Cigar Review: Devil’s Night by Asylum Cigars

• Vitola: Corona Gorda
• 5.5” x 46 ring gauge
• $11.99
• Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

I’m pretty sure I’ve referenced the plethora of limited editions that have shown up on cigar retailers’ shelves in the past couple years. We have one-off special runs, store exclusive blends, store exclusive vitolas of larger blends, lounge editions, annual releases that are the same every year, annual releases that are different every year, and a few like the cigar I’m looking at today…a release to benefit a worthy organization.

Asylum Cigars is headed up by Tom Lazuka, a native of Detroit, Michigan. In 2015, he took on a project to raise money for the firefighters of Detroit with a blend called “Devil’s Night.” Devil’s Night has long been associated with October 30 every year, the day before Halloween. The “mischief night” goes back to the 1930s when people would engage is relatively harmless acts like egging or soaping windows and doors, but in the early ‘70s, arson added to the mix. It peaked in 1984 when more than 800 fires were set for Devil’s Night in Detroit. The number has dropped since then with stiffer policing and community involvement. (some background from Wikipedia)

The Devil’s Night blend is made in CLE’s Aladino factory in Honduras and it is a Honduran puro available in two sizes, the Corona Gorda I’m smoking today as well as a 6 x 52 toro. They are packaged in 10-count boxes with a total production of 500 boxes. We got several boxes of each size recently at Burns Tobacconist, where I purchased my Corona Gorda for review purposes. (some other background from Cigar-Coop)

Prelight

I really like the boxes for Devil’s Night. The wood on each one appears to be individually scorched at the corners making them all unique and pushing forward the fiery theme for this blend. The band as released is different from what I saw in pre-release photos. The pre-release showed a house on the band, while the actual release sees the Asylum skull rendered in flames on a black background (which is very cool) with “Devil’s Night” written in flames beneath it (which is not so cool as it’s almost impossible to read). The band further uses a copper foil stamped onto the black background in the form of mini-Asylum skulls and framing strips on the top and bottom of the band. I think I would have foregone the type and just made the flaming skull bigger…it gets the point across.

The wrapper leaf was a light-medium-brown color with a smooth and somewhat oily feel to it. Giving it a sniff, I picked up mostly notes of dry earth and leather. The foot had a riper earthiness to it, with just a hint of sweetness and chocolate. The cold draw was good and had flavors of grass and earth mostly, with just a bit of dried fruit in the mix.

Flavor

Lighting up with a single flame torch was pretty easily accomplished. The Devil’s Night started off with flavors of natural tobacco, earth and some hay. There was a dash of sweetness and a bit of pepper spice on the palate. The retrohale had a larger pepper burn. While the flavor was overall pleasing, I have to admit that I was picking up a little on what turns me off about Honduran tobacco much of the time: namely that all the notes were a little muted and indistinct.

The second third was mostly characterized by simply natural tobacco flavor with a moderate amount of sweetness and some pepper to it. In the background were more notes of earth and hay.

At the end, the Asylum Devil’s Night had still more notes of tobacco and hay with hints of molasses sweetness while the pepper died out a bit.

Construction

The draw was flawless, the burn line was very straight and the ash was as solid as I could ask for.

Value

The cost on this one is a little steep for the size and blend, however, it is a limited release and benefits a good cause, so those things have to be factored into it.

Conclusions

I ended up enjoying the Asylum Devil’s Night more than I thought I would at first. The slightly muddled flavors of the first third gave way to more refined natural tobacco flavors with sweet and spicy notes that flitted in and out of the mix. Overall, it was just a really good smoke and it’s hard to argue with that. Also hard to deny is the good cause this cigar was made for and how it can benefit the firefighters in a great American city that needs some help getting back to its peak. If you are a fan of Honduran smokes, and particularly CLE’s offerings in that arena, you really should get your hands on some of these.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10