Cigar Review: Avo Limited Edition 2010

Super Robusto, 5.5” x 55 ring gauge, approx. $17.50
Honesty is policy here on the Tiki Bar, so I’ll start this review with an honest confession--I never really cared much for Avo cigars before this. I liked the 787, but the others I’ve had always struck me as over-priced and under-performing--at least for how I enjoy my smokes. This Limited Edition 2010 (LE10), though, is a different beast altogether. I had my first at the Avo event last Saturday and was blown away by the full body and full flavor of Avo Uvezian’s 84th birthday celebration cigar. I smoked another just three days later for this review, then another just last night as it was the free “members room” cigar at Burns. This cigar starts with Dominican-grown ligero for the filler...and then it ends there, too. That’s right, the entire filler is ligero leaf. They added a Mexican-grown Sumatran binder leaf and finished it off with a dark Ecuadorian sungrown wrapper. The resulting stick was limited to “10,000 worldwide” according to the Avo website, but it’s not clear if that means 10,000 sticks or 10,000 boxes.

This cigar was beautiful to look at. The bands with the Avo logo and Avo’s silhouette are classy and go perfectly with the dark, oily wrapper of the stick. The color was a dark chocolate brown with very little mottling. There was lots of oil and no blemishes whatsoever. The wrapper had aromas of leather, hay and a just a little barnyard; the foot had more hay along with some chocolate. The prelight draw on every sample I smoked was great. I got flavors of chocolate along with a damp earth and hay undertone that seems to be present in most Davidoff products.

Initial puffs were marvelously full-bodied and amazingly complex, featuring hints of bittersweet chocolate, espresso bean and leather as well as an earthiness with a touch of hay. Getting it lit was a chore as the all-ligero filler really does not want to light, even with a triple-flame torch. There was a nice spice on the lips and the retrohale and finish had more of that hay as well as roasted nuts and what I heard someone refer to as “damp mushrooms,” which I suppose is an earthiness but with something more to it. There really was a ton of flavor in this cigar. The rest of the first third was propelled by those coffee and chocolate flavors, along with a nice black pepper and the undercurrent of all those other flavors.

Normally I expect Davidoff-made cigars to be perfect in construction, and usually they are, but two of the three LE10s I smoked had the same problem: too much glue on the band. In two instances removal of the band tore a large chunk of wrapper tobacco because of overenthusiastic glue application. The first time this meant no further problems and the cigar smoked straight through. The second time it ruined the cigar toward the end, making it look like a cartoon exploding cigar. To make matters worse, I saw several other people having the same problem at the event last weekend. I would recommend that you be extremely careful removing the bands, maybe waiting for the burn to get very close to the band to heat up the glue before removing.

During the second third there were even stronger coffee flavors--practically a Turkish coffee--along with hints of chocolate and hay from earlier. The ash was holding on for an inch or more and the burn line was very even, which was also remarkable considering the ligero-heavy nature of the LE10.

The fullness of this cigar was really off the hook. the finish was long, the smoke hung thickly around my head, and every other puff made my throat react with a cough--and I loved it! The last third was intensely earthy, but still with undercurrents of strong black coffee and cocoa powder. This is a cigar that aficionados of full-bodied cigars should not pass by, even at the super-premium price tag. Even those who would not normally gravitate to the mild and medium flavor profiles that Davidoffs are famous for should try this cigar. The LE10 is a very special, very flavorful cigar that should be savored to the nub and never rushed. Try one on a cool spring evening as you watch the sun setting in the west--you’ll have a great time!

Body: 10/10

Strength: 7/10

Complexity: 9/10

AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2

Construction: 1.5/2

Flavor: 5/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 9.5/10

P.S. One other possible solution to the overglued problem is to just let the cigars sit a while. I have found that when I dig into my humidor for a cigar a year or two old, many times the glue has weakened to a point where the band practically falls off if you look at it sideways. Add to that the fact that the Avo LE10 has tremendous aging potential and I think you can’t go wrong by buying a box and setting some of them aside for the future.