Gauge: 50 Length: 4.8"
RyJ Short Churchill
Having read this forum all week I was hankering for a cigar, I had no outstanding NC's I wanted to try so I thought i'd try and get through my dwindling CC collection. CC's for me are like playing russian roulette, sometimes they can be good, mostly OK, and sometimes horrific in their smoking experience. This 50/50 chance of a good experience has put me off of cubans, I don't want to splash out no more when I can get some GREAT NC's for a fraction of the price. Anyway on with the review!
This vitola looked great, immaculate wrapper, nice girthy appearance and the cap cut off nice, no unravelling for me which is always a treat. All I could hope for was that it would draw well, which is one of my major peeves with CC's. I took my usual careful approach while lighting it, an inch above the flame with slow rotations. A minute or so later we are lit and ready to go. The first draw!
Tight with pathetic smoke, typical CC. After being treated to well drawing consistent NC's, I could straight away notice tightness while drawing, it took me by surprise really. Haven't had a hard drawer since that shitty Partagas D4. I had to triple draw to get any response from this vitola, and the smoke response was very little, always sad in my eyes, dissappointing. Very bare bones at this point, however, the ash buildup looked very smooth, strong and visually pleasing with a nice white colour. When I was working hard to get a smoke response the flavors I were getting were 'juicy' and sweet. No way was this a foul smoke, I wouldn't expect it. It was hard drawing but I could see the potential in this smoke. This continued til the first tier of ash broke off.
After the inch ash had fallen, I got some very pleasant 'beery' sweet tones which I was greatful for as the smoke had been pretty dull so far, the drawing was still hard going and unfufilling for a Saturday smoke. Still triple toking to get any sort of response.
The draw was improving near the half way point, The bodies of smoke which I managed to extract gave a very complex bread/wheaty style taste, very impressive. If only I could get big plumes of this every draw!
The B Flavor: Roast Pork. I was working my way towards the end and due to my constant double/triple drawing, It was getting hot at times, mix this in with complex cuban tobacco and I was getting Porky flavors! It was like I just had a roast dinner or something, quite funny. Ahhhhhhhhh Bist......Chuuuurchiiiiilll.
While this was a hard drawing stick, it was ok. I'm not going to condemn this as a bad smoke because it wasn't, only the poor draw let this stick down. I didn't mention many flavors during this as I couldn't get big plumes of smoke to examine the taste, but I will say one thing. The aromas I got from this cigar felt very 'feminine' and 'delicate'. I could imagine a well drawing one of these to be pretty sublime. I Hope I will experience a looser one in the future as I can definately see the potential in this vitola.
7.25 - Only from my experience, can see great potential, but the poor draw was the downfall here.
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