The Good Stuff: Romeo is the newest offering by Romeo y Julieta, or as the company calls it, “the latest act in their love story”. Is the Romeo love at first smoke? Lets find out.

Romeo y Julieta is known for is mass marketed, mild cigars. Romeo is the first venture, that I know of by the manufacturer into a more full bodied experience. Rolled by a special team of only the finest artisans at the famed Tabacalera de Garcia factory, the Romeo is jam packed with some of the rarest tobaccos the company has ever offered. The Romeo is stuffed with Dominican Piloto and dark Olor tobaccos, bound by mountain grown Dominican Olor, and wrapped in specially selected dark Ecuadorian Habano grown in a region filled with rich, volcanic soil.

The Romeo will come in four traditional sizes: Churchill (56 x 7), Toro (54 x 6), Robusto (54 x 5), and the Piramide (52 x 6 1/8). These cigars were sent as pre-release samples from our good friends at altadis, but you should be able to find these at your favorite local B&M. If I’m not mistaken they were due out for release in late May.

Size: 54 x 6  –  Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano  –  Binder: Dominican Olor  –  Filler: Dominican Piloto/Olor  –  Body: Full  –  Strength: Medium

Prelight: alright, I’m obviously going to start off with the strange band on this Romeo by Romeo y Julieta. I’ve heard lots of people complain about how ugly it is, and while I don’t totally agree with it from a design standpoint, I can’t help but applaud Romeo y Julieta for doing something completely different then they have in their past portfolio. The crazy juxtaposition of the “ROMERO” on the front of this gold, while, and red band is sure to catch the attention of any smoker looking through a sea of cigars to make a purchase. Hell even the boxes look awesome.

That being said, the construction the cigar carries should help back up the decision to purchase. The cigar is rock solid with no soft spots and only a few smaller veins running the length of the wide bodied cigar up to the cigar’s round triple cap. I say triple cap loosely too, I am not totally convinced that these are triple cap cigars from the samples I have received. One looks like a double, one looks triple, while one falls in between. Either way, that shouldn’t really change the experience. The wrapper is hard as a rock and gives off a very, very sweet, cedar infused tobacco aroma while the foot of the cigar only puts out a very mild molasses and tobacco smell. Despite the larger ring gauge and thickness of the wrapper the cap cut very easily and clean using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces just a ton of earthy, natural tobacco flavors. Nothing really more than that.

First Smoke: There is a lot of tobacco in this cigar and it took quite a bit of fire from my single flame butane torch to get the foot lit properly. The Romeo actually started out with a little burst of black pepper that I wasn’t really expecting. Underneath the pepper was a subtle spice, a bit of that molasses I picked up, some vanilla, and a really pronounced leather all centered around an earthy tobacco flavor. I really wasn’t expecting the cigar to start off with as much flavor as this Romeo is. The draw is just beautiful kicking out massive clouds of thick, white smoke with every puff.  Despite all the smoke on the draw the Romeo by Romero y Julieta gives off very little in the stationary smoke department. The burnline is razor sharp and dead even producing a really nicely compacted, grey and dark grey zebra striped ash.

Halfway There: Talk about a drop off in flavor. The pepper is gone, most of the earthy tobacco flavor is gone, and I am left with a leathery vanilla with some sweet molasses and only a bit of tobacco. The flavor carried like this through most of the second third until the cigar really started to ramp up in the cedar department. It got me anxious to get into the final third. As far as the burn goes, this cigar is still burning very even and clean. The retrohale really helps pronounce the cedar flavor that seems to be fighting it’s way through the cigar. I am barely feeling anything at all in the nicotine department. I think the slight bit of haziness I am experiencing is actually heat stroke. Kidding. Kind of.

Finish: As expected, the flavors really ramped up in the final third of this Romeo. This has to be the best portion of the cigar as the cedar really took over backed by that vanilla and sweet molasses. Even the spice made a brief reappearance. All in all the Romeo took me almost two full hours to take down while it required absolutely no touch ups or relights, the cigar burned perfectly all the way through. A big plus was that the huge band slid right off without any effort. Gotta love that. I finished it only feeling a very slight bit of nicotine.

Overview: The Romeo by Romeo y Julieta is a decent cigar. Not bad by any means, just not great. Primarily, I think this cigar is a gem for any mild cigar smoker looking for something really flavorful that won’t hit them hard in the nicotine department. It does have a slightly higher strength than most other cigars is the Romeo y Julieta portfolio, but not by much. This is something I’d smoke when I’ve had quite a few and want something decent that won’t put me under the table. Will I buy I smoke it again? I’m sure. It’s just not something I am going to be stocking up on.

