Asylum 2012 4 X 44

Pepper Bomb

So it's lunch time and I had a nice healthy meal of baked chicken, rice and vegetables and I wanted something for dessert. Of course being on a diet a nice cigar is the obvious choice so I went digging in my humidor to find a quick smoke since I need to get back to work afterwards.

What do I find? 

A nine year old Asylum 4x44 cigar that's been in my humidor since 2012 peeks my interest. Wow, I love finding these old cigars and revisiting them. The bad part is it was my last one so I had the internal battle of whether to smoke it now or save it. Well it's a beautiful and sunny 65 degree autumn day here in the Chicago suburbs and you only live once so I decided to fire it up.

First third

At first light I got a blast of pepper, I would call it ceyanne pepper and it was strong but very pleasant at the same time. You know on the next puff I had to retro hale immediately and I could already feel the nicotine and a rather inense tingling in my nose holes. After I got into the first third a little bit the pepper lightened up and turned into a more black pepper on the front and a lingering white pepper along with some leather and chocolate notes.

The Rest

Well it's a quick smoke so I take a few sips of my Coke zero in between puffs to cleanse the pallet. From here on out the smoke didn't change too much. In the middle of the cigar the pepper sort of faded away and I mostly got a leathery woodsy taste (maybe cedar) with some chocolate in the background.

The stick stayed pretty cool throughout the smoke and the pepper blast did make a return in the final third. I was finished after about 30 minutes and very satisfied with the flavors and the nicotine buzz.

If you have any suggestions for other great lunch time quick smokes please let me know as I am running out of my favorites that have some age on them.