RealFreakinCigarReviews

Initial Thoughts

As I sank into my fittingly mundane but toasty 15-year-old hot tub (a.k.a. Review HQ West), I took a sip each from my beverage accompaniments (a double shot of a good tequila and a winter lager), took another quick look at the ice formed in the yard fountain (quite the unusual sight here in the Sonoran Desert!), and finally reflected momentarily on my good past experiences with Romeo Y Julieta stogies.  I've not had a bad 'R y J' yet, and I don't expect this one to fail me either, even with a price that ventures brazenly into budget territory.

Looking over this little guy showed a consistent dull brown color, a firm but not tight packing, and no nasty veins or other obvious flaws.  A sniff test gave just a so-so reaction, so, enough with the preliminaries -- on with the with v-notcher and lighter! 

The Smoke

No real surprises here, a nice plain but tasty tobacco flavor ruled the duration.  Although a little bit bitter on the first few puffs (oh ya, I did sin and use a <gasp> butane lighter to ignite it), the bitterness disappeared quickly, followed by a slight peppery sensation that I would _almost_ describe as white pepper, but not quite..  It eventually morphed into a faint but decidedly tingly black pepper taste by the end, which I would attribute to a cedar wrapping if this cigar were so equipped (which it was not!)  Around midway, I got an almost creamy sensation with the more than generous smoke produced, but that didn't last more than a few puffs, where it then turned back into the 'sharper' taste it started out with.

There is nothing in this smoke that really stands out, other than there is nothing bad that stands out!  The taste is pretty good with little hints of pepper and creaminess now and then, the draw is effortless, the suede-like hand-feel is satisfying and in general, you quickly forget that you're smoking a cigar and that you can just kick back and enjoy.  It burned well, produced a nice grey ash, and in general didn't make a nuisance of itself at all.  In fact, unlike many cigars, I lingered in the 'review chamber' a while, wishing I had another to burn!

For the sheer value of this line, I am going to make a slight transgression with our rating system here, and go fractional in my overall rating - it's a solid 7 of 10, but crap, at $2.55 a stick, it deserves an extra 0.5!  This is the kind of quite affordable (er, 'pedestrian' for you high brow assholes) cigar I wouldn't mind receiving a whole box of as a gift.  But yeah, it is nothing you want to whip out to impress your wife's boss or anything, just keep them for yourself for a quality everyday smoke. 

The Rating