Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill – Modern Robusto Cuban Cigar

Description

I can still hear the door creaking as I pushed it open. My old man’s study always smelled like this, a blend of aged paperback bindings and musty mahogany and the vampiric miasma of a thousand incinerated matches. Typically, I’d walk in there with some hesitance, as if I were stepping into a sanctuary I hadn’t exactly earned the privilege to be standing in. But not that day. That day, I was buzzing. I’d just hung up the phone after closing the biggest deal of my career, a contract that had taken six months of grinding and sleepless nights to close. My heart was beating against my ribs like a bird caught inside, and I felt full of energy that I had no idea how to spend.

I was not interested in going to a bar. I simply didn’t want to scream over bad music. I wanted to be sitting in that big, overstuffed leather chair, watching the dust motes prance in the afternoon sun and just … be in the win. I approached his desktop humidor, a well-worn cedar box that had seen far better decades, and lifted the lid. I wasn’t in the market for a marathon smoke. I had a celebratory dinner in two hours and no way could I smoke a standard Churchill. My eyes fell on that red and gold band. It was stout, oily, and reminded me of nothing other than the reward I sought.

That smoke? The Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill. It’s been a mainstay in my rotation ever since that afternoon, and it really is truly one of those sticks that seems at home when you run at the modern life pace (which I guess mine does, at least more often than not) without forfeiting the soul of one of those “classic” Cubans.

The Specs

Construction: What It Feels Like in the Hand

You ever get a cigar in your hands and just know it was rolled by someone who gives a shit? That’s the vibe here. The Short Churchill is a “Short Robusto” in essence, but officially it’s actually a Robusto. It’s got a bit of heft to it. The wrapper on the one I smoked out was a — and on all those I have smoked since has been a — lovely Colorado shade. It’s got that oily sheen that the light catches, and if you run your thumb up from the back to the tip of a strip, it feels almost “toothy,” those little bumps on the leaf that often signify a lot of flavor in its pixels.

The pre-light was where I really began to mellow out from the high of the deal. I had a deep drag before I even considered the lighter. I picked up that classic Cuban “barnyards” funk — which to a lot if non-smokers might sound strange, but to us it’s the smell of home. There’s a punch of dry hay, some sweetness resembling honey, and an undercurrent of woodiness. The draw was effortless. Some times, with the ‘tight straw’ syndrome that plagues Cuban leaf cigars, you can get burned by a disappointing Short Churchill, but more often than not they come good. It was firm, there were no soft mushy spots in it, just a good condition tube of havana leaf with the that nice Vuelta Abajo scent.

I went with a straight cut, toasted the foot slowly, and detected the first wisps of blue smoke rising toward the ceiling of my study. The energy I was sensing began to direct itself into the ritual.” Now it was time to find out if the smoke matched the experience.

Flavor Profile: A Three-Act Play

The First Third: The Greeting

It's the first few puffs that really tell the story. This thing, right out of the gate, is creamy. I mean that thick, velvety smoke you can feel in your mouth. The first flavors were a combo of toasted bread and a faint coffee taste — latte, not straight espresso. There’s even some sweetness in there as well, closer to burnt caramel or a dab of honey on a biscuit. I found when I took them off that there was a faint saltiness on my lips, which seems to be pretty typical of these and actually helps counteract some of the honey-sweetness.

As I sat in the chair, the “doing” part of my brain began to shift down. The cigar wasn’t beating me over the head with spice. It was a bit of a nudge. I did pick up a bit of cedar and very, very light pepper influence on the retrohale but nothing that made we want to sneeze. It felt refined. It was like it knew it was a Romeo y Julieta and didn’t have to make much effort to impress me.

The Second Third: The Core

After 20 minutes or so, things took a more serious turn. The initial saltiness flattened out, and the flavors were darkened. The coffee turned into espresso, stronger and more robust, and the tobacco rose to its own song. This, it turns out, is where the “medium strength” actually resides. It’s not a power horse, it’s not going to blow your head off somewhere in the stars,” he said of his weed, “but you know you’re smoking something.