Pairing: This is another classic example of a pairing that really brings the most out of a cigar. When I think mild cigars, one of the first beers that come to mind is Samuel Adams cherry wheat ever since the successful pairing with the EP Carrillo New Wave Connecticut. This beer’s sweet almond and cherry flavors really did the cigar a favor by uplifting the vanilla and sweet tobacco flavors the cigar produced. This is also the perfect summer beer. I really can’t think of anything besides some nice iced black tea that would have went better with this cigar.

The post Romeo by Romeo y Julieta Cigar Review appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The cigar I’m talking about here the is Cuaba Distinguidos. Now Cuaba is brand that does not have its own factory in Cuba, it’s actually made at the Romeo y Julieta factory. It’s also fairly young, dating back to only 1996 when Francisco Linares launched it. All of their cigars are fully hand made and stuffed with only premium long filler. The region most of their tobaccos come from in Cuba is called the Vualta Abajo.

One unique thing about the Cuaba brand is their choice of vitolas. If you take a quick peek at their line-up, you will see that all the cigars in their inventory are actually made in the perfecto shape with a variety of sizes ranging from a short 4 inches all the way up to a long-smoking 9.1 behemoth. The goal behind the brand was to revitalize this vitola for all cigar enthusiasts. The Perfecto shape was very common in the early 1900’s but as you can see from most cigars on the market today, both Cuban and non-Cuban, this vitola is not very common at all.

I ordered a 10-count box of these cigars in the fall and they’ve had a chance to rest for a few months now. They just recently passed their 1.5 year mark according to the date on the bottom of the box. I think they’ve had plenty of time to age and it’s about time to start smoking them and seeing if they are worth keeping on hand longer, smoking through them now or getting rid of them so other people, lol. So let’s see where this one falls in todays review!

Cigar: Cuaba Distinguidos
Drink: Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection New World Tripel
Vitola: Perfecto (6.4 x 52)
Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Price: About $11
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• This Cuaba Distinguidos is a nicely shaped cigar, very different in terms of most cigars on the market today
• The wrapper is a light woodsy brown type of color, just a shade darker than a connecticut would be
• There are a few sizeable veins on this cigar so I hope it doesn’t cause any issues for me
• From head to toe, there is quite a bit of firmness on this cigar, almost no soft parts to be found
• The cap is finished with a smooth single leaf that looks like it was supposed to have a pigtail at the end but someone cut it off
• I can’t really comment much on the foot since it’s tapered into a small end but from what I can see it is well packed

Burn:
• The toasting was pretty simple since the foot was so small, I opted for a nice focused single flame torch and tried my best to only light up the foot
• The burn started off fairly well but after almost an inch it seemed there was a hole in the filler that caused a bad burn spot, hopefully it will realign itself without my help
• Happy to report that the major hiccup in the burn fixed itself without any help at all, very nice
• Burn line continues to be nice and even, it’s not perfect and has a slight wave to it but I haven’t had to touch it up and it’s burning without me having to pay any extra attention to it
• It is actually burning a lot faster than I would have thought
• A couple minor touch-ups were needed in the last third but it didn’t ruin the experience

Smoke & Ash:
• There isn’t too much smoke coming from this Cuaba Distinguidos, it is fairly light and thin and takes a few draws to really fill up your mouth
• The ash seems to be holding on nicely, it has mostly light and dark grey accents
• It’s also fairly neat and tidy with no flaking or messiness to it at all
• The first ash held on just past an inch before I tapped it off
• The second ash held on nice and cleanly until just passed the one inch mark again, good construction on this cigar so far
• The smoke volume seems to have ramped up in the second third which is a welcome change in my books
• The smoke volume kicked it up a notch again in the last third, really full and thick now
• Final ash stayed consistent with another 1+ inch before being tapped off

