Romeo y Julieta No. 1 Cigar: Age isn’t always everything

I still remember the first Romeo y Julieta cigar that I ever smoked. It was a Petit Corona way back in late 2009. It was a sublime smoke and at the time I thought that cigars couldn’t get any better than this Cuban beauty. Since then the brand, the No. 1 Tubos most notably, has had a permanent home in my humidor.

Back in 2018 you can probably imagine my delight when I was able to get my hands on a box of 15 Romeo y Julieta No. 1’s for under £4 a cigar. “Great” I thought, “I can have these little beauties on a more regular basis, and possibly even age some of them!” Who wouldn’t want to have a go at aging one of their favourite cigars given how much a well-aged cigar can cost?

Not wanting to put all of them aside to age and also keep an eye on how they were progressing, I smoked one every few months between December 2018 and July 2020. As hoped, they really did develop a sublime smoothness and got more enjoyable each time I lit one up. As I had rated the last three that I had smoked 5 out of 5, it was at this point I decided to leave the remaining six to rest a little longer. This turned out to be a decision I am coming to regret.

Fast forward to late October 2020 and I thought I’d grab one of my remaining No. 1’s for a special occasion. Even just thinking about it I remember salivating. Imagine my disappointment when upon lighting and smoking my way through the first third it didn’t taste anything like any of the other Romeo y Julieta cigars that I had enjoyed over the years.

Putting this down to a bit of bad luck and a slightly dodgy stick, I thought little of it and let the remaining few cigars sit a while longer before having the next one. After all, the rest of them had been so good.

On the last day of January 2021, I found myself in the mood for a cigar, but without the time to devote to a large vitola. Looking through my humidors, my eye fell on the remaining Romeo y Julieta No. 1’s. Whilst the disappointment of the last one was still fresh in my mind, I also remembered the enjoyment I had smoking of the rest of them. “Why not” I said to myself. “I’m sure it was just a one off and this one will be better…”

Looking at the cigar as I walked from my humidor to my smoking room, I smelt those familiar creamy aromas of caraway and admired the flawless wrapper with a single fine vein curling around the length. I was sure that this one was going to redress the balance. A quick v-cut and the cold draw elicited the same creamy flavours that I had become accustomed to in this cigar.

Alas my first draws had a very harsh edge to them. There was a general meatiness to the flavour, but not the succulent, rich meaty tastes that I have had in other cigars. Once again I wanted this to be just me lighting the No. 1 badly, but this harshness didn’t abate.

Towards the middle of the cigar an unpleasant bitterness joined the mix. This developed into rather disgusting manure notes towards the end. Even a purge and blow through didn’t help and what I had expected to be a thoroughly pleasant evening turned into a very disappointing one that left craving a good cigar, but not having the heart to taint the flavour of any of my other sticks with the bad taste that lingered in my mouth. The one saving grace for this cigar was it burned perfectly.

EDITORIAL NOTE: I’m planning to leave the last three of these cigars to sit a while longer and see what happens. I have heard that cigars can have a dip in quality when they are being aged. I also plan on getting fresh Romeo y Julieta No.1 for comparison. I will therefore return to this review at a later date and update the scoring accordingly as this review is only representative of this particular cigar, not the vitola as a whole.

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Romeo y Julieta No. 1 Cigar Details