El Tiante Churchill

Back in the spring, I attended the Aleppo Shriner’s Smoker in Wilmington, MA and a couple of guys from El Tiante Cigars were there giving away churchills in both the natural and maduro varieties. Started by Red Sox legend Luis Tiant, the cigars feature an image of the legendary pitcher in his signature windup on a colorful, red and gold band. The band alone is enough to get just about any cigar loving Red Sox fanatic all worked up. I grabbed a couple of each and put them in the humidor, determined not to touch them until the All Star break. I had a maduro the weekend before the All-Star Game, a natural the weekend after and another natural when Manny headed west and there was a Bay playing in Back Bay.

I tend to like my cigars right smack dab in the middle of mild and bold and the maduro wasn’t what I’d call bold, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea either. Both naturals I smoked were definitely on the mild side, but they had good flavor. Both varieties had a bit of a grassy taste that wasn’t at all unpleasant initially, but started to head that way as I approached the halfway mark. There was some fruity undertones to the flavor, but nothing I could really hammer down. The construction of these cigars was absolutely top notch. The wrappers were nice and oily with fairly small veins and they were quite firm and felt quite solid. The draw was perfect and the burn would get a little out of whack now and then, but usually snapped back in line of its own accord. The smoke was light and aromatic and I’d even say they smell better than they taste.

Overall, I preferred the naturals over their darker brethren, but they were a little too mild for my taste. If you like a good mild cigar, then I strongly recommend you try one. The maduro did not appeal to me at all, but very few maduro’s do. Given the namesake and the really cool band, I was dying to love this cigar. Regardless, these are clearly top-notch cigars even a Yankees fan could like. (Just remove the band and nobody needs to know.)