The Particulars

The Review

This review for the H. Upmann 180th Anniversary - Churchill (7 x 50) is based on the journal entry dated 2025-06-11

Appearance & Construction (0-3):  Good (3)

Warm chocolate brown, the sheen shines on this one with faint mottling. No visible tooth, but the wrapper feels velvety soft. The seams are tight but there’s a hint of edge lift in spots. The triple cap is on there with machine-like precision. There are a couple of veins but they’re super thin and light, nearly non-existent. The bands are elegant, featuring Hermann Upmann’s signature, and remind you AJF made this cigar, but the foot band has too much glue and takes a piece of wrapper with it. 🙄

Draw (0-3) & Burn (0-4):  Good (3) / Great (4)

The draw is perfect and the burn starts without issue. The burn is only slightly wavy but very well controlled. The ash is a medium to light gray with big chunky sections of ash between the striations. It’s not a very stable ash and falls after the first inch, but it holds on much better after that first bit fell. The burn line is dead nuts even.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Excellent (5)

Malty and sweet on the first puffs, then a strong hit of black pepper. I’m getting bits of cinnamon and a caramel-like sweetness, but heavy on the malt, and the pepper is quickly ramping up. This will be a full-on 🌶️💣 if it continues at this pace.

With the second third, the pepper peels back. Malty chocolate is still strong, along with the sweet that’s now bringing in a raisin-y dark fruit sweetness, and there’s a strong earthy base that’s just building. Mild coffee, bits of must, woodiness… Your expected flavors in an AJF-blended Nicaraguan puro all step up. But this blend is straight 🔥 and combining a great mix of sweet and savory with a peppery kick with an incredibly creamy finish. Flavors are just robust and powerful all around, but balanced with great complexity. At the halfway point, it’s just a ride.

Do you like rich and earthy Mexican hot chocolate? That’s what I’m getting and I love it. At this point I’m not going to say more. I’m just going to enjoy the rest of this cigar and let it be the high point of my morning. 🔥

Overall Experience (0-5):  Excellent (5)

Somebody at Altadis picked up the phone and said, “Hey AJ, we know you love honoring your Cuban heritage, would you bring the good stuff for the H. Upmann 180th?” And boy, did he. 🥵 I’m honestly amazed at how AJF can manufacture so many cigars for so many different brands at so many price points and still turn out bangers like this one. I’m seriously considering if I need to get another box to stock up. 😅 If you know how much I love the AJF 20th, this is right there with it. Very different profile, but this was 🤌

Review Base Rating (0-5):

5.00

Would I Buy It Again?

Without a doubt (box worthy)

Review Final Score (0-10):

10.00

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there’s a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you’ll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.