Cigar Review: Ashton Symmetry
The Fuente family constructs the Ashton Symmetry for Ashton at the Fuente’s factory in the Dominican Republic.
Blend Specifics
- Vitola: Prism (soft box-pressed Corona) 5.6” x 46
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
- Binder: Dominican
- Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
Appearance and Construction
The Ashton Symmetry has a medium to dark chocolate colored wrapper, with a slightly reddish tint. The wrapper feel is slightly oily, very smooth, minimally toothy and velvety to the touch. It has minimal veins, tight invisible seams, and a nicely applied triple cap. With the soft box-pressed shape, there’s a densely packed bunch and an even sponginess throughout.
Flavor and Smoke Characteristics
Cold Aromas: In the wrapper there’s cedar, leather, and a slight meaty, jerky, saltiness. The foot is chocolate, leather, slight floral notes, a sweet cocoa, and a touch of dried fruit. After clipping the cap, the cold draw is leather, touches of spice and white pepper, a little dried fruit, a bit of farmyard / manure and leaves a saltiness on the lips and tongue. Nice firm draw.
First Third: The first third starts with a white pepper spice on the draw and settles into a leather and fig mix. The leather and fig notes are both heavy, so for those looking for this profile will be delighted. Sweet and fruity with a dewiness and dampness to the texture of the smoke; bits of chocolate are noticeable but only barely. The middle is accented with notes of barnyard while a touch of saltiness lies on the back of the tongue and lasts through the finish. The aroma off the foot is a cedar and tobacco note. The burn isn’t razor sharp but performing just fine. The ash is tight, grey and white. As the cigar progresses, the spice drops off a good amount and dried prunes complement the fig notes. The first third shows how complex the flavor profile of this cigar is, and the saltiness being reminiscent of a fishy-type saltiness. The cigar’s profile at this point is a medium to full in body, medium to full in strength and full flavored. The smoke is thick but not chewy thick, more syrupy and molasses textured. The aroma is also of a delicious chocolate and leathery mix, slightly floral, like a cherry blossom and the fig last deep and long on the finish.
Second Third: The ash is tapped off at 1.75 inches and falls to one solid chunk. The second third sees the same notes at play with deeper leather. The fig is still very present and something of cured bacon type of meaty sweetness comes into play. Through the second third, the cigar holds consistent in its complexity and a fair amount of dry cocoa comes in on the draw with the fig. Though the pepper dropped, the smoke leaves a peppery tingle with a slightly gritty texture on the tongue. Good amount of salt lasts on the finish with the leather and notes of earthiness. The band is self-adhesive and comes off ok but slightly awkward due to the paper’s texture. At the end of the second third, the cigar is medium to full in body, medium to full in strength, and medium to full in flavor but still very close to full.
Final Third: The final third sees this cigar ramp up a bit in strength. While the overall flavor has come down, the complexity is still present. The fig and floral notes are still on the draw with a touch of very dry cocoa, with the tobacco, leather, earth and hint of spice dominating the finish. As the cigar begins to warm up, the spice also becomes a bit stronger and the leather and fig holding firm. The ligero is adding a lot of strength at this point, and the body of the smoke still holding a syrupy thick texture. The flavor is falling back but still holding with notes of leather, tobacco, and earthiness with white pepper on the finish. Nearing the end, the finish on the smoke becomes a bit cleaner and crisp and ends with slight notes of metallic licorice. The cigar finishes out at full body, full strength, and medium to medium to full in flavor.
Conclusion
For a smaller vitola, the Ashton Symmetry is very stout, rich, and flavorful and being very complex in it’s first two thirds. In the final third the power becomes the more dominant characteristic. Throughout, the cigar carries notes of fig, leather and salt as it’s dominant notes but also has notes of dry cocoa, flora, white pepper, earth and barnyard. It’s very noticeable the cigar was constructed with very well aged tobaccos and toward the end the flavors meld nicely with a good strong tobacco core. The smoke is very smooth and creamy, with nice billows that roll off the tongue, though it does leave a gritty tingle coating the tongue. This cigar leaves a room note of chocolate and leather in the air with its tobacco aroma. There’s a good emphasis on balance and refinement early on in the smoke but toward the end and as the heat becomes stronger, that balance starts to break down.
Similar cigars would be Diamond Crown Julius Caesar, Davidoff Puro d’Oro, Ashton VSG
Smoking time on this cigar was 2 hours.