RoMa Craft Neanderthal, Anatomically Different

RoMa Craft Neanderthal, Anatomically Different

With only Five years under their belts, RoMa Craft has definitely made a huge impression on cigar enthusiast. Acknowledged by many as one of the best boutique brands available to us today, RoMa Craft’s combination of unique sizes, flavor blends and strength will be revered by cigar lovers for years to come. Today, I’ll be smoking the Neanderthal. Right away you see the creativity of the RoMa Craft brand. The Neanderthal is 5” x 58/52, taking on a semi figurado robusto look. The Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper is a beautiful semi-oily chocolate brown with little veins and a unique flat cap. The band is an embossed orange over a second white band. The dry draw is sweet tobacco, chocolate and some spice. The first few puffs off the foot, I get some chocolate, woods and a hearty amount of spices. 1 inch in, the spices tame themselves but by no means slow down. The profile opens up to spicy chocolate, nuts, rich cedar and cayenne pepper. The finish is spicy and creamy, which I did not expect. The retrohale is robust with spices and woods. The upper middle maintains it’s flavor while adding flashes of subtle notes, such as coffee and vanilla. What’s great about the Neanderthal is it’s ability to give us a complex flavor profile with such strength, usually it’s one or the other. The final third’s flavors continue while intensifying in strength. The spices creep forward in the profile but does not disrupt the effectiveness of the profile. The last puff is here and I’m very happy with experience. The cigar finished strong with a bite at the end (pepper bite that is). The Neanderthal starts off medium plus and builds to full body. The stick burned great with no issues and the draw was perfect. The RoMa Craft Neanderthal is truly a stroke of genius. Strength, flavor and complexity rolled into a uniquely shaped piece of art is how I would describe the cigar. If you haven’t had a Neanderthal you are missing out on greatness. Find some, keep some and enjoy the good life…

– David Harvey