CIGAR REVIEW: RnJ Short Churchill

[HumidorJuan]

RnJ Short Churchill: BOP AGO 18 

time in humidor: 7 days

 

I'm breaking my rule of holding them in the humi for 30 days before a new one is tested out, but we JUST scored a bonkers deal on another box of these from your friendly neighbourhood 24:24, and I've never had one (five left from this batch now) so out to the barn I went. I chose the veiniest, most average one of my 6.

Part 1:  Wow, cherry bomb all the way. the second hand smoke had a tart cherry jam to it, and Immediately I wanted a nice refreshing moscow mule to go along with it. I love finding a vitola that pairs well with iced, carbonated, citrusy, boozy drinks. I may have tasted apple skin and burnt sugar in the background and by the end of the first third, the cherry diminished and a cereal grain rose up.

Part 2: I had a very bad canoe happen (the pic happened when i thought it was going to correct itself but...) The stick stayed the same flavour intensity and part 2 consisted of Amaretto, cinnamon, burnt sugar (tasted just like those cinnamon hearts candies that are around on valentines day) and like how the cereal grain crept in at the end of part 1, part 2 finished with the intro of porridge and rose. 

Part 3: By this point, under that big ash that stayed firmly in place, i lost fire and had to knock that gorgeous ash off to relight. It never really evened itself out and when i had to move the bands, the bands took the wrapper off with it, but being wrapperless, it still stayed put together. flavour wise, it didnt get acrid and sooty like a re lit stick can get but i was a bit preoccupied with the construction issues to recall properly.

 

Overall: Really impressed with how flavourfull a young stick like this was. I think i'll be keeping some of these stocked for years to come, and cant wait for some age on these. Just delicious. Hopefully the others burn more evenly!

 

[SmokyFontaine]

So glad to hear that for the most part it burned reasonable/worked itself out. I tried one through sheer lack of willpower that only lived in my wineador for about a week (65%RH) and I had some kind of evil cigar sorcery that I've never observed before. I clip, draw is on the tighter side but I decide to go forward with it anyway, toast the foot, and I hear a couple of little crackles. Convinced I'm imagining things, I start it up, and it goes OK. The wrapper starts curling outward slowly separating from the binder. Through most draws, I get that faint crackle. 

I give it a prod with the PerfecDraw, it seems to pass through a knot, and now is just slightly less tight. I'm watching the wrapper unfold from the foot back like a banana peel and it mostly goes out to the point that I knock the small ash off, and try to figure out what the hell is going on with the wrapper. I re-toast, re-light, and as is my habit, decide to give it a purge. When Buggs Bunny would give prank cigars to Elmer Fudd only to watch them blow up in his face, I used to think it was funny. Used to. This cigar let out a loud POP, and absolutely split from the foot to the bottom band. Never in my life seen anything like it. 

Like a trooper I tried to smoke it a bit more, tried cutting off half of the cigar to do anything I could to salvage it, but by that point I was so pissed off that my cigar night was ruined that I threw it in the firepit and searched out some holy water to hopefully remove this apparent sorcerer's curse. 

Cigar felt fine to the touch, smelled amazing! I've smoked countless other sticks (over 100 CC and NC) out of the same wineador, but boy was this a dud. I'm hoping it is just a humidity acclimation thing and not a crappy 10-count box, but in 3 years of smoking, that was just the overall worst experience I've had. I'm not even going to touch those things for 6 months to a year to eliminate shipping shock from the equation. Box code: TOU, FEB18, purchased from a reputable source, UPC confirmed via habanos verification. 

[HumidorJuan]

Dang, never ever heard of something like that, thats so wild, ya my pal that I split the box with had one unravel just past the halfway point. Such a shame because I really love the flavour profile. I had a wide churchill last night that stayed perfect until the nub, but was not as flavourful as the short churchill.