Cigar: Schizo Maduro (toro 6×50)
Company: Asylum Cigars
Wrapper: Maduro, San Andres
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Honduran
Strength: Medium
Price: $32.99 per bundle of 20
Acquired: Famous Smoke Shop
Elements: Corner of No Hope / Water
Appearance:
Beautiful dark San Andres wrapper, it’s sunk in slightly at the band but that’s forgivable as its a Cuban-style sandwich blend (composed of both long and short scrap fillers from other Asylum blends). Speaking of the band, it’s an well designed logo and I especially like the eye-catching turquoise secondary band which designates that its the maduro line.
Pre-light Aroma:
Slight chocolate.
Pre-light Draw:
Very open draw, somewhat unpleasant vegetable taste and walnut.
1/3:
Strong and woodsy out of the gate (oak?) with nice black pepper on the retrohale. There’s also a slight sweetness undertone beneath the hard stuff. The draw is not too open as I had feared it might be. In fact, the Schizo is drawing nicely and producing a good amount of light grey beautiful smoke.
The ash is flaky and the burn line is slightly wavy but those are aesthetic issues I can live with at this point.
2/3:
The ash seems to be falling every inch or so, so make a mental note of that in order to save your shirt some grief. The pepper has vacated the premises and the woodsy oak note is now the dominant flavor. I like it. A slight creaminess has also joined the party towards the end of the second third.
For a short filler budget cigar I’ve yet to get one tiny tobacco piece in my mouth from the head of the cigar which is a definite plus. All in all, the Schizo Maduro is not acting like a sandwich blend cigar in the slightest.
3/3:
This ain’t the prettiest cigar by any means, once it’s past the halfway point, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the better “bundle stogies” I’ve sampled in quite a while. And lately, with the Central TX weather trending on the cooler side, I’m all about finding extremely affordable smokes I can enjoy on the quick tip in an hour or less. The oak is still hanging tough but with the addition of the cream there’s nothing tough about it. I actually have to dump the ash at the final two inches in order to remove the two bands. I’m very interested in getting fellow TNCC member Tut’s opinion on this cigar as he’s a new convert to the world of Mexican San Andres wrappers and he’s also a connoisseur of wallet friendly smokes (if I can even use the term “connoisseur” in that context).
After the bands are removed the Schizo gets a little harsher on the palate but only slightly. The creaminess is now muted and it finishes much like it started with some pepper and the ever present oak note.
THE NUB:
At $32.99 a bundle (that’s $1.65 a stick!) you can’t lose by going with the Schizo Maduro. These had been in my humidor for less than a week, so I was a bit worried if they wouldn’t have settled enough to smoke properly and that fear was thankfully unwarranted. Just don’t buy them all up please because I’d like to get more down the road you heathens!
