Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $7
- Samples provided by local rep
Background
It may be impossible to start this review of the Asylum Medulla Oblongata without thinking of this scene from The Waterboy…so I’m just going to leave this here…
With that out of the way, I’ll fill you in on the cigar up for review…Asylum released the Medulla Oblongata at this year’s IPCPR trade show. It represents an experiment of sorts…how does box-pressing affect flavor? The same all Honduran blend is used for both Medulla (round) and Oblongata (box-pressed) and the box comes split into 25 of each version.
There are 4 sizes available and the prices are reasonable, as is the custom with Asylum releases. These cigars are produced in Honduras at the Eiroa El Aladino factory. My local sales rep, Austin Baker, gave me two samples of Medulla for review purposes (Thank you, Austin!). I am smoking my second one for this review.
Prelight
The box is standard-issue “Asylum-brand”…it’s pretty much plain wood with a wooden divider down the middle. The main band is a standard-issue Asylum 13 band with “Asylum 13” and skulls in gold foil, this time on a dark chocolate brown background. Most of the rest of the cigar is hidden by a tissue paper sheath that has “Medulla” on it in large black letters (and the box-pressed version has a sheath that reads “Oblongata”). The back of the sheath has the bar code from the factory. I am very happy to see that the CLE factory is providing barcodes on pretty much everything, even cigars that don’t have cellophane. This has been one of the hardest nuts to crack in the process of companies providing barcoding from the factory and CLE’s tissue paper sheaths are among the most elegant solutions.
The wrapper leaf was a medium-brown with a bit of reddish hue to it. It had visible veins and a bit of a fuzzy, velvety touch to it, while leaving a little oily residue on my fingers after touching it. Giving it a good sniff, I picked up mostly cedar notes on the wrapper, while the foot had more earth mixed with with cedar, as well as a grassiness and natural tobacco aroma.
The cold draw was very easy and had flavors of lightly sweet citrus, hay, and cedar.
Flavor
The Asylum Medulla lit up fairly easily with my single flame torch. I got a strong cedar note at the outset, along with muted notes of berries, earth and red pepper. That continued pretty steadily through the first third, which was reduced to ash in short order.
As I got into the second third, there was a little extra pepper spice and less cedar, allowing the heat and fruit sweetness to blend well.
Construction
The draw was a little on the loose side, making me think the cigar is a little on the under-filled side. The burn line was straight, though, and the ash was solid.
Value
As with other sticks in the Asylum 13 line, value seems to be a key objective with Medulla Oblongata. The price of the Robusto is good so they can keep the prices of the 6×60 and 7×70 good, as well.
Conclusions
After the Connecticut, this Medulla is the second Asylum 13 branded cigar that I can highly recommend. The rest of the lines just don’t do much for me, but this blend in this vitola is something I would do on a regular basis for this price. Whether the blend translate well to the jawbreaker sizes most Asylum buyers are looking for is something I can’t answer, but if it does, this should be on practically every humidor’s shelves in the next few months. Very good cigar for a very decent price point.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
