Asylum 13 The Ogre Super 11/18

In March, we reported that Asylum was releasing two new sizes, the first being 8 x 80, with the second being the Super 11/18 which measures 8 x 60 x 70. Today we review the latter, the Super 11/18 Ogre from Asylum.

 

Cigar: Asylum 13 The Ogre
Size: 8 x 60 x 70 x 60 (Super 11/18)
Wrapper: Candela/Habano
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Strength: Mild-Medium
Source: CLE/Asylum

The Look: I’ll be honest, the Super 11/18 Ogre looks like an elephant dick, not that I know what one looks like, but when I took it out of the box, that’s what I called it. The barber pole cigar is perfectly rolled, but I just can’t get past the size of the cigar. The cigar features a closed foot that had a small pinhole, thus adding further to the comparison mentioned before.

The Notes: The cold draw of the Ogre has a slight sweetness and an abundance of earthy notes such as grass and hay. The aroma off the foot was earthy as well. Once I light the foot of the cigar which I clipped similar to that of the cap the initial notes were a light spice and earth.

Smoking into the first third of the monster Super 11/18 there are vegetal notes that are classic with a Candela wrapper, but it isn’t overpowering in the sense that the cigar is one-dimensional. There is a creaminess with some cedar and pepper on the aroma and through the news.

In the second third, a sweetness develops that is reminiscent of chocolate with some continue notes from the candela. The pepper kicks it up  slightly through the nose and the wood remains on the aroma.

The last third of the Asylum Ogre continues to serve up some chocolate over cedar with hints of candela vegetal notes. Surprisingly all three flavors work well together and the mild to medium bodied cigar had a short finish.

The Burn: You would expect a slightly less than perfect burn on a barber pole and a cigar of this size, so going into the cigar with that mindset it performed as expected. Despite the less then perfect burn it never needed to be touched up nor did it need to be relit. The ash had a lot of flake to it but it held on strong. I expected more smoke production due to the size but there is really little importance to that.

The Finish: I understand that people think there is more of a perceived value in a larger ring gauge smoke, but the fact is a lot of the flavor comes from the wrapper. When you smoke a larger ring gauge stick it dilutes the flavor. It’s like ordering a rum and coke, but telling them to use a larger glass while using the same amount of rum. With that being said, I actually enjoyed this cigar, especially since the end was slightly tapered. The Ogre is one of my favorite candelas, and if you like big ring gauges I definitely recommend this.

Score: 90
Price: $9.00