First Review: Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro
First Review here, don't eat me for lunch.
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CIGAR: Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro, Robusto
TIME: 10 pm, Central
BEVERAGE: CocaCola
ENTERTAINMENT: Conversation with an old friend. Not much better than smoking with friends, eh?
EXPECTATIONS: None, I didn't know anything about this cigar, aside from the band. The BOTL I was smoking with and I split a sampler box from JRcigars, and I only knew how much I payed for my part of the box, but not anything else, so I didn't even know the cost of the stick.
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CUT, PRELIGHT DRAW, AND LIGHT:
Snipped it at first with my usual flat cut, but after a few draws, realized I wanted to open it up more, so I recut it on a diagonal to expose greater surface area.
Prelight draw was rich and sweet. Any other flavors were completely hidden by the sweetness of it.
Light was with my friend's torch lighter. It lit without incident.
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BURN AND CONSTRUCTION:
The first half-inch of this thing burned really inconsistently, however it self-corrected after this and didn't require any subsequent attention. By the end of the first inch, the burn was what can only be described as perfect.
Construction was fine, rolling it between my fingers revealed that it was neither so packed as to be completely stiff, no so loose as to give that 'mushy' impression.
Burn time was at least an hour, probably a little over. I didn't watch my watch all that closely.
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IMPRESSIONS:
The first half-inch, in addition to burn problems, had taste problems. When I say taste problems, I mean a general lack of taste. After this, though it was quite enjoyable.
Anyone familiar with the Pepsi challenge? If you drink Coke and Pepsi at the same time, you generally favor Pepsi, because it's sweeter.
This stick was like the Pepsi to this Coke. It's like eating chocolate. It was sweet enough that the Coke didn't see any action tonight. The cola taste was completely overpowered and was used for little other than to wet my mouth. NB: I usually drink espresso or cappuccino with cigars, but it was late in the evening, and I didn't feel like fixing one.
The sweetness eventually gave way to spice somewhere in the last 50-30% and stayed like that way until the finish.
I liked it, but it wasn't something to nub. I did smoke it down to around an inch remaining, though.
The smoke coming from the lit end was probably the finest part of the experience. It smelled like happiness mixed with fairies with a hint of unicorn. It just sort of bellowed up around me as I smoked this thing. As long as that smell was in the air, it was impossible to think that the world was _all_ bad. Usually, it seems like as much as I enjoy smoking a cigar, the smoke from the lit end is either smelly or boring compared to the smoke in my mouth.
This thing looked like it was putting out tons of smoke, but it was hard to tell because it was dark. However, my jacket sleeve doesn't have the smell of smoke that it usually does. I don't know if this is more a product of the smell of this cigar's smoke, or the amount of smoke produced. I'll try to get better data next time.
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CONCLUSIONS:
I liked it, so I check the MSRP on top25cigar: 5.50 USD.
For a five-dollar stick, not bad at all. I would pay easily $5.50 to smoke this again.
Not my favorite stick, but definitely something I'll keep on hand in the future for occaisions when I want something sweet tasting.
