Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 5 x 54 “Prophet- Robusto”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $6.75
Making its debut at the 2013 IPCPR trade show, Ashton showed the world its fourth line in this brand. The Ecuadorian Sumatra is the big difference.
There are five sizes to this new blend: 5 x 54, 5.625 x 48, 5.75 x 60, 6.5 x 54, and 6.25 x 52. And all are beautifully box pressed.
As all the others, it is manufactured at the My Father factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.
The construction is excellent with a triple cap, a dark cocoa colored wrapper with darker mottling here and there, invisible seams, and a lot of small veins. The cigar is packed with tobacco but has the right amount of give.
The only difference between this cigar’s blend and the Ashton VSG is the wrapper. The VSG uses a top priming leaf instead of mid priming leaf as on the Revelation.
The double cigar bands are truly pieces of art. It would take me 1000 words to describe everything I see so a photo will have to do.
I clip the cap and find aromas of the darkest, sweetest chocolate, citrus, spice, caramel, earthiness, and cedar.
Time to light up.
The first puffs are sweet and spicy. The draw is spot on. The draw is wavy so I nip it in the bud.
Flavors are very nutty and the cedar translates to a nice flavor. The body, from the beginning, has been classic medium. There was no Garcia blast of pepper although the red pepper is very potent. Just not an explosion that many of his blends have.
I am getting close to the secondary band and some caramel appears to heighten the pleasure of the sweetness.
I near the end of the first third and enjoyed it all. But there is no sign of a flavor bomb.
I remove the secondary band and it comes off without a hitch.
A berry component enters and in the back of my throat, I taste blackberry or boysenberry. And with that, enters some black currants. This gives the stick a very interesting flavor profile. The second third centers around the berry, sweetness, and spicy profile. Caramel is right behind.
Then I get what I was waiting for: creaminess. This element rounds out the entire profile giving it a complex nature at last.
The red pepper becomes much stronger. The cigar is blazing flavors now. It is moments away from official flavor bomb status.
The stick is nicely balanced now and has a chewy, long finish. Those berries are delicious and remind me of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. An amusement park started in the 1930’s as a roadside stand where Cordelia Knott made her own preserves and fried chicken. It grew and became just another large place to go on rides and then throw up.
The park has an old western theme. It was great in high school because it cost nothing to get in and my buddies and I would wander, girl-less, on a Friday night looking for chicks.
Walter Knott invented the boysenberry by crossing a European Raspberry, a common Blackberry, an American Dewberry, and a Loganberry. You put this stuff on a hot biscuit and you’ve thought you died and gone to heaven. You can still buy the jars online.
I am at the halfway point and it is officially a flavor bomb. Here are the flavors in descending order: Berry, sweetness, creaminess, spice, caramel, cedar, and raisin.
What a treat. Dessert and a cigar wrapped into one. The main cigar band comes off nicely without leaving any of the art damaged. Or the cigar, for that matter. One thing I’ve noticed about Garcia cigars is a little detail that means a lot. They never over glue the cigar bands. Nothing infuriates me more than needing to use a knife or just tear apart a cigar band. The devil is in the details.
This cigar has only 2-3 weeks on it. I smoked one the day I got it and it was damn near the same flavor profile. Just not quite as bold.
In a sense, the berry flavor also reminds me of those blue ice push-ups we ate as a kid off of the Good Humor ice cream truck. That was before they all became independents and one guy; one truck. I remember one guy in the early 70’s who would sell ice cream to the kids and weed to the adults. Smart marketing.
He eventually became my band’s drummer for a while until he got caught and went to jail.
The last third is very complex. No one flavor is bolder than the other. This is the part of the cigar you don’t want to end.
The body has been medium up until the halfway point and is now medium/full. The draw remains perfect and the char line is behaving itself…a little wavy but who cares. It is not out of control.
The caramel and creaminess make a break for it and end up on top of the flavor profile.
The spice is in the background. I never got a hint of cocoa. Odd since so much of this cigar is Nicaraguan. The profile concentrates on components of sweetness and creamy lusciousness.
As the cigar burns down, the flavors go back to being bold. Instead of a steady balance, it’s like a Pink Floyd laser show with flavors whizzing past my palate.
This is an excellent cigar. It doesn’t need much humidor time. The price point is spectacular for this amount of flavor, balance, & finish.
Speak of the devil….cocoa arrives with less than a couple inches to go. The red pepper returns and the strength brings on some nicotine kick. But it never gets to the point where I get the spins. It is a controlled kick.
The cocoa seems odd at this point. It totally changes the direction of the cigar. It muddies the water.
But still, the cigar finishes out like a champ.
I highly recommend this stick. I also think that of all the San Cristobal blends, the Revelation is by far the best.
Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Cigar Reviews by Phil 'Katman' Kohn 
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