Cigar Review: Book of Love by Romeo y Julietta

Brand: Romeo y Julietta
Vitola: Toro 6 x 52
Filler: Dominican
Wrapper: Ecuador Sumatra
Binder: Dominican
Smoking Time:  52 minutes
Body: Bold
Flavor: Medium to Full
Price: $13.00

What Makes it Special:
From the company, “The Romeo y Julieta Book of Love is one of the most flavorful blends we’ve ever made for the Romeo y Julieta brand,” said Pedro Ventura, director of operations, in a press release. “The most predominant tobacco in the blend is the Dominican Piloto variety from two regions of the Dominican Republic – Navarrete and La Canela – located in the heart of the Cibao Valley. This cigar from Romeo y Julieta, with its great complexity and medium-to-full body, will satisfy even the most educated of palates.”
Blended by Raphael Nodal with the venerable team at Plasencia, this cigar is a 6 x 52 toro with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, a Dominican binder, and filler, with two piloto tobaccos from the Navarette and La Canela regions bringing the body. Produced by Tabacalera de García in La Romana, Dominican Republic. with MSRP set at $13 per cigar, it is packaged in a ten-count bright red box designed to look like classic books.

Visual/Prelight Draw:
The Sumatra wrapper is oily with no blemishes or large veins. It smells of rich earth and dark chocolate, with a sweet grain like milo or sorghum at the foot. Cold draw shows notes of sweet tea as well, with a medium effort.

First Third:
This starts deceptively mild in both body and flavor, showing only the hint of sweet tea from the cold draw at first. Ash is white and clean and holds well. Around an inch in the flavors start to move towards medium strength as the sweet grains and dark chocolate come in with a rich caramel undertone. The dark chocolate and caramel take over towards the end of the first third.

Second Third:
Bam! The second third begins with a punch-up in spiciness. Nothing identifiable, but warming up the pallet like a winter baking spice would. The caramel and earthiness still underlay it perfectly though. The burn is not perfect necessarily but it is sharp enough to keep me from feeling it will need any touching up. That sweet tea and sweet grain profile is found on the retro, while the second third became almost bold in flavor it calmed back down just as quickly as it came to a solid medium. I am noticing the nicotine here, making me quite glad I opted to wait until after my second meal instead of smoking this first thing this morning now.

Final Third:
Smoke production is and has been perfect, and the draw is starting to move towards ease now. The entirety of the final third is just a perfect layering of all the above flavors, sweet teas, and grains atop a baking spice and black pepper middle, with the rich dark chocolate and caramel undertones beneath keeping it all in balance. This layer reminds me of the way a fine perfume presents itself. The retro is very obviously of black pepper now, followed by a caramel finish. The nicotine level here at the end is almost enough to make me reach for some sugary soda. This is most probably the strongest nicotine level I have had in a cigar in recent memory.

Score:
Wow. This is an amazing cigar from the blenders at Plasencia and Raphael Nodal. His influence is notable as I was at times struck by similarities to his Aging Room lines of yesteryear. Construction is as it should be for a maestro-level release. The price shows its premium nature without being too punishing for any aficionado to try it at least once. There is no other way to say it, it’s a yes from me. If you can handle high nicotine and need a proper cigar to end a great day or even a great year this one should be on the list.

Final score: 98