Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper color on the Camacho Factory Unleashed varies between light and medium brown and has a few decently raised veins present. The wrapper stops a half inch short of the foot, exposing just the binder and filler. The seams are a bit raised and the double cap is well finished. The band is white, black and silver and denotes the company and line name. The aroma from the wrapper is a lightly musty wood while the foot brings more wood and light tobacco sweetness. The pre-light draw brings musty and sweet cedar along with a mild spiciness on my lips.
Seth: Finished with a shaggy foot, the Camacho Factory Unleashed sports a wrapper that is somewhere between Natural and Colorado in coloring. There is a great bit of tooth that is noticeable to the touch, and there are small to medium sized veins present throughout. The cigar is firm in hand and is delivering an aroma of musty wood, leather, tobacco and spices. There are some stone fruit notes on the foot.
John: The Camacho Factory Unleashed comes in cellophane and a UPC sticker is attached with an integrated tear point. There is also roughly a half inch of exposed binder on the foot. The cap on the cigar does not appear to be applied very well. Aromas from the cigar included barnyard, hay and aged wood. From the foot, all I could pick out was sweet tobacco.
Jiunn: The Camacho Factory Unleashed has a nice presentation. I like the flare of the exposed binder. Not original by any means but it’s rarely done. The wrapper has an oily sheen to the Colorado Claro wrapper shade. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and head well wrapped. Aromas from the wrapper give pencil lead and soft red pepper spice. Aromas from the foot tell of rich red pepper spice, meatiness and cedar. Cold draw reveals nuts and hay.

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with heavily toasted oak, earthiness and a bit of a metallic note. As the burn reached the wrapper, the minerality goes away as the toast level lessens and a light black pepper and mustiness join the profile. At an inch in, the profile is musty, toasted oak which is just ahead of the earth while the black pepper is in the background but has a long finish. The retrohale is musty oak, earth and a light chalkiness. At an inch and a half in, a light chalkiness joins the profile. As the third comes to a close, the chalkiness has become even with the musty, toasted oak while the earth is in the middle and the black pepper is in the background. The strength in this third was right at medium.
Seth: The first third delivers a variety of flavors. I am picking up citrus and cream notes, and they are paired with some musty cedar and dry earth. There is a lot of pepper and spice, and I am picking up some coffee bean notes on the finish. For the first third, I would classify the cigar as a solid medium.
John: My first few puffs brought flavors of sweet wood and mild baking spices. Wood and baking spices are intensified through the retrohale, with earth and espresso accents. The wood component has a sharp finish to it through the retrohale. Some chocolate notes start to push through under the espresso, as pepper develops on the post draw. Once the burn line hits the wrapper, the chocolate intensifies, as the wood falls in strength and the pepper becomes a dull background note.
Jiunn: Smoking through the portion with the exposed binder shows rawness. I’m getting the stereotypical cigar notes of cedar, nuts and red pepper spice, but there’s definitely a sharpness to especially the cedar note. Once the wrapper starts burning, I immediately notice a richer bodied experience and introduction of baking spices and pencil lead minerality. Retrohaling gives mainly a big dose of dry red pepper spice without any supporting flavors. The finish is long but one dimensional, providing the same red pepper spice on the rear palate. Strength is medium-full, body is medium.

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the black pepper has become very faint. At three quarters of an inch in, the musty, toasted oak remains even with the chalkiness while the earth comes through more on the finish and the black pepper is still faint. The retrohale is now chalky, musty oak. The third wraps up with the musty, toasted oak and chalkiness even up front, earth in the middle and faint black pepper in the background. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The second third mellows out some in terms of strength, but it continues to deliver that flavor of musty cedar, dry earth, citrus qualities and cream. The coffee notes have become this café latte quality, and the pepper is this soft white pepper quality. Medium in strength and body.
John: The second third gets things going with sweet wood and baking spices. Chocolate is firmly entrenched in the middle of the profile. As the cigar progresses, wood pushes to the front of the profile with chocolate chasing and taking wood into the post draw. By the halfway point, that wood has moved up to medium strength. The chocolate pushes back in the bottom half, as tannins join the post draw.
Jiunn: There’s one main change within the second third. A burning paper-like flavor comes through to the already earthy profile. Too much earth and not enough other categories of flavors. Strength and body is unchanged at medium-full and medium, respectively.