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper aroma has a nice woodsy and floral aroma to it
• The pre-light draw has a bunch more cedar and some slightly sweet notes
• The initial flavors offer more cedar notes but now mixes in a bit of roasted flavors
• The cedar is the main flavor through the first third but it’s very soft and mild, almost just giving a plain light tobacco flavor, hoping that ramps up somehow soon
• Similarly to the flavor, the strength of this cigar is super mild with no bite on the retrohale and just a slight cedar finish
• As we pass the first third the flavors are finally starting to step up a bit, the cedar is joined by some light coffee notes and a bit of licorice
• The coffee, cedar and licorice have remained through the second third, slightly more flavorful than the first bit of this cigar but I still feel like I’m wanting more of these flavors
• The flavors continue to gather some intensity as I get near the last third, at this point they are sort of what I had hoped they would have started out at. A bit late but we’ll see how they do now
• I’m starting to pick up some light baking spice notes, almost like a gingerbread cookie type of thing
• The licorice and coffee flavors took the lead in the last third which were an interesting combination
• In the last 2 inches, I started picking up some more intense spices, maybe a bit of cloves or pepper, not too strong or overpowering but they are there
• The body approached a light medium at this point, if the cigar would have hit this note earlier I think it could have been a killer smoke
• The Cuaba Distinguidos didn’t have any harshness at all to the nub and finished with some nice tasty flavors, if only they were like that earlier

Final Thoughts:
The size and ring gauge on this cigar seems pretty daunting at first but when you actually light up this cigar you realize it’s not really as bold as it looks. The Cuaba Distinguidos started off very mild and much lighter than I would have liked with mostly just cedar flavors. Lucky for me, the flavors increased their intensity a bit around the halfway mark and threw some more notes into the mix. The intensity did eventually pick up more but I had to smoke through most of the cigar to get to it. If you are looking for a nice strong post-dinner cigar you won’t find it here, I’d actually suggest this more as a morning or afternoon smoke for the more frequent cigar enthusiasts but it can also make a good intro to new smokers who want to try a larger vitola. The flavors themselves weren’t bad but at $11 a cigar I was hoping for something a lot more complex. Unfortunately, the difficulty in rolling this type of vitola often raises the prices so there’s not much we can do. It’s worth trying if you haven’t had a Cuaba before but I probably wouldn’t be purchasing a box of these again anytime soon. It had the right idea but it just seemed to execute it a little bit late in the game. These were also fairly young in terms of Cubans at only 1.5 years so I wouldn’t age them very long as I’d be afraid they might get even more mild with time. But that could be a good thing depending on the person of course.

Pairings:
It seems that I don’t get too many Samuel Adam’s brews up here North of the border. I’ve really only seen the Boston Lager and maybe one of the seasonals. A short while ago I was lucky enough to stumble across a few of these New World Tripel’s from their Barrel Room Collection which looked might interesting, so I picked some up. I’m a sucker for pretty much anything that is aged in an Oak barrel so I had high expectations and this Sam Adam’s brew did not disappoint. This is a very flavorful brew with tons of light fruity notes backed by a dark and thick base. Mix in there some hefty malt and the awesome Oak flavors and I’m sold. This is a darn tasty brew and worthy of trying! As for a pairing, I think I failed here today. The first half of this cigar was so mild that the brew strongly over-powered it. I think a much lighter blonde or amber beer would have gone better, possibly with a nice coffee taking the cake as my number one suggestion on this Cuaba Distinguidos.

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The idea here is just to give a couple short paragraphs on a cigar we recently had the chance to enjoy. They could be something we reviewed a long time ago and have some new (or the same) opinions on or perhaps something new that surprised us but we didn’t review. We’d also love to hear everyones thoughts on some of these cigars or perhaps one that you’d like to hear an updated opinion on?

Let us know if you like this idea and if we should continue with it, if the feedback is good, we’ll keep it going!

Gran Habano Connecticut #1 Rothschild – Daniel

Not too long ago Tony picked out a Gran Habano cigar to review, namely the G.A.R. Opium S.T.K. That review sparked a little discussion between Tony and myself and even came up in the comments from some of our trusted readers. It seems that both Tony and I usually enjoy the Gran Habano cigars that we smoke but for some reason we never really seem to buy them or smoke them more often.

Well, after that discussion I came across a box of the Gran Habano Connecticut #1 cigars and decided to splurge on them! I actually also tried these before on one of Blind Reviews and really enjoyed them, but for some reason I never bought any of them afterwards. So I picked up the Rothschild vitola(4.5 x 50) as a good size to enjoy while taking the dogs for a walk or even as a good driving cigar. They also offer a Lunchbreak vitola(4.5 x 40) which would also be a good choice for a short smoke, especially in these darn cold Canadian winters!

