Romeo y Julieta Churchills

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Romeo y Julieta Churchill Review
Since last Tuesday I’ve been out in the garden, and let me tell you something, I feel auspicious as all get-out. You ever get that? I had just finished pruning the hydrangeas and carting around six bags of mulch, but instead of collapsing with exhaustion on the porch I felt like I had enough energy to run a marathon. The sun was sinking low, the atmosphere was dead, and the birds were at last shutting down for the night.

Product Specifications

It was one of those pale, blue-silver afternoons. I was fidgeting, wired from the day’s work, and my old man walks out. He doesn’t say anything — just rummages in his pocket and hands me a silver aluminum tube. “For the good work you’ve done,” he says. I took one look at it, hefted it to feel its weight and a few moments later, my next hour and a half was planned.

I wasn’t going anywhere. That smoke? The
Romeo y Julieta Churchill
. Though not the Dominican counterfeit you find on every corner but the gusts of real-deal Cuban flagship.

I’ve smoked my share of sticks, but there’s just something about holding a Churchill — a real Julieta No. 2 and not anything else — that makes you feel like you ought to be determining the fate of a nation rather than deciding where your lawn chair should go. I reached for my cutter and poured the glass a heavy dose of something dark, then sat back to see if this thing lived up to the name it’s been carrying around since the 1940s. The Specs
Wrapper/Binder/Filler
Vuelta Abajo, Cuba
Body/Strength
Medium to Full
Build: How It Feels in Hand
I have to say, the first thing you think when you pull this out of its tube is: Size.

It’s not especially fat in today’s terms — everybody seems to want those 60-gauge logs these days — but at seven inches long, the thing just has this elegant, commanding presence. It felt solid. Not hard, like a rock, but dense. I did a quick weigh-in later, out of curiosity, and these are hardly ever over 16 grams.

It’s got some heft. The wrapper was a beautiful classic Colorado shade — kind of reddish-brown, like an old leather bound book. There were some veins, certainly, but this is Cuban tobacco for you. It’s not always pretty, but it is real.

I pressed my thumb along the length and felt not a single soft spot. The cap was attached then to the body with that characteristic three tight seam precision that we’ve come to expect from Briones Montoto. I cold-drew it matters before I even let that first spark take. I took a hit of dry hay and an oddly specific floral note, almost like dried rose petals.

The draw on it is tight solid—the way I like it—enough resistance that you know you’re not going to smoke your way through this thing in twenty minutes. The First Third: Blossom and Berry
I toasted the foot slowly

.

You don’t rush a Churchill. When I finally got a good cherry going, the first few puffs were surpisingly mild. Ira: Here I was, bracing myself for a punch in the gut and instead got clipped by this sophisticated vibe. I mean anise and what is, for the life of me, Turkish delight. (It’s got that rosewater and berry thing going on which Romeo y Julieta is known for.) Not a “sweet” cigar in the sugary sense, but the aroma is deeply perfume-laden.

The vapor production was good, but not cloud-chasing status. It was pale blue and thin, and smelt of good tobacco and toasted bread. There was a hint of a cherry note, maybe an inch in or so through the florals. They reminded me a little of those tart dried cherries that you find lurking in trail mix.

The burn was straight, and I appreciated that because nothing breaks a tranquil garden moment like fidgeting with a canoeing wrapper every five minutes. The ash was a nice, light gray with about an inch and a half before I chose to tap it. The Second Third — The Meat of the Matter
At the center of the stick, the flavors began to ground themselves

.

That flighty, floral energy from the opening was beginning to weigh in at something more substantial. Now cocoa — not milk chocolate, more like a dry cocoa powder — began to appear, and with it far more of that toasted bread flavor. Here’s where that medium-to-full body really began to manifest itself. The strength was coming on sort of slowly, it wasn’t a burst.

It was just… present. I was picking up a distinct “charcoal” or woody flavor just after the band. It was not bitter, merely smoky and dark, like a campfire the morning after. The anise remained in the shadows, and that was all to the good.

I’ve smoked many cigars that become one dimensional in the middle, this Churchill never stops moving.

One puff would be creamy and nutty, the next a bit of citrus or baking spice. It’s a complicated beast, and you’ll need to pay attention if you want to pick up the nuances. If you’re puffing away while chatting, you may miss the fleeting rhubarb or nutmeg notes that pop in and out. The Final Third: The Clutch Finish
By the time I reached the last couple of inches, it was dark in the garden and whatever energy I’d started with had finally settled down into a mellow hum.

The cigar, though, was getting hotter. The notes of flowers were long gone, and now it was full-on heavy leather, oak, a little bit of black licorice. The heat began to develop, but due to the length of the Julieta No. 2, remained pleasantly cool almost till the end. There was some cinnamon and earthiness that dominated the palate.

It was a little more “raw” in the tobacco flavor, which is typical for a Cuban Churchill. It finishes strong. I got none of that rough ammonia bang you see in young sticks; this one felt like it had been sitting in that cylinder for some time, letting the oils marry. I smoked it all the way down to my burning fingertips because I didn’t want it to end.

It’s a commitment, yes, but the payoff in the final third is a satisfyingly punchy reward for all that patience.

Pairing Recommendations
I opted for a glass of aged rum — something with a touch of molasses sweetness to offset the cedar and floral notes in the Romeo.

Not into rum? A strong cup of black coffee is a classic play here. The bitterness of the coffee is a good match for the cocoa and cherry in the second third.

I would not go with anything precious, like a light beer or a gin and tonic — the Churchill is too big and too complicated for that. You want something to drink with it that can hold its own but not compete. The Legacy of the Julieta 2
It’s impossible to talk about this cigar without getting into the history. Jose ‘Pepin’ Rodriguez Fernandez, the dude who really made Romeo y Julieta a household name back in 1903, was a marketing wiz. (He also knew, of course, that if you get the right people smoking your product, the masses follow.) And who was more “right” than Winston Churchill?

The man had smoked thousands of the cigarettes, according to reports. The brand has been divided since the Revolution—there’s a separate Dominican one for the

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