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May 25, 2025 · 2:40 pm

Foundation Aksum and Aging Room Cigars

Today’s post is a little later than usual. We’ve been having a garage sale at my mother’s house to try to get rid of some of the accumulated stuff that comes with living in the same house for 54 years and having the “someone might need this someday” attitude. Stuff, just stuff. I’m super-grateful for my family helping out, especially my wife! Anyway I’ve been trying to enjoy some cigars along the way, which is what I usually talk about on Sundays!

I started off smoking both the Foundation Cigar’s Aksum, in both claro and maduro. This used to be the Menelik, but I think there was some sort of trademark issue, or the descendants of Menelik complained, I’m not sure. So now it’s Aksum, which is the name of the place where Menelik I brought the Ark of the Covenant. Apparently it’s still there, not in a warehouse in Nevada. The blend is Sumatra Ecuador wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Estelle and Jalapa fillers. Best I can tell the only difference is the wrapper fermentation. I bought Toros, of course, 6” x 52 with a pigtail cap. These are beautiful cigars with a slight box press if I remember right. I started with the Claro, which burned beautifully. It started with a bit of an acidic hit. Skip Martin says that we shouldn’t describe flavors like food, but that’s like 90% of my flavor references. I would say this is on the leathery side, and that’s in my 10% non-food reference sample. It’s good if you like that flavor profile. I moved on to the Maduro the next evening. This had a dry cocoa profile. It’s not a sweet Maduro, more a dark chocolate kinda thing. Again, very good, I do not regret purchasing these, although I think the Olmec line is more my jam.

After a long day of garagesaling, and one very disappointing cigar along the way, I got home, took a nap, and then relaxed with an Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Concerto Vibrato. This is another toro, 6” x 56 box pressed. Aging Room is still Rafael Nodal’s brand, although it’s marketed by Altadis, which also employs him as a brand ambassador. He’s basically the face of Altadis now, and he’s very good in that role. I have been hit or miss with Aging Room cigars, this one wasn’t bad, but had a floral flavor, and a weird mouthfeel. It was almost cloying in a diet soda kind of way. I enjoyed it, just not really a cigar I’ll come back to. Even if I am not a big fan of a cigar, I’m rarely disappointed that I bought and smoked a cigar, it’s all part of the learning process. When I cigar doesn’t burn and or draw right is when I get upset, even if I received it gratis. By the way, this picture is what you get when I’m distracted!

That’s all for today, enjoy your Memorial Day celebrations, remember the reason the day exists. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aging Room, Aksum, cigar, cigars, Concerto, Foundation, Foundation Cigar Co., Nicaragua, Quattro, Vibrato

August 9, 2020 · 10:23 am

Archetype Sacred Scales, New Onyx Bold and Perdomo Reserve Cigars

I’m still coming across a cigar here and there from last January’s TPE show, this time it was an Archetype Sacred Scales robusto that Ventura Cigar‘s Michael Giannini handed me on one of our visits at the Phillips and King booth. The P&K booth was one of the largest and busiest at the show, not a big surprise since their parent company owns the show. Oddly, they seemed to feature more of other companies cigar brands than their own, at least more prominently. The Sacred Scales is a San Andrés wrapped cigar made by Ernesto Carrillo, who Michael worked with for quite a while with La Gloria Cubana. It has an Ecuador binder and fillers from Nicaragua. I absolutely loved this cigar. It checked all the boxes for me, dark earth, sweetness and spice. This is a cigar I’ll be looking to smoke again, a definite winner. The Archetype line bounces around from factory to factory, one is made at Drew Estate, one by EPC, and others by Davidoff, etc. It’s a little confusing, but when you find one you like, run with it!

I was out running some errands and stopped in a shop on the way and picked up a few new cigars I wanted to try. The first one was the new Onyx Bold Nicaragua. I believe that the CigarCigars chain may have had the exclusive initial release on these, which is where I got this cigar. I can’t say I’ve actually smoked an Onyx cigar before, not sure why, but it’s my understanding that this iteration really wouldn’t compare to the Dominican version anyway. The Onyx Bold Nicaraguan has a San Andrés wrapper Nicaraguan binder and fillers and is made by A.J. Fernandez. I, of course, got the toro size, which is 6” x 54. This cigar smoked really well, burn and draw were perfect, it was a real pleasure to smoke. While it didn’t have the pungency of the Sacred Scales, it still had the dark earth, spice and sweetness I like, although it was smoother and more refined in this cigar. I thought it was quite a nice smoke! Like I said, I have no idea how it compared to other Onyx cigars, I always considered them to be very mild, which is why I passed them over.

The other two cigars I picked up were the new Perdomo Reserve 10 Year Anniversary in Sungrown and Maduro. I picked these up in the Epicure size, which is the 6” x 54 Toro. I’ve been oddly intrigued by this release. I really like the 20th Anniversary line, I like some of the other line OK, and tolerate others. I actually dislike the Champagne, which is in the line these cigars are now under, and there are few cigars I actively dislike. The Maduro, I believe, directly replaces the Champagne Noir, whether it’s the same blend, I couldn’t say. I do know that the Noir fell in to the “like” category. I started with the Sungrown, with the anticipation that the Maduro would give the 20th Maduro a run for it’s money. I took a walk before settling in to watch the Flyers game on the big screen on the porch. This 10th Anniversary Sungrown was a delicious cigar. The Nicaraguan Wrapper is Bourbon barrel aged, and I think most of Perdomo’s wrappers are at this point, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I thought it was a great, medium-bodied cigar, with rich, smooth flavors. It had sweetness, some nuttiness and some wordiness. It was very good. It got me well into the first period of the hockey game. After a palate cleansing bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream, I lit up the Maduro for the second and third periods. I suppose my expectations were a little high, or the ice cream didn’t cleanse my palate enough, but the Maduro didn’t delight me as much as I had hoped. It was a decent smoke, make no mistake, and it made it through two solid periods of outstanding hockey, where the Flyers clinched the number one seed in the eastern conference! In a normal year that would result in a trophy, I think! It means nothing if they don’t continue on the the Stanley Cup Finals, for which I have some special cigars set aside. Anyway, the Maduro had some of the maduroey flavors one expects, cocoa, coffee, etc., although they seemed to be muted to me. Perhaps it was the hour, or the fact that it was the third cigar of the day. I’ll try another on a clean palate, however, it seemed consistent with my feelings on the Champagne Noir. It was a good smoke, it just wasn’t the the 20th Anniversary, and the fault lies with me for setting unrealistic goals expectations. Once again, I’ll smoke it again, but as of this sitting, I preferred the Sungrown over the Maduro. It happens!