RyJ Romeo No. 2 - APG NOV 17

[BoliDan]

I was going to post this in FoH Daily, but thought it was review worthy. These C&Cs seem to be shunned/ignored.

Full disclaimer and feel free to point and laugh, but I only bought this box of 2s because it made top 10 in CA's petit Corona category (just a tad higher than the Sig II). I figured most people ignore these in favor of the PC or Cedaro #3, and maybe it is actually having a shining moment, that's not getting attention. The wrappers in this box are all over the place, ranging from almost leopard print blotchiness double claro to perfectly sheen and oily colorado rosado.

Cold Draw: For something more refined/expensive, I'll test out the cold draw.  But for cheapies, I just grip it and rip it, like in golf.

Appearance & Construction: Gorgeous Colorado wrapper, fantastic construction. Firm but not a brick that could break a window.  Nice roll beauty of a cap.

1st-3rd: Wow, whoever rolled this gave it some extra love. this is the 4th one from the box, so far the best and kicks off at medium strength. Cedar and fresh peppery grass bursting through my nose stinging me the whole time. I love it. The way I deal with sharp retrohales like this, party short or JL no. 2 is to take a big draw, close my eyes and blow thorough the pain. I find that after repeating this 5-10 times, my nose acclimates to the stinging and I'm rewarded with a pure sharp flavors that I would describe as "refreshing", for the remainder of the cigar. Other notes are hard to discern at this point, other than leather

2nd-3rd: Do I detect some cocoa? Yes, Yes that it is cocoa, A very welcome taste in this PC. The retrohale trick worked, that sharp cedar is now joined with cinnamon as the pepper fades away. Ash is very white and holding strong until about two inches.

Final-3rd: Is that Cherry!?!? No, no cherry unfortunately . At the half way point this sucker kicked up to medium-full easy. Quite surprised as the other sticks I sample topped off at medium. This little guy is starting to get rich. The cocoa starts ramping up, leather still trying to say hello, but I keep telling it to go away. Cedar still dominant on the retrohale. These flavors are very strong, I'm sure there is more here, I just can't get to it. Not much changing from the half way point to the end, but this increase of richness is very pleasing. Burn and draw remained nearly perfect the duration.

Alas: I got a reminder on my phone that I had a meeting soon and had to cut this puppy short. That's OK, this was too strong for my weak soup lunch and pairing with water instead of a sugary something. My head is spinning.

Final thoughts: I'm pretty sure this No. 2, which has a reputation for being on the milder side, would have pleased a Cazzie fan. For me, it was a little more than I was expecting, but still fantastic. These need time to develop. The flavors are out of this world, and I think there is complexity here and may even have cherry, but I just cant find it through fog (maybe another year?). I'm glad I bought these C&Cs, and I'll probably buy some more 2018s!

Smoke Time: 55 minutes (would have easily been 1hr 10min if not for my meeting reminder)

 

87/100 (Can see this making a 89 territory if it settled the heck down)

[nKostyan]

Thanks for the review. Tried several times and there was always an obsessive bitterness. But if you pull out of the tube and stand in the humidor year, this bitterness turns into a spicy little bitterness. I think the Rosado wrapper doesn't give bitterness.

[Raskol]

Good review & thank you. Nice pictures too.