So what can you expect? At a price of of around $3 – $4 a stick, these are a very good Connecticut cigar to choose in a market with lots of Connecticut competition. Smooth creamy flavors and lots of cedar dominate this cigar that offers a mild and balanced experience. There’s no harshness near the nub and I find the wrappers to be a little more resilient than a lot of other Connecticut’s I’ve enjoyed. I’m glad I sprung for this box and would definitely buy more to keep on hand as a trusty and fairly priced Connecticut cigar.

Cohiba Siglo VI – Tony

So it’s been a while since I have done a Cuban cigar review. It’s not that I haven’t been smoking them, in fact, shortly after New Years I found just enough spare time to sit back and enjoy this heck of a pairing. Cohiba’s Siglo VI with some Samuel Adams/Weihenstephaner Infinium 2011.

This Siglo VI actually originated from the same 2006 dated box as the review that I did last year (you can see this review here for comparison). I actually have a few of these left so I have been trying to ration them, and only smoke them when I have the time, and I am in the right frame of mind. I am one who believes that you should smoke a cigar when you crave it and not save that “special” stick for that “special” day cause quite frankly, that day may never come. Anyways, back to the information. The Cohiba Siglo VI is a Cuban puro, blah blah blah, 6×52 blah blah blah, and it runs anywhere between $20 and $50 a stick, depending where you are able to get them of course.

The Siglo VI is the epitome of a great Cuban cigar through and through. The cigar boasts of salty, cedar flavors mixed with some smooth and sweet tobacco and honey flavors, and just a few added citrus notes to make things interesting. The burn, like most Cuban cigars is ugly, but manageable, but I didn’t have to touch up or relight. I’m not one that really ages my cigars. I smoke them as often as I can, but this Cohiba, while already well-aged, added another notch in its belt over the course of the last year since I did the review. I stated that early on I began getting some strong pepper flavors on my tongue and lips. Not in this last Siglo VI, in fact the cigar in general really smoothed out making each of the flavor change-ups really blend together. I really wonder what a fresher box of these would taste like. Have any of you tried this cigar? How was the age on it in comparison to your thoughts?

As for the beer, I won’t go too far into it since I will be pairing it with a full review soon. But if you can find it, DO IT! High alcohol, custom “champagne ale” style beer brewed by Sam Adams which was in cahoots with the oldest brewery in the world and one of my favorites, Weihenstephaner. This beer was actually brewed under the German purity law and was straight up, one of the best cigar/beer pairings that I have EVER HAD!

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The Limited Edition 2011 is similar to the Reserva Especial which was released last year (we actually chose this as one of our best cigars of 2010) but with a few tweaks which in my opinion, really made a huge impact on the final blend.

The Good Stuff: The Limited Edition starts off with the same, beautiful Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper as the standard Reserva Especial, only with a higher priming. After the wrapper Jaime decided to showcase some of his choice Pelo De Oro leaf as well as two different types of Cuban Seed. These cigars were showcased at this year’s IPCPR convention, and started to hit shops in August. This box came straight to us from Bonita Smoke Shop. Although this run is limited to 3700, Bonita still has them in stock and if you’re lucky enough you can pick them up here before they are sold out.

These cigars come in elegant boxes of 15 and each box contains a special 16^th cigar. The only difference with this cigar is it carries a Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper. This isn’t something we see from My Father cigars often. It’ll be interesting to see the difference in taste when smoking the exact same blend with totally different wrappers.

The box is incredible. It even has piano hinges, much like a humidor and could probably even be re-used as one if taken care of properly. The top of the box is clean and elegant sporting Jaime Garcia’s name as well as the blend. The entire box it coated in this crazy manilla/white/pearl paint which actually gives off a crazy deep purple hue when held in the right light. The front of the box has the logo again with a format stamp as well as “3700/2011” stating the limited run numbers as well as the year. There is also a My Father Limited Edition Quality seal on one side of the box.

As soon as you open the box you get this huge whiff of a new lumber, or paint. At first, I was slightly upset thinking that the paint on the inside of the box hadn’t dried properly (we all remember what happened with a certain extremely exclusive cigar a few years back) after a further inspection I realized it was simply the etching and burning technique used in the inlay wood that holds the cigars. Whew. Furthermore, I’ll reveal a spoiler here and let you know right away that it had no effect on the cigars at all.

