1875 by Romeo y Julieta Tres

At the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show in Las Vegas, Altadis USA launched two new lines. These lines were to two of Altadis’ iconic brands – Montecristo and Altadis. For Montecristo, Altadis launched Espada by Montecristo, a Nicaraguan puro that was intended to be a more premium offering. As for Romeo y Julieta, a more value-priced multinational blend called 1875 by Romeo y Julieta was launched. Another differentiator is that the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta is positioned as a cigar that is only available to brick and mortar retailers. Recently I’ve smoked the 1875 Romeo y Julieta in its “Ters’ (Toro) format. Overall I found he 1875 by Romeo y Julieta to deliver a quality smoke at an affordable price.

The 1875 represents the year that the Romeo y Julieta brand was established in Cuba and pays tribute to the Shakespearean tragedy. While there are cigars branded in the Romeo y Julieta line with 1875, this is a different cigar. (This is noted by the 1875 appearing before the “Romeo y Julieta” name as opposed to the existing lines where 1875 appears after the “Romeo y Julieta” line.

Without further ado, let’s break down the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta in the Tres vitola and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The 1875 Romeo y Julieta features an Indonesian Shade (TBN) wrapper. The TBN stands for “Tembakau Bawah Naungan” which translates to “Tobacco Under Sheet” or “Shade Grown Tobacco”

Wrapper: Indonesian Shade (TBN) Select Vintage 2010
Binder: Aged Dominican Piloto
Filler: Aged Dominican and Olor
Country of Origin: Honduras.

Vitolas Available

The 1875 Romeo y Julieta is available in five sizes plus a cigarillo-like offering.

Dos: 5 1/2 x 44
Bully: 5 x 50
Tres: 6 x 50
Churchill: 7 x 50
Gordo: 6 x 60
Petit Bully: 4 x 38

Appearance

While the Indonesian TBN wrapper of the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta Tres is shade grown, I still considered this wrapper to be dark enough to be a medium brown color. Upon closer examination, there is some darker marbling that can be seen on the surface of the wrapper. There is a coat of oil on the wrapper. The wrapper features some thin veins and thin wrapper seams. Overall, I considered the wrapper of the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta to be on the smooth side.

There are two bands on the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta.  The primary band has a red, white, and gold color scheme. At the center of the band is a red oval with a gold “1875” in the middle of it. There is a white ring with gold trim surrounding the oval. On the upper part of the ring is the text “ROMEO Y JULIETA” in red font. The lower part of the band features the text “CIGARROS” – also in red font. There are two gold pattern designs acting almost as dividers going across the lower left and lower right of the white ring.  There are also gold, white, and red adornments on to the left and right of the oval pattern. These adornments include two gold medallions on each side. The band features gold trim on the top and bottom.

The secondary band rests just below the primary band. It features a thick red stripe with the text “1875” in large gold font. There is a gold rivet pattern above and below that text. There are also two gold medallions on the left and right side. There is gold trim on the top and bottom edges.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do, I went with a straight cut to remove the cap of the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta Tres. Once the cap was clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw ritual.  The cold draw provided a mix of wood, natural tobacco, and some subtle notes of white pepper. Overall, this wasn’t the most exciting pre-light draw. Since the pre-light experience is not factored into the assessment rating or score, there  was no loss of points here. At this point, I was ready to light by the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The start to the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta Tres continued with the wood and white pepper notes I detected on the pre-light draw. As the cigar moved through the early stages, a sweet natural tobacco note emerged and became primary with the wood notes. The pepper notes receded into the background and some grass notes also surfaced. Meanwhile the retro-hale delivered a combination of wood and cedar spice.

Throughout the first half the wood and sweet natural tobacco were the primary flavors – alternating in intensity as the cigar experience progressed.  By the midway point, the pepper note got a little more complex – taking on almost an asian spice flavor. This spice and grass remained int the background.

In the last third of the 1875, the wood and sweet natural tobacco remained in the forefront. The asian pepper spice did increase, but it never quite made it to primary note status. The grass notes became less noticeable.   This is the way the flavor profile came to an end. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall I found the burn of the 1875 Romeo y Julieta to perform quite well. The burn took a straight path from start to finish. There was slight curvature to the burn line, but there wasn’t much jaggedness on the burn. The resulting ash was a charcoal gray color. The ash came off the cigar in clean chunks.

Burn of the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta

The draw was more open, but it was not a loose draw. This was an easy cigar to derive flavors from. Despite the more open draw, I didn’t find this was a cigar in danger of burning too fast or too hot. As a result, the burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Strength and Body

With an Indonesian Shade wrapper, I wasn’t expecting a powerful smoke – and the 1875 pretty much kept to my expectations. I found this cigar to be on the lower end of medium strength from start to finish. The flavors didn’t have a lot of weight on the palate, but still had enough depth to make this smoke a medium-bodied smoke. In terms of strength versus body, I found the 1875 balanced both attributes nicely with neither the strength, nor body overshadowing each other.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned at the start, I found the 1875 by Romeo y Julieta Tres to deliver a quality smoke at a fair price.  It has some good flavors and performed well construction-wise.It comes in at $6.50 – which falls into the value-priced range in my book.  The one thing is that the value priced market has gotten more competitive. &While the 1875 scored nicely, there are other cigars at this price point that are going to score higher. This is a cigar that I would gear for either a novice or an experienced cigar enthusiast.

As for myself, it’s certainly a cigar I would smoke again.  Given there are other options in this range, it’s still one I’d recommend trying and seeing which option suits your palate and delivers the best experience.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Good
Assessment: 2.5 – Try One
Score: 88

References

News: 1875 Romeo y Julieta by Altadis USA
Price: $6.50
Source: Cigars Provided by Manufacturer
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Episode 128
Stogie Feed: 1875 Romeo y Julieta Tres by Altadis USA