Tasting Note

The man on the band is Ras Makonnen, a 19th-century governor of the Aksumite Kingdom (now Ethiopia). This region is of particular interest to Nick Melillo of Foundation Cigars. Legend has it that Aksum is the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Imagery and biblical stories aside, the cigar is an engaging composition of Nicaraguan tobacco, Connecticut broadleaf and an Ecuadoran Sumatra-seed wrapper. It’s made in Nicaragua by A.J. Fernandez and used to go by a different name: Metapa. Foundation rebranded the cigar in early 2024. Regardless of what it’s called, Aksum is a sweet-and-spicy smoke with solid underpinnings of coffee bean and earth.