Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story

During the TPE 2024 trade show, Altadis U.S.A. showed off the latest addition to its Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua line named Midnight Twist. While the new variant is a Nicaraguan puro and uses the same internal blend as the regular Reserva Real Nicaragua line, each Midnight Twist is covered with two different wrappers that are applied in a way so that they produce contrasting stripes designed to be like a barber’s pole.

There are two different regular production sizes of Midnight Twist:

• Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story (4 1/4 x 46) — $9.92 (Box of 25, $248)
• Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Toro (6 x 54) — $10.92 (Box of 25, $273)

As is the case with the Reserva Real Nicaragua, the Midnight Twist cigars are produced at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A., and boxes started shipping to retailers in March.

• Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Twisted Love Story (4 1/4 x 46) — $8 (Box of 25, $200)
• Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story (4 1/4 x 46) — $9.92 (Box of 25, $248)

If all of this sounds familiar, two years ago, the company introduced the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Twisted Love Story, which was a barberpole extension to the regular Reserva Real, though offered in the same two vitolas.

• Cigar Reviewed: Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 4 1/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $9.92 (Box of 25, $248)
• Release Date: March 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Small and diminutive in my hand, the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story is covered in two different wrappers—very dark brown and a slightly lighter, muddy brown—arranged in a distinctive barber pole pattern. The darker wrapper has a bit more tooth to it than the lighter wrapper, but a small amount of oil is present on both leaves, and all three cigars are nicely firm when squeezed. Aromas from those wrappers are led by a faint but sweet cloves note, followed by barnyard, slightly sour earth, creamy woodiness and generic breadiness. Scents from the feet are extremely similar to what I noted on the wrappers due to the small opening, but I do notice a new citrus peel note on two of the three cigars. After straight cuts, the cold draws feature strong flavors of sweet cedar, peanut shells, wheat bread, cocoa nibs, pencil lead and creamy hay.

Two of the three cigars start off a bit harsh, punctuated with similar flavors of bitter espresso, a slight metallic note on the finish and a significant amount of spice on my tongue. However, main flavors of creamy cedar and powdery cocoa nibs quickly take over the profile of all three cigars, followed by cloves, leather tack, earth, plain white rice and a light meatiness. There is a touch of floral sweetness present on retrohale along with some light black pepper, although the sweetness is more pronounced on the second cigar, while the first cigar has noticeably more pepper, at least at this point. Flavor ends the first third at medium-full, the body is halfway between mild and medium, and the strength hits a point just under medium. The burn lines are not exactly razor sharp, though they are far from needing any sort of help and there are no issues whatsoever with the draws or the smoke production for all three cigars.

While the metallic note on the finish is long gone by the start of the second third, a toasted sourdough bread note joins the creamy cedar, replacing the cocoa nibs note at the top of the profile. Secondary flavors of roasted peanuts, sawdust, dark chocolate, coffee beans, chalk and gritty earth show up at various points, and while there is about the same amount of black pepper on the retrohale compared to the first third, the sweetness has morphed into a rich fudge-like chocolate note. Flavor is now at full, while the body increases to just under medium and the strength lands at a solid medium. My second and third cigars run into minor burn issues that need correcting—one needs one correction, the other needs two—but the draws continue to be excellent and there is plenty of smoke coming from the feet.

The main flavors shift again during the final third, with a combination of saltine crackers and creamy cedar taking over the profile. Additional flavors of toasted bread, roasted peanuts, cinnamon, earth, leather tack and powdery cocoa nibs flit in and out, while there is slightly more of both the black pepper and the fudge sweetness on the retrohale. The flavor remains at full, but the body increases enough to hit a solid medium, and the strength bumps up to medium-plus. In terms of construction, all three aspects—burn, draws and smoke production—have no issues at all until I am done with each cigar.

Final Notes

• In 2006, Arturo Fuente released an OpusX in a 4 1/2 x 55 perfecto size named “Love Story”—sans barber pole wrapping—to celebrate the 55th wedding anniversary of Carlos Sr. and Anna Fuente. However, because Altadis U.S.A. was using the “Love Story” name for the Romeo y Julieta Reserve, Fuente changed the name of its cigar to “Love Affair.”
• Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story is easily one of the longest cigar names I have seen this year.
• Somewhat interestingly, the Cuban Romeo y Julieta brand has never released any vitola even close to the Love Story for commercial sale.
• Other than a slight increase in creaminess when the flame hit the lighter leaves, there was no noticeable change in the flavor profile between the different wrappers.

• My first cigar had a small but extremely noticeable patch right under the cap, as you can see in the photograph above.
• The band does not seem have been made for this viola, and as a result, there is a noticeable gap on the top between the car and the band.

• Speaking of the band, when I pulled the bands off of my first cigar, a small amount of wrapper came with them. With that said, the damage to the wrapper was not bad enough to cause any burn issues that I could discern.
• JR Cigar, a sister company to Altadis U.S.A., advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel.

• These cigars are officially listed as 4 1/4 x 46 vitolas, and all three were quite close to that length.
• This is a small cigar, but it does not smoke like a small cigar when it comes to actual smoking time. In fact, the smoking time for all three of my cigars averaged out to a surprisingly long one hour and 10 minutes.
• If you would like to purchase any of the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua Midnight Twist Love Story cigars, site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigars Direct, Famous Smoke Shop, JR Cigars and LM Cigars have them for sale on their respective websites.