Romeo y Julieta Churchill Habana (short review)

"It did not belong to the world in which language is born. The world was its by-product and nothing could exist without it." - Introduction to the Tao Te Ching

    What is it? What do we call that which precedes language? Some would say that the mere existence of something before language does not restrict language from naming it, from defining it. Others tell us that since language is of "it" it can never truly describe "it". Robert Pirsig tells us it's "Quality", Lao Tzu tells us it's the Tao, some call it god and others call it nature. But what does it have to do with a cigar? 

    I've always avoided giving a concrete point value to the cigars I record because whether or not language is capable of truly defining the essence of a smoke, I am not, not for myself and especially not for anyone else. So, for me at least, the experience of smoking a cigar is captivated within this unknown "it". Having said that here's what I can say about the Romeo Y Julieta Churchill Habana.

    The pre light was a nice pine spice with a tad of cinnamon I was a little worried because these foresty green notes can be a warning of some more funky notes after the light. The cigar lit up nice and even, and while the draw was a bit too airy for me there were no big problems. The room note was a nice aged cedar, something with a history of it's own, like it'd seen things. The first draw revealed a tad of the cedar as well as some subtle sea salt, but it was difficult to pull out any specific notes. There was a little bit of spice, some dry bark and maybe a bit of saw dust. I'm a little worried I dry boxed this cigar for a day too long.  The burn started a clear trend towards one direction about half way through the first third and required a full touch up a couple times, but this may have been because my cut was a little tilted. The foot / room note continued to be quite nice now coming off as a warm cozy bit of toast on a winter afternoon. 

    Durring the second third, specifically the beginning of the end I started getting the heavy funk note that I was worried about as well as a strong and bitter finish, these are symptoms of an overly wet cigar, which is interesting because I had placed this in a separate box for a couple of days. Showing another mysterious sign of being too damp this cigar went out around the start of the final third, and after the funk and bitter finish I let it go. 

    This wasn't the best cigar I'd ever had, but I don't regret smoking it either, and I look forward to trying one again, maybe with different results. I may be channeling a bit of Lao Tzu here, but it's hard to be angry at a cigar that doesn't quite meet your expectations, because in a relative world it just makes the good smokes that much better.  

Stats:

Couldn't find the stats for this particular cigar.