Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill (a Foot-in-Mouth™ Review)

[trumpetchris]

nice review. I love these.

[kirill]

Great review, great pics! Respect for your detailed flavour description, I really recognized my experience with great RyJ SCs in your review. What I like about this vitola are its sudden changes, it can hit you with cherry around the second third only to show its leathery side the next puff and go back to currant bread after that. Just that hemp flavour that I too surely remember from the old days, never found it in a Habanos cigar....

[MaltPointer]

This robusto came from the Robusto Sampler I purchased from the Czar, and I've had it for a month or so. As a newbie, I figured the sampler would be the right way to figure out what I like and don't like, so my plan is to work through these over the next few weeks, and then let the humidor-building strategy begin in earnest.

Headline on this cigar is that I LOVED it . . . though I did learn a lesson about pacing myself. Details to follow.

The RyJ short Churchill is a great looking cigar . . . slightly darkish wrapper, some slight vein here and there. Feels good in the hand--I like this ring gauge, and I even like the dual band approach RyJ uses on this stick. Makes it seem like you're about so fire up something worthwhile.

Aroma at cold was dried fruit (I initially thought prune, but later changed that to dried cherries). I punched the end using my new favorite toy, the Swiss Army cigar punch.

Pre-light draw was very slightly loose, and tasted of either raisin bran or trail mix. Toasted the foot, fired it up . . .

First third

• I’m having a bit of a hard time getting the burn going evenly, and am getting a lot of smoke from the wrapper as various bits of it try to catch up.

• Medium-bodied, nice mouth feel. I feel like I’m smoking something meaningful and interesting.

• Getting tons and tons of interesting flavor notes:

o Raisin bran

o Coffee

o Melba toast

o One stunning burst of what can only be described as chocolate milk. (Yummy, but I will wait in vain for that note to return.)

• And, though I hesitate to even mention this . . . there is a strong undercurrent of, well, “hemp.” I keep looking around for the black light posters of my youth, and feel an overwhelming urge to go put some Grateful Dead on the stereo. About this I will say no more.

Second Third

• That raisin bran sweetness turns over fully into a dried cherry taste.

• Leather. Big time . . . all of sudden I feel like I’m eating some really good trail mix while sitting in a new car. And, um, playing some Grateful Dead

• Starting to like this cigar a lot (so much so that I realize, when I head into the house to take the picture above due to the failing light , that I’m smoking it WAY too fast. As Jack Aubrey would say, “Light-headed ain’t in it.”

• Part of what's making me rush a bit is the fact that it’s getting dark and cold outside.

• The smoke becomes even thicker as I proceed. Either that or I’m hallucinating.

• I’m also noticing a slight cumulative “tingle” in the mouth as this smoke takes hold.

Final third

My camera battery started failing on me here, so I don't have the final glory shot, but the overall flavors held together well down the home stretch.

My windup on the RyJ Short Churchill is that I loved this cigar. It had a lot of complexity, and good honest flavor to it. The body was medium, and just about perfect for me for a daily cigar.

I'd give this smoke a 92/100