Romeo y Julieta Club Kings

“Of note, these cigars are typically much more expensive and comically priced given their size.”

That is what I wrote talking about the Romeo y Julieta Club Kings in mid-2020. I found the Club Kings, a then-new addition to the Cuban Romeo y Julieta portfolio, to be way overpriced, given that it was a 5 1/12 x 42 corona priced around $13.

Given the price increases—plural—from Habanos S.A. in the last 365 days, $13 for any Cuban cigar this side of Quintero might currently be a deal.

Breaking the fourth wall a bit here, I had completely forgotten about the fact that the Club Kings seemed “comically priced” when they were introduced. That’s because of how bad the cigars were.

There aren’t many sub-70 scores given out at halfwheel these days, this was one of them. The cigars were all bad: tight draws, poor combustion, bad flavor:

The Romeo y Julieta Club Kings might be a good cigar, but these examples were not. At best, the draw was very tight, but even that seems generous. If this wasn’t a cigar that I was having to smoke for review, I wouldn’t have kept smoking any of the samples based on the draw. The flavor was better that the construction, but still not good and certainly not enough to make up for the construction. I think Cuba’s construction woes are oftentimes overinflated but cigars like this don’t help to try to change the narrative. Perhaps at some point the cigars will be rolled properly, perhaps not. For now, at least the packaging is great.

The redeeming part of the Club Kings is the packaging. The Club Kings and the Partagás Capitols are part of the Habanos Línea Retro series. Both cigars are 5 1/12 (129mm) x 42 coronas that are sold in retro-styled tins, designed to fit in a pocket.

• Cigar Reviewed: Romeo y Julieta Club Kings
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: Undisclosed
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Length: 5 1/12 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 42
• Vitola: Petit Corona
• MSRP: $12.84 (Box of 5, $64.20)
• Release Date: Feb. 26, 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

While the Romeo y Julieta Club Kings might have left a bad taste in my mouth, it is a pretty cigar to look at. It’s more cylindrical than the average cigar and the wrapper color is a classic Cuban cigar hue with oily reds breaking through the milk chocolate brown. There are few veins on the front-facing side, but there’s a much more pronounced major vein that runs down one side of the cigar. A reminder: the people who put on the bands of your cigars try to have the prettiest area serve as the front of the cigar. Aroma-wise, it’s a mild-medium aroma of cedar wood and tobacco. The foot has a sweet floral aroma that smells like a jar of gumballs. The cold draw tastes great with sweet floral flavors and some dry, mirin-soaked sushi rice around medium-full.

While the cold draw gave me hope that this cigar had turned a corner, I am not surprised to find the Romeo y Julieta Club Kings delivers an extremely dry profile once lit. There are lots of mineral flavors, an ashy toastiness, some starchy potato flavors and earthiness. The flavor is full and smoke production is massive. By puff number three, the profile has gotten too dry for my liking and it seems like it’s only going to get worse. What’s not worse is the construction, as it’s excellent. For the first half inch, there’s an enjoyable nuttiness that is overwhelmed by most of the dry flavors but, eventually, that disappears. The core is the peculiar dry toasty flavor that sits over earthiness, sweetness, meatiness and a touch of creaminess. At times, there’s some black pepper, but it’s not a big part of the profile. The finish has a taste that reminds me of the smell of some new carpet; it’s foreign and dry. Of course, the dry toastiness is still a large part of the profile. Retrohales aren’t all that different, though nuttiness and the carpet-like flavor emerge when I retrohale. I’m not doing it all that often because there are not any added redeeming flavors, but pushing the smoke out through my nose does add some harshness. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is mild. The issue is that there are three flavors that I would grade as a C- or D+, and the other flavors are all more or less C+s. It’s not rancid, but it’s unclear what the payoff is for putting up with the flavors that are mediocre.

While I wouldn’t have been content with the flavor profile not changing after the first third, that would have been better than what I tasted in the second half of the cigar. It’s more intense—which isn’t a good thing—and also harsher. Harsh earthiness joins the toastiness along with more mineral flavors, then white pepper, leather, oak and creaminess round out the secondary notes. The finish has a very sharp black pepper before the toastiness, leather and creaminess come into round things out. Retrohales show flashes of enjoyable flavors—oatmeal and nuttiness will sometimes emerge—but pushing the smoke out through my nose comes with an uptick in bitterness. Flavor peaks at full in the second third and body reaches medium-full, both of those go down a notch for the final third. In terms of the types of flavors, there are more burnt flavors in the final third, though the harshness lets up a bit. Unfortunately, the finish is even harsher and more bitter than before, which is decidedly not a good thing. For all my complaints about the flavor of the Club Kings, the construction is anything but; it’s excellent from start to finish. My only curiosity is that it takes me almost two hours to smoke the cigar.