Fumadores Churchill

[Don Fernando]

This is a discontinued brand, made by My Father Cigars exclusively for the famous Philadelphia based Holts cigar shop which is owned by the Levin family, owners of Ashton, Benchmade, La Aroma de Cuba/Del Caribe and San Cristobal/Paradiso of which the last three are also made by My Father. And this Fumadores I bought while I visited the shop back in 2009.

The cigar is a medium filler, which means that the cigar isn’t completely made with full leaves but with the smaller pieces left over from producing the premium longfillers. Using the left over tobacco makes it possible to create very cheap cigars and I believe that I paid less than 50 dollars for a box of 20 Churchill sized cigars. The blend is a mix of Nicaraguan Corona, Habano and Criollo tobacco with an Ecuadorian wrapper.

The cellophane has a nice golden brown glow to it because the oils of the wrapper have been staining it for almost a decade. The wrapper is nice medium brown, mild oily but wrinkly and brittle. The ring is simple, beige with dark brown and it says Fumadores, imported, hand made and the initials JPG which stands for Jose Pepin Garcia. The cigar feels well rolled with a nice triple cap. For an almost 10 year old budget cigar the strong manure and barnyard aroma blows me away, just from the smell it could pass as a fresh cigar.

When I wet the cap to cut it the saltiness of the wrapper surprises me. The cold draw is fine but I get small pieces of tobacco in my mouth along with a peppery flavor. After lighting I taste pepper, herbs and salt. After half an inch I taste herbs with salt and licorice. After an inch I taste salt with honey and herbs. Halfway I taste salted peanuts with herbs and a honey like sweetness. The flavor then changed to a salty and mild sweet toast. The last third starts with vanilla and pepper, wood and herbs.

The draw is a bit off, a bit loose. The smoke is thin and low in quantity. The light gray ash is dense and firm. The burn is straight as an arrow. This is a medium bodied medium flavored cigar. The evolution is good. The smoke time is an hour and forty five minutes.

Would I buy this cigar again? Funny to see how my preferences changed, in 2009 I said ‘hell yeah’ today I say ‘no’. However this would be a nice humidor filler for guest who want to try a cigar but aren’t regular smokers.

Score: 83

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