Cigar Review: ROMEO Aging Room by Romeo y Julieta

• Vitola: Copla
• 5” x 48 ring gauge
• MSRP $11.50
• Purchased at Maxamar Ultimate Cigars

Background

For years I could confidently say that nothing from the Altadis Romeo y Julieta lines would interest me. The lauded ROMEO was nothing more to me than a slightly bumped up Reserva Real…it and the others in the line were just sort of…boring. Then RyJ arrived last year; the all-Nicaraguan cigar in the brand was something of a revelation…while not a world-beater (to me, anyway), it was quite good and something I still return to from time to time. The ROMEO Añejo is excellent in a way I never thought I’d experience within these brands. And now we have the collaborative effort of Romeo y Julieta and Aging Room.

This brand was announced earlier in 2015. It features a Dominican puro, rolled in Jochy Blanco’s Tabacalera Palma factory and co-branded with both Altadis’ ROMEO by Romeo y Julieta line and Aging Room F25 from Rafael Nodal’s Boutique Blends. Aging Room has been getting a lot of press in the last couple years due to a high placement on the lifestyle magazine’s annual Top 25, but this venture could actually see them get even better press because of the widespread distribution through Altadis. The cigars are 100% Dominican Habano leaf.

There are only 250,000 cigars being rolled for this project (that’s actually quite a few, so these could be available for some time to come). There are 3 sizes available. I smoked the Toro-esque Capriccio a few weeks ago, but opted to pick up a couple samples of the Copla while I was at Maxamar in California. This review sample is the third overall of this blend that I’ve smoked, and the second of this size.

Prelight

The co-branding is done in a very cool and innovative way, although it seems to threaten to take over the entire cigar to some degree as well. The major colors are gold and brown, with the ROMEO band rendered almost entirely out of gold foil, with some brown shading and text, along with some embossing. “Aging Room” is foil stamped on a brown extension of the band, then there is a white sheath that covers the rest of the cigar to the foot. The sheath has black script type on it (“Small Batch F25”) and gold foil that is really in the shape of old maps (as seen on the box and other marketing).

I generally don’t like when the band covers so much of the cigar as it makes it hard to make any judgements about the actual wrapper leaf until you buy it, take it out of the cellophane, then take off the band(s). In this case, it does look cool, although the execution is a bit shaky. In order to take off the white-background sheath paper, you end up having to remove the large ROMEO band. Most people won’t have a big problem with that…but the companies that put so much time, energy and money into the collaboration and marketing should be upset that all the bands will be removed and discarded before the cigar is even initially lit.

I was carefully removed the foot band, then tried to pull the sheath off without removing the main band, but it simply wasn’t possible. Glue from the main band made it stick to the sheath. So I had a 3-step process of carefully removing all the bands so I could smoke what was then a naked cigar…no bands of any type.

Good looking wrapper leaf, though. Milk chocolate brown in color with some darker mottling and a very oily feel under my finger tips. It had aromas of earth and dry cocoa powder to it. The foot had slightly stronger earth notes and some coffee. The prelight draw was good and tasted of bittersweet chocolate, dried cherries, and a touch of pepper spice.

Flavor

When I lit up the ROMEO Aging Room, I got leather and earth flavors right up front, with a bit of dried fruit coming in behind. Then there was more earth and dry cocoa powder toward the finish. Red pepper was noticeable on the palate from the start, but it was a searing heat on the retrohale. Shortly into the first third, I got a slight hollow in the bunch and a corresponding lack of draw. This in turn caused it to get a little bitter and harsh for about 10 to 15 minutes.

I got through that section before the second third started burning. This ushered in a smoother, more pleasant smoke that was medium-plus in body with flavors of earth and graham. The pepper had abated somewhat.

As I cruised into the final third, I got a definite increase in body along with an resurgence of leather and earth flavors. Cocoa powder was in the mix, but there was little sweetness to balance it all at this point. At the end it was definitely full bodied.

Construction

I noted the build flaw in the first third. Other than that, the draw was very good, the ash was solid and the burn line was very even.

Value

This is a high-priced stick for something sold by Altadis…and a relatively low-priced cigar for an Aging Room. The bottom line, though, is that it is slightly too high priced for the experience it delivered, at least for me.

Conclusions

The ROMEO Aging Room is definitely a break from the old Romeo y Julieta lines, including the more recent ROMEO addition. It is bold in flavor, medium-to-full in body and “new school” in its approach to Dominican tobacco. It was shot through with earth and leather and pepper notes, but in the end it just didn’t do it for me. I would have preferred a greater sweetness throughout to balance the darker flavors. However, you can decide for yourself if this is a stick you want to invest in. It will assuredly challenge your perceptions of Altadis products…and perhaps give you an introduction to Aging Room stick in the process. As I’ve thought about it some more, I will also acknowledge that at least part of my review experience was colored by the construction flaw in the first third…AND I think this blend may do well with some extra age on it…so I am going to try to grab a few extra when I get a chance and set them aside for longer aging and evaluation.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 8/10