Well, today was another great day to sit outside, so I decided to try another cigar. This time one of my first buys. A loooong time ago I bought a box of ten of these tubed Petit Corona’s (in the brushed aluminium tubes). I tried one (probably in its sick period, of which I knew nothing at that time). I found it very harsh then and very young, like green grass with ammonia. After this first try I felt a bit sick myself. Now let’s try this one after a prolonged time in one of my humidor’s and see if ageing made this cigar any better.

Well this is a Cuban Romeo y Julieta Romeo No. 3 (40 x 117mm, Petit Corona, Box Code ORE JUN 04).

The brand was established in 1875 and was named for Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Quite a surprise ‘eh? It was made BIG by Jose Rodriguez who acquired the brand in 1903. Just like Prez JFK springs to mind when thinking about H. Upmann, Romeo y Julieta also had a big Prez-like fan: Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill. In his honor RyJ made a famous cigar named Churchill. As far as I know there’s never been a John F Cigar…

Color & Looks: Colorado, veiny and no powder nor frays. Good build, easy to cut.

A cru: Old books, ashy (and that’s before lighting it).

Taste: Easy combustion and excellent draw. Starts very nice, well matured. Leathery and I would say half-creamy.  This is really a lot better than all those years ago. It has a great startup, it’s good from the very beginning. Oriental spice and some cedar. It stays on the mild side. After just two centimeters development starts and moves more into more spices and ground black pepper. The whole is very nicely balanced, and I love balance! It’s very aromatic and gives lots of almonds now. I hope it’s not hydrocyanic acid gas ;-). The further down the cigar, the more cedar, but never overpowering the overall taste, just a little shift in the spectrum towards the wood. Some dry forest floor and a hint of cannabis and even a little hint of petrol, which is no problem but just adds to the balance. This little cigar evolves forever (well 30 to 40 minutes) and doesn’t stop with the aromatics. The end announces itself with some mint, and never becomes harsh.

It gives a lot of smoke and white ash with many white dots. This is clearly a lunchtime cigar. Will do great after lunch, but also an hour before dinner. Then again, this one is also great with arabica coffee (not espresso nor robusta coffee). I can imagine this one will do great with white wine (take your pick I haven’t tried which yet) and probably not with strong alcohols. Wow, as bad as it was when it was new, so good it is now. If I were JFK, I would tell my assistant to run out a second time to buy 1200 of these too. Still, it’s a shame I needed some eight odd years to find out how great these really can be.

Smoke this slowly, take your time. Don’t ruin this cigar because you want to get back to work on time.

88 points