Size: 6.5 x 52  –  Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf  –  Binder: Nicaraguan Pele de Oro  –  Filler: 2 Cuban Seed Nicaraguan  –  Price: ~$16

Prelight: Anyways, back to the review. The Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition starts off with a very dark, very consistency, toothy, and oily wrapper that looks identical to the wrapper chosen for last year’s “Reserva Especial” release. There is only one rather large vein that I can see running the length of the body of the cigar. Following the almost sand-paper-like wrapper, you come to two, wonderfully designed, and attention grabbing bands. That’s one thing about My Father cigars, they really overdo the band designs. They’re remarkable. The Reserva Especial Limited Edition is no exception to that rule. The main band follows the same manila, brown, blue and gold band design as the Reserva Especial. Underneath the main band is a similar designed band with blue and gold being the prominent colors with a gold embossed crest with the words “JG, Limited Edition” and Jaime’s signature. The Reserva Especial Limited Edition is then finished off with a large, round triple cap.

The wrapper of this Limited Edition is really tough and hard. You could probably use this cigar to break into a car. While the wrapper of the cigar gives off a very smooth cedar and spice aroma the foot carries this extremely powerful oaky, and earthy aroma. It actually burned my nasal passage a bit as I took my first big whiff. The cigar was extremely easy to clip using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw is really interesting on this Reserva Especial Limited Edition. It starts off with just a ton of really strong, dark, bitter chocolate before transcending into a nutty, cedar flavor.

First Smoke: The Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition lit up with ease, even under my simple single flame butane torch. The first initial flavors was this subtle pepper, some really sweet spice, tons of chocolate and espresso with just a touch of tobacco. The cigar really starts off like a nice, bold, strong cup of coffee.  The draw on this cigar is soooo easy and effortless, but not loose. Each little puff gives me the same amount of smoke as 3 puffs of any other cigar would normal pump out. The Limited Edition doesn’t give off too much stationary smoke, but its actually really pleasantly scented with a nice cedar and chocolate. The burnline on this cigar is razor sharp and crazy even leaving behind a really thick, tightly compacted light grey and white ash which held on for almost an inch and a half before falling to it’s doom in my lap and all over my feet.

Halfway There: The pepper has completely diminished at this point and I am now left with a really smooth mash up of coffee, chocolate, cashew, cedar, and a little berry. You can tell right off the bat that this is a stronger cigar, but at this point the balance between flavor and strength has been so well played that you really don’t pay any mind to the fact that it is such a strong cigar. The retrohale is VERY sharp and the pepper really shows through so I really don’t find myself doing it too often. It almost burns as it exits my nasal passage. Another plus was the secondary band removal. I always have such a hard time with excess of glue on my bands, and you would figure bands as large as these would give me a headache. Luckily, the band popped right off without leaving any trace of glue. Let’s hope the larger, main band has a similar experience.

Finish: Wow. Into the final third of this Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial the cedar has REALLY taken off as well as the body of the cigar. The cedar is really sweet, and powerful with some nice chocolate and espresso still mixed in as well as a nice cashew aftertaste. I am still so impressed how smooth this cigar is considering the strength. It’s full for sure. The burnline and ash on this cigar has been exceptional the entire experience requiring no touch ups at all. And another big plus, the large band popper right off as well. Whoohoo! All in all this cigar took about an hour and a half to take down and astonishingly had no harshness building up into the final inch.

Overview: Needless to say this is an incredible cigar and I wouldn’t be surprise if this blend makes out top cigars of 2011 as well. The full body and mass amounts of smooth flavors really made this cigar a perfect blend for me. I love a full body cigar that doesn’t kick your ass, but has enough complexity and balance that you really don’t pay attention to the strength of the cigar. The Limited Edition does just that. This is Boxworthy by far, even with the elevated price tag this is something that I would love to keep in my regular rotation. I may not recommend this to the novice smokers though, the body may just been too much for them.

Pairing: I kept my pairing relatively simple with this selection combining the Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition with some simple Sam Adams Rustic Saison. A lot of things go into pairing selections, type of cigar blend, body, time of day, and even time of year. With 100+ weather outside I went with something really simple, crisp, and refreshing that I knew wouldn’t overpower the cigar. Sam Adams Rustic Saison is a farmhouse style summer seasonal ale. It’s orange, cinnamon, and caramel composure made a nice treat and extended balance to the Limited Edition. It had just enough flavors not found in the cigar to extend the cigar’s character.  This cigar would go GREAT at night, with a nice stout, or even on a mid-morning brunch with some nice, black coffee.

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