Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Cigars

This cigar tastes like the 80's. Back then, we had a thing called the Cold War, which was a competition between Communists and Capitalists to see who could win the affections of the world's citizens, which they did by shooting them. Whoever shot the most civilians won, and was proclaimed virtuous. For some reason, much of this occurred in prime tobacco country, which was why there weren't any cigars coming out of Nicaragua or Honduras in the 80's. Add to that the Cuban embargo, and about all you had left were cigars from the Dominican Republic. In the end, the Communists went broke 20 years before the Capitalists and everybody lived happily ever after - except for Cuba, which, inexplicably, still has to sit in the corner.
The whole situation put a lot of pressure on Dominican cigar makers because we all got sick of the damn things. It wasn't the Dominican's fault, it's just that the market lacked variety. By the time Central America started exporting premium cigars, people went nuts for them.
Geopolitical anomalies aside, the Dominican Republic produces fine tobacco. Dominican cigars often have a more delicate taste than Central American cigars and require a little more attention in the smoking of them. They are good sipping cigars. They also have a dryish quality that makes them companionable with sweetish whiskeys, such as bourbon. (Partagas Puritos and Early Times were a favorite combination of mine, back in the day.)
These days, the shoe is on the other foot: I'm getting a little bored with Nicaraguan cigars and the such, not completely tired, but weary enough to be taking another look at the old D.R.
I thought a Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real cigar would be a good place to start, being that it has an "Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder and a blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers" - a good reintroductory mix. I fired up a Toro and sure enough, it was 1985 all over again, but it wasn't nostalgia that kept me smoking, it was the fact that I was smoking a cigar that tasted good. I wished I had some bourbon to go with it, but I don't drink much these days. (Kids, get your sinning in early, by the time you're middle aged it will be either too boring, too painful, or too pathetic to enjoy.) However, it tasted fine with coffee (cream and sugar), and smoked like a champ. Everybody should have some Dominican tobacco in the humidor and this is a good cigar to start with.

Photos: Augusto César Sandino (Wikipedia), Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Cigar (Altadis).