my daughter just came back from Cuba and brought me back a couple of boxes of cigars. I had asked her for R&J wide Churchill’s and monte 2’s.Before she left I told her to buy only at LCDH-and nowhere else. But alas, she was in a “gift shop” in Cifuentes that was selling many different types of cigars for 200 cuc’s per box and bought a box each of what she thought were wide Churchill’s and monte 2’s.
Neither box was dated nor coded; the seals on both boxes had not been broken; the colors of the cigars in both boxes were not as consistent as they should be but not dramatically so; there were slight blemishes here and there; not all the bands were lined up; and the caps on many of the cigars (all of which were pyramids) had slight bulges. The R&J logo covered only 1/3 of the cover and the rest was white; the monte2 printing looked good.
The R&J’s of course were not wide Churchill’s as they were pyramid shaped, and were too long and wide to be belicosos. They were however the exact size as the R&J Anejados that I have in my humidor. The monte 2’s were more consistent except for the bulges in the cap.
Upon smoking them, I was stunned at not only at how good they were, but how consistent they were with the “real” thing as I did a comparison with those in my humidor. The only difference I could detect was that the Anejado shaped R&J’s did not have that full aged nutty taste. Otherwise they fit the profile very well as did the monte 2’s.
Obviously theses are not ‘regular” production. Normally I would think they were seconds, but I didn’t think there were Cuban seconds.
Any thoughts?
Neither box was dated nor coded; the seals on both boxes had not been broken; the colors of the cigars in both boxes were not as consistent as they should be but not dramatically so; there were slight blemishes here and there; not all the bands were lined up; and the caps on many of the cigars (all of which were pyramids) had slight bulges. The R&J logo covered only 1/3 of the cover and the rest was white; the monte2 printing looked good.
The R&J’s of course were not wide Churchill’s as they were pyramid shaped, and were too long and wide to be belicosos. They were however the exact size as the R&J Anejados that I have in my humidor. The monte 2’s were more consistent except for the bulges in the cap.
Upon smoking them, I was stunned at not only at how good they were, but how consistent they were with the “real” thing as I did a comparison with those in my humidor. The only difference I could detect was that the Anejado shaped R&J’s did not have that full aged nutty taste. Otherwise they fit the profile very well as did the monte 2’s.
Obviously theses are not ‘regular” production. Normally I would think they were seconds, but I didn’t think there were Cuban seconds.
Any thoughts?
