Avo 80th Anniversary

[Ringo]

To me, Avo cigars represent consistent quality in a premium priced cigar that earns it's high prices with quality, not flash. While you rarely see Avo cigars discussed in that gotta have it, new cigar star of the week way, you will often see them on people's lists of their favorite cigars as well as being highly rated in magazines. While I have not smoked as many of them as some, I have never had a bad Avo cigar. They have always been quite satisfying. I usually get the orange label Avo XO series.

When I saw the Avo 80 I decided to see what a "special" Avo cigar was like. It comes in one size only I believe, a 6x52 belicoso. I purchased two singles at around $13 each. This is a very nice looking cigar with an appealingly smooth, shiny brown wrapper. I decided to smoke one of them the other afternoon while sitting on my back patio reading "World Without End" by Ken Follet and drinking my favorite cigar accompaniment, Hawaiian Punch. Sorta like red wine and cigars, I suppose, but sweeter. I like the taste of Hawaiian Punch, I always have since I was a kid, and it's very neutral with cigars. It clears the palate, and if anything the slight sweetness left over contrasts very well with the bitterness of the tobacco. Like strong Cuban coffee coupled with super-sweet Cuban pastries. I long ago stopped having beer with cigars because I always ended up with a bad taste in my mouth before either was halfway through, which ruined both of them, so since I don't drink much alcohol anyway the Hawaiian Punch fills the bill quite nicely.

Since this is not a Hawaiian Punch review, on to the cigar. Like I said it was very appealing visually. However, I had some trouble on the light. There seemed to be a small section at the foot which simply did not want to light. It took me a little while to get the cigar lit and smoking properly; it required getting past the part that was being stubborn. Once the cigar was going the draw was just right, as expected from the consistent Avo line, but I had to correct the burn from time to time and it was always along the line of where I had the trouble lighting the cigar.

Other than those occasional corrections the cigar drew perfectly, and I really hate to get bogged down on the burn issues because the cigar was so enjoyable otherwise. I know for a fact that Avo means quality - I know it first hand from smoking them. So I am inclined to look past this one's burn issues with the expectation that it won't happen again. There were no visual indicators of a problem with the way that the cigar was constructed, so it may have been "one of those things." If my next one does this then that's another story, but I do not expect it to. Not an Avo; not an Avo special release.

The flavor of the Avo has always been the draw for me. I don't buy Avo's to impress, I don't buy them because everybody is raving about them - I buy them because they consistently taste great. And the Avo 80th did, in spades. There are a lot of great cigars being produced these days. Some of them grab you and hit you over the head with their wonderful flavors. No complaints there! It's a cigar lovers market these days to be sure. Ask anyone who was smoking in 1998 - the average cigar in today's shop is better than almost anything made in 1998, for any price. But as great as these new cigars are, you can always recognize tobacco with good breeding. Tobacco that has been grown for the utmost quality and then refined and kept consistent over the years. After a while it develops a certain something, something hard to define but that you know when you have. The Avo 80th has it. As you smoke it's as if you are smoking the many years of tobacco that came from the same place before it. Make no mistake - the Avo 80th is a strong, full flavored cigar. Don't let the (relatively) light colored wrapper fool you in this age of super dark oscuros. This is a big cigar, but there is not a trace of harshness, not from the very first puff to the very last. It starts out as a somewhat mild and unassuming, yet pleasant, cigar; but once it gets going you will enjoy thick clouds of wonderful, full flavored, quality tobacco that keeps getting better and better until you (regrettably) reach the nub and burn your fingers trying to get every last bit of it.

I am going to ignore the burn issues for this review, which is a testament to how much I respect the quality of Avo cigars. I do not expect this to happen with the next one. If it does then I'll deal with it then. The issues were not really that bad, just unexpected from this particular cigar. They certainly did not ruin my enjoyment of the flavor, which was so good that it trumped any issue short of being unsmokable. So I am rating this one as if it did not have the burn issues because Avo has earned that right. 93/100