hole punch or cigar scissors are usually better options. They can take more time to light, more time to smoke, and more effort to keep burning without several relights and/or touch-ups. In addition, they take up more space in a humidor, and can be cumbersome to transport. Extra large cigars are not amongst my regular smokes, but they could be most appropriate on certain special occasions for their visual impact, or as a nice prop for a photo op.

REVIEW NOTES:

At the Beginning: Only one of my four guillotine cutters was big enough to cut the cap on the head of the sample Room101 Big Payback 70 cigar. I was careful not to damage the head while cutting such a large ring guage cigar. The cigar ignited without much trouble using a single flame torch lighter, and provided a nice volume of smoke, but not an overly exorbitant amount. The Big Payback 70 had a relatively easy draw for being such a long and thick cigar.

After the First Few Puffs: The smoke was medium-bodied and smooth, with notes of spice along with hints of natural tobacco sweetness. The taste was better than what I was expecting.

During the First Third: After 25 minutes, a touch-up light was applied to keep the cigar burning evenly. Ten minutes later, I ashed the cigar for the first time. At the 40-minute mark, a second touch-up was applied. During the next five to to ten minutes, the body moved up a bit to medium-plus, but the flavor slipped just a bit from what I would rate as 4+ points on a 5-point scale down to 4 points.

During the Second Third: At the 70-minute mark, I ashed the cigar for the second time, and a relight was required. The sweetness started to fade a bit, and within another five minutes, my flavor rating dropped to 3.75 points.

During the Last Third: At the 100-minute mark, a third touch-up was applied to keep the burn even. Five minutes later, I ashed the cigar for the third time. I was surprised that the flavor did not continue to deteriorate any further beyond the 75-minute point. The body was still medium-plus and notes of spice were still present, although a more subtle sweetness was just about gone. After smoking for two full hours, the Big Payback 70 went out for a second time, and the head was starting to collapse. With three inches left, I decided it was finally time to terminate the smoking session.

Conclusion: The Room101 Big Payback 70 cigar maintained a very good and mostly consistent flavor for the first 75 minutes, before dropping a bit during the last 45 minutes. During the two hours that it took me to smoke the Big Payback 70 down to three inches remaining, the cigar required one relight and three touch-ups. The cigar was well-made considering its size, had a good draw and delivered a nice volume of smoke. Overall, I rate the Room101 Big Payback 70 cigar with a very good rating of 4 points on a 5-point scale, and consider it to be a great value at $9 per stick. Room101 Big Payback 70 really is a BIG payback from Matt Booth, since it contains enough tobacco for two cigars and lasts twice as long. I was pleasantly surprised the way this cigar tasted and smoked, and as far back as I can remember, Room101 Big Payback 70 is the only cigar that I ever smoked that lasted for at least two hours.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer.