The creative minds at Ventura Cigar and Drew Estate have put their heads together and created the cigar of your dreams—or at least, the cigar of your unconscious. Archetype Axis Mundi is named for the repeating characters, symbols or archetypes said to recur in people’s dreams, items that appear in the myths of various cultures. So a cigar was formulated to appeal to the collective consciousness (and unconsciousness) of all cigar smokers. It’s a bit of a lofty, meta-cerebral concept, but the cigar is delicious. The Indonesian binder bridges Ecuadoran wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers to produce rich layers of coffee bean, caramel and nuttiness. A hint of cedar manages to manifest itself as well, making the Archetype Axis Mundi Toro a no-brainer.Chasing this varietal of high-concept ultimately ends in NBC canceling your project. But 'nuff 'bout Heroes. Thankfully it damages our purposes nill, to ignore that all origin story and simply to focus on the stick...
Rigid overtones of a pepper-spice'd bitter-sweetness soften richly into a lengthy finish of great complexity with the addition therein of salted sour notes. Left in the wake of all that is a toasted acidic (kindly) note which ends clean as the proverbial whistle. That on a palate which whilst tingly, is too, cool as the other side of the proverbial pillow. Undertones of a separately sweetened savoriness chug along offering deep depths of deepness. Supremely balanced and at all times dazzlingly complex. For all the strength of flavor, it never trespasses into throatiness or bite. Even though it is gruff beyond smoov, proper.
Combustion sees the one slight bugaboo of this Archetype Axis Mundi, in a mascara line which appears drawn in place by Michael J. Fox -- yet requires only a single Bic flick redirect. Ash grows easily to a well-oiled and dense inch before I wrestle it off in my tray (empty tuna can). The pace is nice, tho perchance the hasty side of moderate. Room note off a cumulus cloud vision is a pleasantly sour pungency.
The draw is flawless, particularly if you prefer a tick of resistance as I do. Seams are invisible things and shoulder assemblage is the proverbial brick shithouse. I taste manure. No hard/soft spots and nary softening of pack density gate-to-wire. Gorgeously constructed.
$9.50 for a Robusto is somewhat hard to deliver on... this does.
WRAPPER: Ecuador Habano
BINDER: Indonesian
FILLER: Nicaraguan
STRENGTH: Full
FORMAT: Robusto
ORIGIN: La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, Nicaragua
FINAL GRADE: A
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59