Vitola: Perfecto- 6.625” x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $14
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
A couple years back Avo Cigars, a subsidiary of Davidoff Cigars, released East and West Regional exclusives. At the time, I was working at Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga, TN, and we received several boxes of the East and I can honestly say I wasn’t all that impressed when they arrived. Like many Dominican-heavy blends, Avo cigars tend to age pretty well, so they may have gotten better, but I don’t think I ended up trying it again. I did have a chance several months later to try the West version when I was in California and found it to be a better blend overall, although I liked the vitola of the East better.
For 2020, Avo decided to repeat the idea, but with North and South Regional versions this time. Burns got both editions in this time so I picked up one of each when I saw them. I decided that instead of subjecting both to full reviews and probably multiple smoking of each one, I would just do a short take of each one when I smoked it the first time, although with pairing it with some sort of adult beverage.
I’m starting off today with the Avo Regional North Edition, mainly because I need to write a review of something today and it’s a cold and dry day…and I don’t want to subject the South’s Connecticut Shade wrapper to that environment. The North has fillers from the Dominican Republic (San Vicente Visus and Seco), Honduras (Jamastran Seco), and Peru; a Dominican Hybrid Olor/Piloto Seco binder; and a Dominican wrapper. It comes in boxes of 10, in a single vitola. Fine tobacconists across the fruited plain carry the Avo brand, but if yours doesn’t, check out our sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Notes
The packaging on these is cheap to the extreme…flimsy cardboard boxes that are easy to crush if you’re not careful. They are brightly colored and attractive, but I’m a little surprised at how cheap they’ve gone for the boxes. The regular release boxes are thin wood and the annual Limited Edition releases tend to be elaborate packaging affairs…these fall in the middle price-wise, but far below quality-wise.
The cigar itself was good-looking, which I have come to expect from all the Davidoff brands. It was medium brown with some darker mottling, and an aroma of earth and hay. Due to the smallness of the perfecto foot, there wasn’t really much to smell there…just more grassiness. Once I cut the head, I got a very good cold draw that had notes of hay, light cedar, and citrus.
I opted to pair this cigar with the last of my Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, which I intended to add some water to in order to tame some of the fieriness.
Firing up the cigar I got cedar and hay right up front, with a tangy and slightly sweet citrus note coming on just after that. There was a surprisingly large volume of smoke and I found it to be medium-plus in body although I really didn’t expect the strength of the cigar to be above the low-medium range. There was some short-lived white pepper on the retrohale, along with more cedar.
As I went along I got more hay and cedar, along with a nice leather and earth note, while sweeter citrus notes backed those up and balanced the whole thing rather nicely. The whiskey went very well with it, especially in the “water-downed” state that I made it. I did have a couple times when I started to get sap out of the foot and had to recut, which always drives me crazy…and is the reason I avoid torpedo-tipped cigars most of the time. It held up well to those recuts.
The Avo North Regional Edition was a very good cigar that holds up well in their lineup. I do wish they made it in a Robusto or Churchill size that wouldn’t tend to have the sap buildup of the torpedo-tipped perfecto, but…that’s the way it goes.
