Acme Route 66

At the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show this year, Acme Cigar Co. not only introduced three new cigars, but they also introduced themselves as a new company. Elliot Suied, owner of Cigar Warehouse in Dallas, and Romereo Hartfield, CEO of Millennium Multi-media Inc., partnered together to create their first cigar company. Tom Poehler and Jay Lundy of AKA Cigars have also teamed up with the two new Acme heads and together released their first line of cigars this year in New Orleans.

Acme Cigar Company started things off with a bang, releasing three top-of-the-line cigars with a range of vitolas to boot: The Acme Premier Ecuador, Acme Premier San Andres, and the Acme Route 66. I chose to go with the Route 66 because of its unique vitola and awesome rustic look.

Acme Route 66 Breakdown

At first look, anyone will notice the sheer size of the Tandem vitola. It’s a monster. But looking beyond that, it has a very fine wrapper of a light to medium brown, very smooth with minimal veins and tight seams throughout. The wrapper doesn’t have an oily sheen or shine to it, but has more of a dry, rustic touch that, in my opinion, goes great with the band. The band, as you can imagine, sports a classic route 66 highway sign with the typical red and blue with white font. But Acme went one step further than that by adding touches of rust (literally) to the sign and blotches of dirt and grime. It all flows nicely together, creating a unique, rustic, slightly dirty cigar.

You will also notice that the cigar has a nice double cap – not in the traditional sense of the term – it is actually capped on the head and foot. And not only that, but both caps have already been punched cut, so you can start smoking from either side right away, no cutter required. Furthermore, in the middle of the cigar, you will see a small, darker-colored tobacco band that marks the center of the cigar. This is so you don’t have to smoke the giant monster all at once, but is actually designed to be cut in the middle, giving you two 4.25” x 52 cigars already cut and ready to light!

Smoking Experience

For the review I chose not to cut the cigar, but to smoke all the way through. I wanted to do this so I could get the complete smoking experience and be able to note all the transitions and differences between each half of the stick.

On the cold draw there is a sweet tobacco and light oak coming through, but nothing substantial. On the first light and first few draws, there is a very nice cream that comes through, dominating the draw—on the finish you get more of that sweet tobacco core with a rather chewy smoke that gives you a nice, heavy mouthfeel. The draw is a bit tight at this point, not uncomfortable, but enough to require more effort than I would like to give. As the cigar slowly moves through the first third, it develops a nice pepper on the finish, as well as the retrohale. At this point, the cream is almost completely gone, leaving a plain black pepper and slight sweetness on the finish. The finish grows longer and longer as the smoke develops. The ash doesn’t like to hold on more than an inch and a half, so be mindful of that.

About an hour in, I approach the halfway point, and this is where the first transition happens. Right about the exact halfway mark, those notes of cream and subtle oak come right back to my palate, almost exactly like the first light. The pepper remains, but is dialed back by the cream and chewy smoke that comes ramping back to my mouth. But as I move an inch or so down past the halfway mark, those creamy and chewy oak notes begin to die back down again, just like in the first third. The transitions are nice and subtle, never harsh or out of place. It’s nice to know that Acme created two very similar halves to this stick so that you really do get the same subtle transitions from each half, staying very consistent. The construction is very good, I set my cigar down for one to two minutes at a time and it came right back to life. I never had to touch it up either, it kept a solid razor sharp burn all the way down to the nub.

Right after the halfway mark I decide to try and cut off the cap of the cigar in hopes of opening it up a bit from the already pre-cut punch that I had been smoking through. I knew it was a bit risky as I had already smoked half the cigar and it was starting to get a tad warm around the cap, but I went for it anyway. And it was worth the risk! I instantly get a blast of smoke, and the draw feels almost like sucking through a straw… a huge difference from the pre-cut. With the added smoke, the flavors amp up a bit and I get more of that black pepper and sweetness, as well as earth coming through the finish.

Well into the final third, I know what to expect from the rest of the cigar. After all, I had just smoked one. Towards the end, it was what I thought, more subtle sweetness, hints of oak on the retrohale, black pepper and a strong earth, now dominating the finish right down to the nub.

Would I smoke this again?

Yes. I would cut it in half however, now that I know each half is the same. I also recommend anyone to cut the already punched caps, it really helps to open up the draw. Overall, it makes a very versatile mild-medium stick anyone could handle and enjoy. The construction is great as far as the burn goes, so you never have to worry about it going out, allowing you to just sit back and enjoy. I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in Acme’s new lineup, as well as new smokers who prefer a milder cigar that still has a few good flavors and subtle transitions.

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