At TPE 2025 in February, I was chatting with Tom Lazuka, co-founder of the Asylum Cigars brand, and asking him about what he was working on. He told me that the company was working on a flavored cigar that would taste like a banana split. I distinctly remember him casually mentioning that he felt like they had nailed the flavor.
Fast forward a month or two, and CLE Cigar Co./Asylum was announcing the line: the Asylum 13 Split Personality.
The name is both a subtle hint of a banana split and part of Asylum’s yin- yang approach to naming cigars, which has included pairings like Medulla/Oblongata and Serenity Now/Insanity Later.
While those releases included two different lines, this is a singular line. CLE told our Brian Burt that this is a Honduran puro, though gave no details about the flavorings.
It’s offered in five vitolas:
Asylum 13 Split Personality 40×4 (4 x 40) — $6.50 (Box of 25, $162.50)
Asylum 13 Split Personality 50×5 (5 x 50) — $10.50 (Box of 25, $262.50)
Asylum 13 Split Personality 54×6 (6 x 54) — $11.50 (Box of 25, $287.50)
Asylum 13 Split Personality 60×6 (6 x 60) — $12.50 (Box of 25, $312.50)
Asylum 13 Split Personality 70×7 (7 x 70) — $14 (Box of 20, $280)
Cigar Reviewed: Asylum 13 Split Personality 50×5
Country of Origin: Honduras
Factory: The CLE Factory
Wrapper: Honduras
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Honduras
Length: 5 Inches
Ring Gauge: 50
Shape: Round
MSRP: $10.50 (Box of 25, $262.50)
Release Date: June 2025
Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3
Even before I see the cigars, I can smell them through their cellophane and the thick plastic bags we use. Opening the bag reveals a scent of sweet banana candy, but once I reach for the cigars, my brain stops thinking about the smell. I find some of the cigars in the bag feel abnormally soft. Fortunately, two cigars feel pretty close to normal, and a third is mostly normal, but all of the cigars we bought are a lot softer than a normal cigar, and there are a couple spots on each cigar that are particularly soft. As for the aroma, it smells like some sort of banana candy-flavored ice cream with some butterscotch. The wrapper aromas are full and entirely artificial with zero scents of tobacco. The feet are a bit dialed back, probably medium-full, but provide a more refined version of the flavoring: butterscotch, banana, vanilla. It’s not really the smell I’d like in my cigar, but if the goal was for a cigar to smell like a banana ice cream dessert, it’s been executed very well. Unfortunately, the first cold draw isn’t my favorite. Like with most flavored cigars, there’s a sweetened cap, which means that my lips now have some sugary substance on them. However, if I don’t like my lips, I don’t get much of the sugar. I can still taste the banana sweetness, but it’s an incomplete flavor without the sugar. And I can also taste the non-sweet flavor, which provides this very bitter flavor. On the first cigar, especially, it creates this contrasting clash of flavors that I don’t enjoy. The second cigar is better in part because the non-sweet flavors are more musty, but when they mix with the sweetness, the latter tends to mask the non-sweet flavors, which provides a more cohesive profile. The third cigar is somewhat in between them and creates this weird combination that reminds me of fried eggplant.
In an effort to try to taste as much of the tobacco as I can, I don’t actively lick my lips during the first puff. It means that the first few seconds tend to be without the flavoring—it’s a very generic woody and dry tobacco flavor—but after three or four seconds, the banana kicks in and then if I lick my lips and get the sugar, it tastes close to the banana split flavor that is the clear goal. Unfortunately, on the first cigar, there’s just something weird happening where those two flavors are creating some bizarre vegetal flavor, almost like mushy asparagus. Fortunately, if I want it to go away, I can just lick my lips and the sugar takes over, but during the first cigar, I’m confused as to what CLE has done. The other two cigars are much better because the asparagus combination never emerges. Instead, the non-flavored parts provide some woody flavors with earth, leather, aged tobacco and hints of ketchup. The flavoring is a lot stronger and delivers more sugar than banana, but there’s also some candied walnuts and vanilla. Without licking the lips, the finish tends to be bitter but there’s some nice nuttiness. Retrohaling is far and away the most interesting, especially when I can get what I imagine is the intended combination: waffle cone, banana, leather, white pepper, saltiness and varying amounts of woodiness. With the exception of some puffs when the woodiness dominates or when I lick my lips, the retrohales tend to be much more balanced. They finish drier and spicier, though sometimes get a bit metallic. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus, and strength is mild. While I don’t have to make any corrections with my lighter, the burn line is below average, and I’m puffing a bit quicker due to my concerns with the soft spots.
As is the case with most cigars with a sweetened tip that I’ve smoked, as I smoke, there’s a very sharp decline in the sugar on my lips. By the midpoint of the cigar, it’s probably less than half of the intensity it initially was, and it’s only declining with each puff. Occasionally, puffs will have a very distinct artificial banana flavor, but for the most part, the flavoring is gone unless I lick my lips and really go searching for it. Instead, there’s a quite plain flavor with flavors of aged tobacco, earthiness, woodiness and bitter creaminess. Compared to the first third of the Asylum 13 Split Personality 50×5, it’s quite tame. Every half dozen or so puffs, I get some unique flavor like candied walnuts, a blast of sugar, or some lime—but it’s otherwise quite boring. Retrohales are slightly more enjoyable with nuttiness joined by some acidity that occasionally brings out some mustard, but otherwise it’s more of the same. The first cigar’s asparagus flavor shows up every once in a while, but it too is mostly gone. Flavor is full, body is medium, and strength is mild. Each cigar needs help due to some seriously uneven burns.
