Cigar Review: RoMa Craft Neanderthal

Vitola: HN
Size: 5″ x 52/56 ring gauge
Price $12.00
Purchased From Maxamar’s Cigars

Background

Today I’ll be taking a look at the latest release from RoMa Craft Tobac, the Neanderthal.  This is their first new line extension since the Intemperance was release in 2012.  This cigar will debut in only this size to start and they come packed in 50 count boxes.  These cigars are comprised of Mexican San Andrés wrapper, a Connecticut broadleaf binder with filler tobaccos including Condega, Estelí, Jalapa and Pueblo Nuevo from Nicaragua; Dominican olor ligero and Pennsylvania “Green River Sucker One” double ligero.  It is billed as the strongest blend from RoMa Craft to date.  This was the first one of these I smoked.

Prelight

The new blend is easily distinguishable from the other blends by the orange band.  The bands on the CroMagnon, Aquitaine and now Neanderthal are simple but elegant, while having a slightly rustic flair.  The cap on this cigar is very flat and reminds me of the one on the CAO Flathead.  The  wrapper on this is medium brown in color with some scattered darker mottling.  There isn’t as much tooth as I have been seeing on other San Andres cigars, but there is some.  The wrapper also had some oils to it.  A point of note is that as soon as I took this cigar out of the cello I could smell the barnyard coming from it.  It was fairly strong sitting on the ashtray as I started my notes.  It wasn’t off-putting, but something I normally don’t get.  When I put my nose to the wrapper all I could smell was barnyard, with the same from the foot.  The cigar was fairly firm when I gave it a squeeze and there were no soft spots.  My Xikar MTX comes in very handy with caps like this as I’m able to just remove wrapper and any binder covering the filler without cutting the filler.  After taking a cold draw on it I noted some leather, wood and a hint of sweetness with a good draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a nice blast of spice on the tongue and retrohale, which makes sense with the tobaccos it is made from.  After a few puffs and the burn on the retohale subsides a bit I started to taste flavors of wood, leather, with a bit of graham all with a sweet finish.  The cigar is definitely medium-full strength to start.  When I got into the second third the spice had toned down a bit but didn’t go completely away.  Flavors in the second third were pretty similar to the first, with the exception of the sweetness being more pronounced.   The final third saw the spice start to return.  Although it didn’t get as strong as it was at first.  The flavors changed slightly to leather, wood, earth, coffee with the sweet finish still hanging in.  I did get a nicotine hit from the cigar as it finished off definitely at full strength.

Construction

The draw was slightly thin at the beginning but one poke from the bleeder tool on my MTX resolved it.  After that the draw was great and the burn line was very even.

Value

To me the price is just a little high since I can pick up my favorite from the line, the CroMagnon EMH, for around $8.  I’m guessing that the different shape and the large variety of tobaccos in it contributed to that.

Conclusions

Overall I did enjoy this cigar.  It wasn’t as flavorful as the other cigars from RoMa Craft I’ve had though.  This could be attributed to my palate on that day or that the cigars had just arrived at the shop a few days before.  I picked up a 5 pack so I’m letting the other ones sit before lighting up another one.  It is definitely the strongest regular line release from them I’ve had and because of that I wouldn’t smoke this without eating first.  I’m curious to see what a little time or a different size does to this blend.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 8.5/10