Curivari Achilles Mirmidones

By Tony Casas | May 1, 2017

Oddly enough El Paso saw snow in the mountain areas this weekend. Snow. In the middle of the spring. What is going on in this world? Anyways, today was nice and crisp with no wind so I found myself out back with a Curivari Achilles Mirmidones and a bottle of The Bruery The Grade.

The Good Stuff:

Curivari isn’t a household name, yet every release they put out has been fantastic gaining them a ton of ground in the cigar community. In 2015 They released an update to their Achilles blend, the Mirmidones. Achilles was a Trojan war hero in Greek Mythology, while Mirmidones are the warriors who traded under Achilles. The Curivari Achilles Mirmidones features a Mexican San Andres wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan filler rolled at the Plesencia Cigar Factory. The blend is offered in three sizes: Achilles Mirmidones 52 (5 x 52), Achilles Mirmidones 54 (6 x 54), and the Archilles Mirmidones 58 (6 3/4 x 58). Each format features a soft-boxpres and come packaged in boxes of 10 ranging between $8.50 and $10 a stick. I purchased these over from out good friends at Ford on Fifth.

Size: 6 x 54
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $9.50
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Pairing: The Bruery The Grade (Baltic Porter 7.6% ABV)

Prelight:

The Curivari Achilles Mirmidones starts off with a very consistent, dark brown wrapper. The wrapper showcases a whole mess of very gritty, tough tooth as it almost feels like sand paper in my hand. There are some slight oils, and the wrapper itself is very thick, hard, and dense. As I mentioned before the Curivari Achilles Mirmidones features of very light soft-boxpress leading up to it’s round triple-wrapped cap. The cigar feels very firm, and very heavy with almost no give as I squeeze the cigar between my fingers. The cigar is polished off with a detailed red, white, and gold band with the words “Achilles”, and “Tabacaos Legendario” printed across the front.

The wrapper of the cigar gives off some spice, musk, and dirt while the foot of the cigar gives off much more sweetness, a bit of cedar, and more spice. The cap cut clean after a bit of strength clipping through the thick wrapper using my Xikar double bladed cutter. The cold draw features lots of musk, dirt, tartness, sweetness and spice.

First Third:

The Curivari Achilles Mirmidones started off with a bold little cayenne pepper punch which only lasted through the first few puffs before fading away letting the cigar showcase some great sweetness, musk, spice, tartness, maple, espresso, and plum. What an incredible way to start off a cigar. The draw on the cigar pumps out mouthful, after mouthful of thick, white smoke which lingers for what seems like forever before dissipating while the cigar lets loose a ton of stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a trail of semi-flaky white and light gray ash.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Curivari Achilles Mirmidones and the flavors are still blazing, leading with the maple, musk, and spice backed by sweetness, espresso, cocoa, and now a nice little floral flavor has ventured into the profile. The retrohale leaves behind a lot of pepper that I don’t really pick up in the smoking experience anymore as well as a good amount of spice and more maple. I am really glad I chose the pairing I did for this cigar as the maple flavors have been dominant in both the cigar and the beer. I close out the second third with nothin in terms of nicotine.

Finish:

Into the final third of the Curivari Achilles Mirmidones and this cigar is still pumping out the flavor. It leads now with Maple, cocoa, and spice backed by musk, sweetness, a bit of a tart, and more of that floral mixture. I love the flavor profile in this thing. The burn line has been flawless through the two hours it took me to take this cigar down to the nub. I never once had to reach for my torch to touch up, or relight the cigar. I experienced no harshness, nor extended heat in the final inch and I took this cigar down until my fingers were burning.

Overview:

Curivari continues to impress me and the Curivari Achilles Mirmidones is probably top of my list in terms of their portfolio. I’ve smoked quite a few of these, but never fully gotten around to reviewing them. The flavor profile is incredible, bold, and extremely complex while the construction and experience were flawless. The price? Exactly what you’d think you’d pay for a cigar like this, even a bit lower. This is a cigar that can easily find it’s way into an everyday rotation for me and is box worthy for sure. I think seasoned cigar smokers who enjoy bold, full-bodied cigars will love this, as it might be a bit overwhelming for those new to cigar smoking.

Pairing:

Brewed in Pacentia, California the Bruery The Grade is a 7.6% ABV Baltic porter brewed with maple syrup and fenugreek. From the first time I smoked this cigar and tasted the maple in it I knew I wanted to pair it with this beer, let’s see how it matched up. The Grade leads with a whole mess of sweet maple syrup, roasted malt, cocoa, and espresso with a surprisingly light mouthfeel before finishing crisp with more maple syrup, black licorice, roasted malt, and a real light floral flavor. I don’t think I need to confirm it, but I will, this was a pairing made in heaven. The maple syrup, cocoa, malt, and floral flavors married up flawlessly to those flavors in the Curivari Achilles Mirmidones. Both the cigar, and the beer were very full bodied so neither one overpowered each other.