Smoke Blog: Deseo, Romeo y Julieta

On first light, this cigar is dirty.

Not good dirty like a fine woman wearing nothing but pink panties and stiletto heels with peek-a-boo toes, but bad dirty like licking the floor in the supermarket entry foyer in the winter. After the first few puffs, I was tempted to chuck it in the fire pit with the rest of the cigar corpses.

It finally evened itself out. Even then it had a bold, earthy taste that reminded me of the smell of a forest floor in the fall: moist loam and dead leaves. That’s not a bad thing, I just wished it hadn’t been so strong in the beginning.

My only other beef is the smoke had a habit of seeking out my eyes. Almost unerringly so. I can’t remember a cigar’s smoke stinging my eyes, but every so often — maybe the wind was just right — pow! I quickly dubbed the cigar Frankie after The Goon’s little buddy. (”Knife to the eye!”)

That was a couple nights ago. Last night was so nice, the family and I decided to sit outside and relax before the forecasted nasty weather showed up the next few days. I decided to light up, and grabbed a regular Romeo y Julieta (normally I prefer their Reserva Real, but those are hard to come by down here).

Much better. Very smooth, smoked evenly, plenty of flavor. Even when it started to burn unevenly on one side, it quickly corrected itself. I also know I’m enjoying a cigar when I smoke it damn near to my fingers, which I did last night. It took nearly two hours to do so, ensuring a good bang for the buck.

Too bad I don’t have any to take to the con with me this weekend; there’s a cigar bar at the hotel, but I don’t recall if they stock Romeos and I’d probably have to pay a premium on them anyway.