AVO Limited Edition 2005 Review

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown

Filler: Dominican

Price: $12.00

As many of my readers have probably noticed by now, I have never reviewed an AVO. The reason I haven’t is because I haven’t heard much about them, and wasn’t willing to dish out that kind of money for a cigar that could be hit or miss. Well a couple weeks ago, one of my readers asked me if he could send me a couple of AVOs to try out and review. This gave me my opportunity to give this cigar a try, and I have to say, this cigar looks like it is going to be amazing.

The sun grown wrapper looks almost flawless. It is a medium shade of brown with only a couple thin veins. The stick is very solid, which leads me to believe that I am in for a relaxing hour and a half at least. This cigar only has one layer to the cap that sits perfectly flush. There is also a very nice, sweet smell coming off of this cigar. In case you are wondering, these cigars  do not come with a band on them. This cigar also cut and lit with no problems at all.

The flavors literally jumped out right away. At first I got a good helping of spice, but as the first couple puffs came to a close, a good amount of wood came out. The spice continued to pick up throughout the whole first inch. Some good earth tones came out in that period as well.

By about an inch in or so, the cigar mellowed out a bit. The spice became more of an accent flavor while the wood and earth tones took over. There were also some very nice notes of toast that came out to compliment the earth tones. The spice came back a little bit around the end of the first third.

The second third of this cigar was where the flavors really popped. Every puff seemed to have a different combination of flavor.  The notes I was picking out were wood (mainly oak), earth, toast, pepper, and now coffee. These flavors seemed to have a rotation because they weren’t all there at the same time. The toasty and woody notes really started to pick up and sit on the palate while the spice sat on the tongue. By the halfway point of this complex cigar, the flavor becomes very creamy. The flavors all started to be working together.

The last couple inches continued to knock this cigar out of the park.  The oak notes were simply fantastic. And the spice just compliments the earth and wood perfectly. The finish was strong and robust. All of the flavors just seemed to mash together for a great, relaxing experience.

Now the only problem I had with this stick was the burn pattern. I had to correct it a couple times due to one of the veins. But other than that, the draw was very easy. The ash was a medium shade of gray, nicely layered, and held on for about two inches at a time. There was a great amount of thick smoke produced that gave off a very earthy aroma.

This cigar was awesome in almost every aspect. It was definitely one complex cigar. The flavors were great all the way through. I would definitely smoke this cigar again if I could get my hands on a couple more. I give this cigar a 9.5 out of 10.

Thanks for reading,

Zack the Stogie Man