By the final third, even licking my lips will only provide a second or two of faint sugar. It’s mild enough that it’s almost like the sensation after eating some honey-glazed protein where there’s a mild amount of the sauce on my lips. Oddly, I’m enjoying the tobacco flavor more than before. It’s more metallic but I’m able to taste a lot more sensations that provide for a more complex profile. The first cigar has damp earthiness and woodiness over some bitter creaminess and plain cracker flavors. The other two Asylum 13 Split Personality Robustos are much more aligned: saltiness accenting an earthy core with nuttiness, minerals and bitter white bread. Somehow, I’m still tasting mushy asparagus on occasional puffs of the first cigar. Given that there’s been absolutely no sign of it from the other two cigars, I think it’s safe to say that wasn’t intended. Retrohales again show minor diversion: the first cigar is drier, which makes it seem like white crackers over barnyard, while the other two cigars are more bready with burnt white rice, saltiness and, on the third cigar, a mild herbal flavor that reminds me of marijuana. The finish gets harsher, though it’s more than palatable. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus, and strength remains non-existent. Even after the deliberate attempts to correct the burn line in the second third, all three cigars continue to have uneven burns, though given how quickly the cigars are burning, I don’t need to touch the cigars up in the final third.
Final Notes
As we typically do, we purchased five cigars. Unlike most cigars, which are stored in a humidor, we kept these outside of the humidor in a plastic bag with a small (8g) 69 percent Boveda pack. This is due to the added flavoring and my desire not to have all the rest of the cigars we review smell like banana ice cream.
Because I didn’t feel the cigars upon arrival, I don’t know if the storage choice contributed to the soft spots, but I suspect that it didn’t.
CLE lists these cigars at 5 x 50, above are the measurements I found for the three cigars smoked for this review.
If the humidity was to blame for the mushiness, I’d expect the weights to be higher, but they were abnormally low. We’ve measured 32 other cigars that were between 4.9-5.1 inches long and 49.5.50.5 RG. Those cigars measured 10.64-15.7g with an average of 13g.
I get a kick out of this being banana-flavored. A decade ago, I went to a whisky tasting and briefly chatted with the tasting ambassador who had decades of experience. He told me that when doing these events, if people told him they found some sweetness they couldn’t identify, he was trained to suggest it was banana. This is because bananas have a very subtle and neutral flavor compared to most sweet things.
Outside of tobacco, I’ve probably spent more time reading information about bananas than any other crop. I’m fascinated by the extinction of the Gros Michel banana in the mid-20th century, the adoption of the Cavendish and the issue of the Cavendish’s extinction.
For those of you on the more adventurous side, try eating a slightly overripe banana with the skin on. The texture is still not my favorite, but the difference in flavor makes it tempting.
Describing these cigars as “full in flavor” doesn’t really seem all that helpful. In the first half, these cigars are substantially fuller than even the most flavorful non-flavored cigar.
While I don’t have a great way of objectively measuring the flavoring, many signs point to the first cigar having more of it than the other two. My best guess is that the very lifelike, mushy asparagus flavor was a result of the flavor recipe not being executed properly.
I find it very interesting that while companies can make a flavored cigar that smells very much like something, the taste is very much dependent on the sweetened cap, which dissipates as the cigar is smoked. I’ve yet to smoke a flavored cigar that has anywhere near the same amount of the intended artificial flavoring in the second half as it did on the first few puffs.
If you are a flavor scientist and are willing to chat, I have some questions about how all of this works. For example, is it the case that the reason why I found so much of the flavor to be rather plain was because of how exotic the added flavoring was? Sort of how a piece of fruit might not seem all that sweet if you just finished a soda, but if that same piece of fruit was the first thing you consumed all day, you’d probably find it sweeter? I don’t know how different the flavoring process is compared to that used by other companies, but in general, I find flavored cigars to have pretty boring tobacco notes compared to their non-flavored peers. I suppose that could be an indictment of the blend, but it would make sense to me if it’s actually a result of how my palate has been overly enticed by the added flavoring.
CLE Cigar Co. advertises on halfwheel.
The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
Final smoking time was a very quick one hour and 10 minutes.
Site sponsors Famous Smoke Shop, Fox Cigar and JR Cigar carry the Asylum 13 Split Personality 50×5. Corona Cigar Co. carries other vitolas but not the robusto.
85
Overall Score
I’d say this was mission accomplished. The Asylum 13 Split Personality smells remarkably like some sort of banana ice cream dessert and the first third can provide some moments where the banana split is unmistakable. However, the execution could still be improved. There’s no way that CLE Cigar Co. wants the cigar to taste like the first cigar I smoked, which produced a distinct mushy asparagus flavor, combined with all of the other flavor aspects like actual sugar and notes of burning tobacco. If having to pick a flavored cigar, banana flavored wouldn’t be my go-to, but it worked better than I would have imagined.
I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.