Perfect burn and draw. Taste is pretty mild even into the last 1/3. Nice smoke for a hot day.
• Date: 4/26/2024
• Cigar: Arturo Fuente Natural Churchill
• Drinking: Water, then Woodford Reserve bourbon
• Weather: 66 F, light breeze
• Smoke Time: 2 hours
• Draw: Easy
• Burn: Easily lit. Toasted it with matches, cedar wood wrap that came with another Arturo Fuente, and finished up with a torch. I had to constantly correct the burn as it consistently burned faster on one side.
• Ash: Above average
• Mouthfeel: Medium body
• Nicotine Strength: Medium to strong (possibly a result of too much wrapper burning after touchups)
• Unlit Flavors/Smells: Dark, dried fruits like raisins. Chocolate. Mulch
• Smoking Notes: First puff is spicy, woody, and toasty. In the first third the dominant characteristics are toasty and woody (cedar), along with leather. Secondary notes are of minerals, pencil shavings, and hints of herbal and salt. The retrohales are smooth but with some sharpness from the spice. In the second third the leather is amplified. It also sees coffee/cacao bitterness creep into the aftertaste, particularly at the back of the tongue and throat. Nutty tones appear – peanuts and maybe pistachio – as well as wet leaves. By the midway point the bitter aftertaste has become overwhelming and displeasing so I decide to pour myself a little Woodford Reserve bourbon to wash it away. The spice has become more prominent, particularly on the retrohale. In the final third I adjusted to wait longer after touchups to allow the extra torched wrapper to burn off before puffing and this mostly solved the bitterness.
• Conclusion: The construction felt solid, and no tobacco pieces came dislodged into my mouth, but the burn was poor. It began to unravel slightly near the end, but this would be expected for a longer cigar like this as a result of being in the mouth for so long.
This had potential to be a 3.5/5 if not for the fact that one side consistently burned faster necessitating many touchups the whole way. In my opinion the bitterness was a consequence of this which was quite unfortunate because all the other elements were excellent. The touchups made it too hot and taking a drag too soon after a touchup resulted in too much wrapper burning for a given drag. When I made a conscious effort to wait after touchups to take a puff, the bitterness was substantially lessened.
I would like to give this one another shot to see if a better constructed example would still have that same bitterness. 3/5
Smooth and creamy, a lot of cinnamon came through for me. Coffee got stronger near the end as well as cinnamon but the creaminess hung on throughout. Tasty. Wife enjoyed it too.