The Kristoff Criollo Churchill is much like the Kristoff Ligero Matador I reviewed a little while back. Albeit, not quite as rich or powerful, but still a medium bodied and very satisfying experience. I picked this up at a local tobacconist in Joliet, IL (Joe's Cigar Co) and sat in down to enjoy it in the store with an iced tea. This stick has a heavy appearance of veins, but none that affected the smoking characteristics. It burned just about perfect and required only one minor touchup throughout the duration of the 1.5 hour journey. The taste profile is very well balanced and the aroma absolutely incredible. The spice starts off immediately, and dies down here and there. What's interesting is that the spice resurfaces and takes the forefront very sporadically, giving the other flavors time to debut (toast, roasted nuts) and making this a decently complex cigar. As I have with other Kristoffs, I nubbed this without issue or bitterness. It ended with a very faint nicotine feeling, as though I'd had a nice cup of coffee (the perfect after smoke feel!) and the finish on the palate was the furthest thing away from disagreeable.
All I can say is that recently I have become a big fan of Kristoff and hope to meet Glen Case of Executive Cigar in the near future if he ever comes to the Chicago area. These cigars have a very affluent taste to them typical of big dollar smokes, but at $8 retail that includes taxes, this is an absolute winner fetching an easy 8 out of 10 for this date with a flame.
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