RyJ Churchill ESL MAY 18 (C&DMar24)

[RDB]

In a word, disappointing. This box looks great. Lovely wrappers, nice construction. Very handsome. But this one was just very nondescript, with none of the lovely red fruit, rose petal or Middle Eastern spice that can make RyJ occasionally so brilliant. Instead this provided dull, generic tobacco flavours until after about 45 minutes I was so bored I gave up and pitched it. Medium body, building with a bit more spice in the second half (which I only just got to).

Now in its defence, I was smoking outside on a cool and windy day: poor conditions. It would probably have been better  in a warm, calm environment. But I still think it would have been a disappointment. It’s like the factory had some large, pretty leaves and didn’t know what to make with them.

The drink is chamomile tea. Rock and roll huh? I think it’s a great pairing with smoke, as its gentle herbal sweetness complements and doesn’t overwhelm a cigar.

Score for the cigar: 0 on the binary scale.