Asylum Puts Two Blends in One Box for Serenity Now, Insanity Later

At this week’s 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show, CLE Cigar Co. will show off a new line of Asylum cigars that features two different blends in the same box. 

The project is called Serenity Now, Insanity Later. Serenity Now is one blend, Insanity Later is another. The cigars were developed by Christian Eiroa, who says he wanted to create one blend that was “smooth and refined” and another that was “aggressive, complex and bold.”

Serenity now uses a Connecticut wrapper—it’s unclear where the wrapper was grown—over tobaccos from Honduras and an undisclosed South American country. Last year, CLE Cigar Co. announced that it now owned a farm in an undisclosed South American country and used tobacco from that farm in a number of its new releases.

Insanity Later is the bolder blend with a Mexican San Andrés habano wrapper over an undisclosed blend. Both blends are made at The CLE Factory in Honduras.

There will be three sizes for the line:

• Serenity Now/Insanity Later 50×5 (5 x 50) — $8 (Box of 100, $800)
• Serenity Now/Insanity Later 54×6 (6 x 54) — $10 (Box of 100, $1,000)
• Serenity Now/Insanity Later 60×6 (6 x 60) — $11 (Box of 100, $1,100)

Each size will be packed in 100-count boxes that contain 50 of each blend. CLE says that it had to acquire special machinery to produce the boxes, which feature acrylic panels that allow the cigars to be displayed even when the boxes are closed.

“Originally, I wasn’t happy that Christian created this brand without consulting me,” said Tom Lazuka, co-founder of Asylum, in a press release. “But I quickly came to understand the symbolism behind [the] brand and the blends are fantastic.”

This is not the first time that Asylum has sold two different cigars in the same box. In 2018, the company introduced the Asylum Medulla Oblongata, a 50-count box that contained the same blend, but 25 cigars were round and the other 25 were box-pressed. Last year, the company got rid of the 50-count boxes in favor of 25-count boxes that contained just one type of cigar.

CLE Cigar Co. says it expects to ship the cigars in March or April.