Romeo y Julieta Viejo "E"

Overall Score

1 review for Romeo y Julieta Viejo “E”

  1. Zack

    Romeo y Julieta Viejo

    Origin : Dominican RepublicRomeo y Julieta
    Format : Box-pressed toro
    Size : 6 x 54
    Wrapper : San Andres Mexico
    Binder : ?
    Filler : Honduras, Nicaragua
    Hand-Made
    Price : ~$7.5 each

    Until recently, I was never a huge fan of cigars made by the Dominican Romeo y Julieta. Then I was introduced to the Reserve Real. Ever since I smoked a couple of those, I have made those a cigar that I smoke regularly on the weekends. Then I was introduced to the Viejo. I was told that if I liked the Reserve Reals, I would like these as well. So I had fairly high hopes for this cigar.

    Appearance : [rating:4.5/5]
    This cigar looks almost perfect. The box press is tight and even with slightly rounded edges. There are no thick veins running throughout the entire wrapper. There are also three caps on this cigar, all of which are laying perfectly flush. The wrapper is chocolate brown with a couple of darker spots on the underside. The wrapper has a nice oily shine to it. This cigar also gives off a nice sweet smell.

    Construction : [rating:4/5]
    Before I lit this stick up, the construction appeared flawless. The stick was very solid throughout, cut clean, and had no soft spots. Once I lit the cigar up, some minor flaws showed themselves. The draw was very tight, which caused the thick smoke to come out very slowly. The cigar also burned a lot faster on the underside because of an uneven pack around the start of the second third. This cigar burned pretty slow throughout the entire length.

    Flavor : [rating:3.5/5]
    When I first lit up the Romeo y Julieta Viejo, I was expecting a lot out of it. I was greeted with a very creamy start with a nice light spice as an accent. Along with the spice, there was a little bit of sweetness on the draw. By about an inch of the way in, there were some nice earthy tones and some nice woody notes. The sweetness stayed on the palate while the spice stayed on the tongue.

    By about the start of the second third, there were some nice leather notes coming out. The leather combined with the wood and that caused a little bit of the sweetness to dull. Once the sweetness dulled down, the spice picked back up and some more earthy tones came out. From about the halfway point on to the end, the flavor stayed very consistent, which was a disappointment to me.

    Romeo y Julieta Viejo

    Value : [rating:3/5]
    Honestly, for this price, I feel like I can get some much better sticks. If this cigar had a $5 price tag, I wouldn’t have minded as much. But I feel that for its price, there should have been some more complexity.

    Overall Rating : [rating:3.75/5] (3.75)
    Would I smoke this cigar again? Yes I would, but I would have to get it for much cheaper. Would I buy an entire box of these? No, not at all. I don’t feel that these are box worthy, but that is my opinion. I feel as though it didn’t put out a ton of flavor like some of the other Romeo y Julietas put out. I like to find some profile changes, but this one didn’t really have any. Other than the flavor, the rest of this cigar was pretty good.

    [sz]romeo julieta viejo[/sz]

    Helpful?
    0 0
    • Josh

      There is no such thing as the perfect man, there is, however, the perfect cigar and I smoke it. It carries the name Romeo y Julieta, the viejo.

    • Anthony

      Found these for peanuts online so thought I’d give R&J Viejo a try. A typical (in my experience) Altadis offering: a mild-medium smoke with straight-forward flavors. The Mexican wrapper seemed to add some cocoa. Draw and burn were good. No complaints. I prefer this blend to the R&J 1875, which I sampled right before firing up the Viejo. I’d smoke more of these but am in no real hurry to do so.

    • KurtWag

      Nice review. I enjoy the Habano Reserve by RyJ along with many of their other smokes. The Viejo is a nice changeup on occasion. I keep a few in my humidor most of the time, usually picking up 5 or 10 when I catch them at a good price. As with most box pressed cigars I find that letting them sit in my humidor a few months gives a better burn and smoother draw.

    • ROTHNH

      Toasty, I use a Xikar STK and that provides a more exposed area to really help with a smooth draw and more even burn. What helps the *most* with the draw is making sure the cigar is stored (or dry boxed a day or so ahead) before smoking to an RH no higher than 64%.

    • Toasty

      The draw is difficult when cut them but you have to punch these to really enjoy them. I know some people are against that, but it completely changed the stick for the better. Try it that way

    • ROTHNH

      It takes a while to learn how to coax a proper draw on these so you don’t feel like you’re trying to suck a golf ball through a garden hose trying to smoke one (which is a major complaint from most reviewers). I used to smoke the robusto size of these R&J Viejo cigars, purchased by the box from CI until the HUGE SPIKE in prices for the Viejos a couple years ago and dropped these from my regular rotation except for a rare score on CBid. I agree with Zack here — this was a great $4-$5 cigar that loses much of its appeal north of that “old” price point.

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Cigar Region Dominican Republic
Filler Dominican, Honduras, Nicaragua
Wrapper San Andres Mexico
Binder Criollo ’98
Length 6
Ring Gauge 54
Vitola Toro
Construction Hand Made