Asylum’s New Sensorium Merges Big Ring Gauges with Big Price Tags

The Asylum brand has long been known for offering big ring gauge cigars, and with its newest line it will soon be known for offering a cigar known for its big price tags.

It’s called Sensorium, and it is a Honduran puro that is notable for using a tobacco called Pinareño, a Cuban-seed tobacco not normally grown by the Eiroa family due in large part to its susceptibility to disease and the difficulty that comes with cultivating it. The line also uses Honduran corojo grown by the Eiroas in the Jamastran Valley.

“We used some first-generation Piñareno seed from Cuba, my father grew in Jamastran,” said Christian Eiroa via a press release. “He has had this seed for decades, but had not grown it since 1979, when blue mold swept through Honduras in 1977. Any attempts to grow it in Honduras have yielded continuous losses of 25 – 40% on the field, due to its susceptibility to everything. Piñareno is truly the tastiest tobacco I have ever tasted, and I feel it is worth the sacrifice.”

Sensorium is being offered in two sizes; first is the Asen 18, which uses the 11/18 perfecto vitola that measures 6 x 52 at its thickest point and is found in a number of CLE and Asylum releases. The other size is the Asen 60, a 6 x 60 gordo. The cigars are priced at $50 and $60 each, respectively. Both sizes are presented in individual coffins and offered in 20-count boxes. The company plans to produce 10,000 cigars per size, per year.

The line is scheduled to begin shipping to stores next week, though Eiroa said that the cigars are only being offered to “those with whom we can sit down and explain the cigar to.”

Update (May 5, 2023) — The company issued a press release and images today, which have been added to the story.

Images courtesy of CLE Cigar Co.