Romeo Y Julieta – Milli Fleur Petit Corona

My latest purchase, a box of the Romeo Y Julieta Milli Fleur petit coronas, arrived the other day. After a patient couple of days leaving them to rest in my humidor, they’re finally ready for a sampling.

Now the manufacturer does recommend ageing for around three years, which I will do with a couple, but I’m still interested to see how they fare today.

There’s a smooth, musty smell that comes front the tobacco leaf and an unblemished wrap. In fact, all the cigars in the box were flawless in appearance, testament to Romeo Y Julieta’s stringent quality checks.

Normally I use a quality butane lighter for my cigars, but as with all Romeo Y Julietas, the box included a wooden taper for lighting. This is for the puritans who feel chemical lighters taint the flavour of the cigar. While my palate isn’t refined enough to notice a difference (and quality butane lighters are meant to eliminate this anyway) I do enjoy the crackling of the burning wood taper, and the process of lighting your cigar from an open flame. It becomes a bit of a ritual, more old fashioned than snip, click, burn.

The cigar itself may look tightly rolled, but it has a good, even draw. When if comes to flavour, on first inspection you could be forgiven for thinking there’s not much going on here. However, this is a delicate cigar with a lot of subtle flavours.

The name Milli Fleur should give you some indication of what you can expect; “thousand flowers”. When you sit back and enjoy the smoothness you start to notice first an earthy, woody flavour (think teak or cedar), developing into some interesting floral notes.

At times you can almost notice a trace of jasmine, hidden behind scents like dried lavender, and sweet potpourris. I definitely couldn’t discern a thousand flowers, but I do think some time in the humidor could see more floral characteristics come to the foreground.

This stoagie is listed as medium bodied, but to smoke it now I’d be more inclined to call it a light cigar – and that’s okay. This is a great piece for introducing friends to cigars or pairing with more subtle flavours like craft beers and Irish whiskies (I did smoke this on St Patrick’s Day).

It’s also a little quicker to smoke, not requiring an hour or more when you might just want to get a cigar in with a quick drink. You’ll still smell of cigar smoke afterwards, but even the scent left behind has floral traces that aren’t as offensive to the haters out there.

I will leave a few in the humidor to try again in a few years, but for now this is a very amiable, affordable cigar.

Post Script: if you are distracted and typing tasting notes, this cigar will go out repeatedly. Fine while smoking but demands your attention if she feels ignored.