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the chalkiness lightens. At a half inch in, the profile is musty, toasted oak, with earth in the middle and light chalkiness and black pepper in the background. The retrohale is now musty, toasted oak and light earth. As the cigar wraps up, the toast level had become quite full. The strength remained at slightly above medium.
Seth: The final third delivers a flavor profile of earth and cedar notes. The pepper notes are on the rise, and I am getting white and black pepper. The cream notes are still present, but they are on the finish. The citrus notes have faded, and the same goes for the coffee qualities. Medium to medium-full in strength and body.
John: The profile is wood forward moving into the last third, with some citrus accents. The post draw consists of lingering wood. As the cigar progresses, bitterness joins the post draw. Unfortunately, that bitterness is driving the profile by the halfway point, leading to an unpleasant last third.
Jiunn: Final third continues on the same trajectory as the second third. Still very earthy with baking spices, pencil lead minerality, burning paper and cedar. Strength and body finishes medium-full and medium.

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy throughout, but always maintained itself. The cigar did go out once in the final third, requiring a re-light. The ash held on through each third.
Seth: Very good burn throughout.
John: The burn struggled through the review, starting out uneven and developing into a canoe. The cigar was touched-up, struggled at the halfway point, eventually going out, requiring a re-light. The cigar canoed again, this time in the last third, requiring another touch-up.
Jiunn: Wonderful burn performance. Even burn, tight ashes, cool burning temperate and ample smoke production.

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed

Draw

Aaron: The draw was slightly tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoking experience.
Seth: Nice draw.
John: The draw was the slightest amount towards the resistant spectrum, roughly one notch, putting it well into the ideal range for draw.
Jiunn: The draw was also great. Just the right amount of air flow and resistance.

Overall

Aaron: The flavor profile was pretty average throughout. Getting to smoke the first half inch without wrapper was interesting, but the blend works much better with the wrapper. The chalkiness though the middle of the cigar wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t off-putting either. The Camacho Factory Unleashed has a very attractive price point, and it’s an easy cigar to recommend trying, but overall, it isn’t something that really captured my attention and I don’t see myself coming back to it.
Seth: While the Camacho Factory Unleashed does not smoke like a Camacho, it does show some qualities of blends coming out of their Honduran factory. It is a multi-nation blend, something they have been doing more of, and it smokes like a multi-nation blend. You can get the Honduran, Dominican, Nicaraguan and Ecuadorian tobacco flavors. The pepper, cream and cedar notes are the core flavors throughout, and they work well together. The occasional coffee and citrus notes add complexity and make for a better blend. I love the shaggy foot, but I always love shaggy foots. Good cigar, though not quite sure it does well as a Camacho. It’s not really a Camacho, AVO or Davidoff.
John: The only thing that I would qualify as ‘unleashed’ on the Camacho Factory Unleashed, was my desire to be unleashed from the review. Having a subpar last third happens, but when it happens on a cigar of this size it overshadows the entire experience. While I would say the first third had some good flavors and was engaging, I found myself forgetting all about them by the halfway point. The draw was perfect but the burn struggled at several points, no doubt having an impact on the flavor profile. There are so many great Camacho releases on the market that I would much rather smoke. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 11 minutes.
Jiunn: Hmm, maybe they should not have unleashed this cigar from the factory. The flavor package was too unrefined and raw for my liking. I especially didn’t like how much earthiness the cigar gave starting from the second third. The Camacho Factory Unleashed is a decent cigar but I look towards other Camacho offerings.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.40

Cost/Point

$1.44

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

6.92

Cost/Point

$1.13

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.08

Cost/Point

$1.53

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$1.36

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Camacho Factory Unleashed