I began to detect some mineral notes and an earthiness that brought me back to the smell of a wet morning after a light rain. The leather notes — which I tend to associate with my dad’s study anyway — started to come forward here. It’s a complex transition. First you’re tasting chocolate, and hay, and then you taste earth and old leather. The construction was amazing, the ash a nice light gray that held solid over an inch and half before I finally went ahead and tapped it off. Generous smoke production continued, which I happen to enjoy. If I’m smoking, I’d like to watch the clouds.

The Last Third: The Finale

When I reached the last inch or two, I was pretty much in nirvana. The deal I’d just closed seemed like it had been a dedicated eternity, not mere hours. The flavor profile moved once more, toward a woodiness with bitter chocolate. It wasn’t “bitter” in a bad way — more like a 90% cacao bar. The fruitiness began to show through again, like a note of dark cherry or plum beneath the wood.

The heat was bearable, even in the waning minutes. I have had some robustos that devolve into a hot, mushy mess for the final third, but this one stayed firm. The finish was quite long and rich still left a lingering aftertaste of expresso and cedar on my taste buds. Smoked it down to my fingers getting warm, hating to let it go. It’s a 45-to-60-minute TRIP that feels much longer than its bigness.

The Back Story: Why This Cigar Matters

You have to realize, there’s a reason why Romeo y Julieta is one of the “Big Three.” Until now, though, if you were drawn to that classic profile and seeking it in a larger size, your choice was the gargantuan Churchill — the 7-inch behemoth named after the man himself. In 2006, Habanos S.A. recognised that the world was speeding up. So much time as it was, till now no common person used to be able spend two hours on one stick. What they wanted was a “commuter”-size dose of that Churchill flavor.

The Short Churchill was the brand’s first standard outing with a Robusto. Prior to this you had to scrounge for LEs or samplers if you wanted this vitola. It was a game-changer. And it took the legacy of Vuelta Abajo tobacco and stuffed it into a 50 ring gauge frame that you could polish off over the course of a long lunch break, or in my case, on into my father’s study immediately before dinner. It actually led to the Wide Churchill and the Petit Churchill in due course. It’s the middle child, as is often the case, that you’ll want to fawn over — and with good reason, since it’s easily the most balanced of this tasty brood.

Pairing: What to Drink?

Whilst in the study I grabbed a plain old glass of sparkly water as I wanted to savour all of the different notes in this there tobacco. But, I’ve tried enough of these now to know what does work. If you need a drink recommendation, I’d point you towards a lightly aged Cuban rum—say, a Havana Club 7. Rum sweetness complements the cedar and cream held within the cigar, but never overpowers it.

If you like coffee, the best bet is a flat white. The coffee’s milkiness is the perfect texture to pair with all that smoke. I’d steer clear of a peaty Scotch with this one; the whisky smoke might be too heavy-handed for the Short Churchill’s medium-bodied character. You want something that won’t compete, but will complement. A more mellow bourbon or a cognac would be a good alternative if you are winding down for the day.

The Verdict

Is the Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill the world’s most complex cigar? Maybe not. Is this powerhouse going to keep the nicotine junkies happy? Definitely not. But that isn’t why you buy this cigar. You purchase it because you know what to expect, and can trust that it’s not borrowed from the pages of a 24-hour-news-cycle history book.

I have to tell you, I think of that red band now whenever I see that sound bar. I consider the buzz of closing that, and I the way this cigar allowed me to harness that same energy into a minute to think. It’s a good, consistent smoke that offers up exactly what it promises: smooth, medium strength smoking with some transitions to keep you entertained all the way through.

If you want a sipper, which seems like an event, this is it. But it’s not about staking claim to being the biggest or baddest; it’s about being the right smoke for the moment at hand. To me, that was a career-defining victory. For you, it could be nothing more than a Tuesday afternoon. Either way, it’s a decision you will never regret.

Final Thoughts: A modern classic that knows where it came from. It’s the type of cigar that makes you want to take a step back, slow down and truly cherish your hard work. Solid.