Illusione 888 Candela Churchill, 2020 (VVRW#3)

[Mrcpt]

This is my first time ever smoking a candela cigar. This was purchased as part of a candela sampler from an american retailer, one of those big online cigar merchants that (in my opinion) have questionable storage and shipping quality ,so take that as you will. Anyway.. This bad boy is green, not as green as I was expecting, but green enough to make you wonder whether you’re about to smoke a cigar or something wrapped in a palm leaf.  The wrapper has a generic light sweet hay, but the foot has that familiar spicy molasses and earth from criollo and corojo (heavy emphasis on the spice and earth; this is a Nicaraguan puro afterall). 

At light I get a spicy peppery tingle, and a sharp grass on the finish. As I move into the first third, the draw is a peppery earth, with a hint of almond and molasses. The short finish is somewhere between grassy and lightly floral. I’d put this at a medium to full body, probably a medium when judged against other non Cubans. About halfway through I notice a marked pickup in strength, there’s also a slight shift in flavor: the draw now has a generic nuttines and the finish has a light mint with something like lemongrass or even sandalwood,which continues until the end of this churchill. As an aside, I think this would pair nicely with a glass of Royal Lochnagar; it’s a clean and crisp highland single malt that has similar lemongrass notes.. Too bad I’ve been off the drink since January (just giving the old liver a break during year two of lockdown) as black tea is much less exciting of a pairing. Either way, I think the strength pickup is too much to really enjoy the subtleties of a nice scotch. In fact, the strength pickup was enough to make me dread having half a churchill left to smoke.. and that’s saying something. 

I like to use a one to five scale to rate cigars: 1 - would not smoke again; 2 - would smoke again; 3 - would buy singles; 4 - would buy a box; 5 - go deep on boxes.  I would rate this cigar a 1: This is obviously a novelty cigar. I have a few other candelas from the sampler that I mentioned, one of which is a fuente, which I think is the most likely to give me a better appreciation to what the wrapper can offer. Unfortunately this Illusione, as with most of the other novelty candelas (and non Cubans for that matter) is a unique wrapper paired poorly with strong binder and fillers that really overpower the rest of the cigar. I did pickup some grassy and minty notes, but they were really overpowered by the corojo and criollo; there was just too much clash or contrast and it really messed with the balance.