Asylum 867 Packaging Unveiled

Following last week’s news that Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon was being rebranded, we now know what the cigars will look like.

CLE Cigar Co./Asylum has shown off the packaging for the Asylum 867 brand, which is the new name of the brand formerly known as Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon. Deadwood Tobacco Co., a store in Deadwood, S.D., and Asylum developed the Chasing the Dragon brand and began selling it as a store exclusive last year. At TPE 2023 in February, CLE announced it would begin selling the line nationwide.

Last week, Christian Eiroa of CLE/Asylum announced that the cigars would be rebranded to the Asylum 867 name. The individual lines—Auntie, Midnight Oil and Zero—will continue to use those names, but both the Deadwood Tobacco Co. and Chasing the Dragon parts of the name are not going to be used on the new packaging.

The Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon Zero box.

This seems to be in response to a lawsuit filed last week by Vaughn Boyd, the former owner of Deadwood Tobacco Co., and Drew Estate against Deadwood Tobacco Co. The plaintiffs claim that a 2016 licensing agreement made between Boyd and Drew Estate—before Boyd sold her shares in Deadwood—grants Drew Estate the exclusive rights to use the Deadwood name for cigar lines.

CLE/Asylum was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, though the Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon line is the product that spurned the lawsuit.

The Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon Auntie box.

A representative for CLE Cigar Co. said that the new packaging should be in stores by mid-September. He declined to comment on whether the company would sell through the remaining Deadwood Tobacco Co. Chasing the Dragon inventory.

The cigars are three different blends of Honduran puros—each offered in three different sizes—infused using a steeping technique and finished with a sweetened cap.

Drew Estate makes and sells a variety of cigars using the Deadwood name, including Sweet Jane, Fat Bottom Betty, Crazy Alice, Baby Jane, Leather Rose and The Girl With No Name.