RyJ Churchill ESL MAY 18 (C&CRW)

[RDB]

RyJ Churchills… surely one of the most famous, recognisable big smokes out there. When they are good they can be amazing. Alas that is a rare experience.

This one is from the last third of an HQ box, and four years old. It has nice looking construction and a smooth thin wrapper, but very little of the rosado tint you really want in your Romeos.

Sure enough, it’s a decent but somewhat nondescript smoke. There’s really none of the rose petal / red fruit / Middle Eastern spice that a great Romeo brings to the table. Instead it’s under medium, somewhat herbal and a touch savoury, reasonably refined… touch of menthol maybe… but no fireworks. This is all about expectation vs performance, but on the binary scoring scale (1/0) it’s a 0.