Several years ago, I believe it was back around Christmas of 2006, I saw a sale on the JR Cigars website that I couldn’t pass up. The deal featured a gift box that included a ceramic Romeo y Julieta ashtray with a handful of cigars to go along with it. I believe there were a couple Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro, Reserva Real, 1875, and Aniversario.
At the time I was fond of the RyJ Maduro as well as a sucker for ceramic ashtrays. For a price right around $35.00, I just couldn’t pass it up and placed my order. The ashtray saw a fair amount of use before being set aside for a Stinky Cigar Ashtray. As for the cigars, I smoked most of them but eventually grew away from the line. The remaining cigars found themselves tucked away in a dark corner of my coolidor.
Wanting to smoke something a little different on a Saturday morning, I decided to go digging and see what I had lying around in a cooler that doesn’t get opened much. One of the first cigars I came across was the Romeo y Julieta Aniversario. When I saw it, it brought back fond memories of my early days of cigar smoking.
Being caught up in those fond memories, I decided to light it on up and pair it with a cup of coffee. The result was much different than I would have expected. Take a few minutes to check out the video below and see how this cigar from 2006 performed as a first cigar of the day.
Yeah the Aniversario is a consistent line R&J comes out with. I’ve had a lot of good luck with this stick as far as Romeo’s go. My guess is that maybe all the age made it a bit funky. Still want to get my hands on the Reserva Real Maduro’s that just came out recently. Thanks for the review Walt!
Nice review Walt and bummer the cigar was a LOSER. Happens 🙂 Pretty wierd for RyJ. Sounds like they tried an experiement and it was a failure.
Cigar ADD … nice.
Still liked this and your Ashton review. Nice way to enjoy things while finishing up my Punch Double Corona, and looking forward to a much milder but equally as good Nording.
Thanks for the review!
Cheers
I’m with Matt, this cigar has been consistently good when i’ve smoked it. Nothing to write home about as far as I can see, but I’ve got some stogie friends that would disagree! lol, as always, nice review Walt. Keep em’ comin’!
Mature wrapper cigar do not age well. I happened to me the same thing with the Black Partagas. They smoked very good at first but after a few months they tasted blunt and harsh.
Ok, I know I’m posting a very late comment, but I just picked up one of these in a “grab bag” of sticks that a local shop was clearing out. The celophane was yellowed, and the stick had some serious age on it.
It was spectacular. Not Tatuaje Cojonu or Viaje Oro Reserva spectacular, but clearly, hands down the best darn thing I’ve ever had that was from Altadis. Delicious Hazlenut flavors, a little coffee, and some sweetness likely from the Sumatra wrapper. I went back and picked up some additional value packs of these ($8 for a robusto, toro and torpedo). I’ve had the Toro and the Torpedo so far and the Toro was just a tad tastier.
Really, really impressed. I normally don’t like any of the RyJ stuff.
I wouldn’t be that harsh on RyJ. Maybe it was that particular cigar that was bad and you should get a few more and from another place.
These are my favorite dog walk time sticks. No touch ups and they are tasty without being a spice bomb or so complex that would make one want to sit and concentrate on flavors so much. Just a nice cigar while out on a walk. The box price is out of my price range so the occasional 5 pack makes for a nice break from the other dog walk sticks.