Avo Compañero (LE09) Thursday, Apr 29 2010 

Avo and Cigar Reviews , , , , , , Matt 12:32 pm

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Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Cuban Seed Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Three types of Dominican Ligero and a Peruvian Seco leaf
Size: Toro 6.0″ x 54 ring

The Compañero is Mr. U’s 83rd Birthday Cigar.  Most everyone who is into cigars knows that every year Avo releases a Limited Edition cigar to celebrate Mr. Avo Uvezian’s birthday.   Last year in April of 2009 I had th honor of attending one of his many birthday parties.  Even at 83 Mr.U is still touring the country celebrating his birthday with his fans.  At this celebration I picked up a box of the LE09′s [l-ee-oh-nines] as they are also known as. 320x240Mr U was gracious enough to sign the box for me.  The party was a lot of fun and many great cigars were smoked, the greatest of which was the Compañero.  I decided that night that the LE09 would become my son’s birthday cigar…  that is, it would be the cigar I smoked to celebrate my son’s birthday in April each year until my box was gone (there are 10 cigars in a box).  As it turned out, I was sick this year for my son’s birthday so I decided to hold off and smoke the cigar to celebrate both his and my birthday, which happens to be today.  So Happy Birthday to me.

It is a handsome cigar with a dark wrapper and a good draw.  It starts off with a blast of pepper followed up by earth, leather, and spice.  Easily the most robust Avo I have ever smoked, it does mellow a little as you near the second third of the cigar and develops notes of coffee and cream and a bit of  wood/cedar.  There is also a subtle sweetness now that may have been hidden by that initial onslaught of rich and peppery flavors.  In the last third it really picks up again with lots of leather and earth and it finally starts to exhibit that tell-tale Kelner mustiness that is often associated with Avo cigars. It has a bit of pepper on the finish at this point as well.

The Compañero is a great smoke and easily my favorite Avo of them all.  I look forward to next April when I smoke my next one.

 

Perdomo Reserve Criollo 10th Anniversary Wednesday, Apr 21 2010 

Cigar Reviews and CigarsDirect.com and Perdomo , , , , , , Matt 9:17 pm

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Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Cuban-Seed Criollo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: Robusto 5.0″ x 54 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

Celebrating 10 years of the Perdomo Reserve line of cigars, Tabacalera Perdomo released the 10th Anniversary Edition sometime last year (if memory serves).  Dressed in a smooth and oily cuban-seed Criollo wrapper the 10th Anniversary is a good looking cigar.  They are available in five sizes:

  • Figurado 5.75″ x 56
  • Robusto 5.0″ x 54
  • Epicure 6.0″ x 54
  • Churchill 7.0″ x 54
  • Torpedo 7.0″ x 54

Today I am smoking the beefy little robusto.  The ring gauge is a little large for my tastes and feel awkward to smoke, but the draw was excellent.  I don’t normally think of a five inch cigar as being all that short, but this one felt shorter than it was because of the HUGE 10th anniversary band.  It was so big I had to take it off before I started smoking it.  Luckily it came off very easily and did no damage ot the wrapper.  Upon lighting the cigar I am greeted by a creamy and decadent aroma the goes perfectly with the smooth, creamy, and buttery flavors of toasted almond, cafe au lait and wood.  The flavors were a contradiction, rich yet at the same time mild in body.  All this was nicely balanced with a light spice on the finish.  The smoke builds in body as I progressed through the cigar.  Eventually the creaminess subsided replaced by more woodsy flavors and spice.  Disaster struck in the last third when I heard a “crack” and the saw the wrapper begin to fall apart.  I don’t know what happened because up to this point the smoke was perfect in almost every way, draw, burn, ash, flavors, you name it.  I did what I could to hold the cigar together so I could finish it.  I was really enjoying it and I managed to keep it smokable until I was done with it.  I have smoked my share of Perdomo cigars and construction has never been an issue so I’d just chalk this incident up to a bit of bad luck and I consider it a fluke.

There have been a few occasions lately where I have found myself very pleasantly surprised by Criollo cigars and I can add this one to that list.  I thought it was an excellent, very smooth and enjoyable cigar that starts off mild and builds into a nice medium bodied smoke.  This one is definitely worth a try.

 

My Father Le Bijou 1922 Petite Robusto Wednesday, Apr 14 2010 

Cigar Reviews and CigarsDirect.com and Pepin Garcia , , , , , , Matt 9:50 am

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Country: Nicaraguan
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: Petite Robusto 4.5″ x 50 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The My Father Le Bijou 1922 is an extension of the My Father line which was created by Jose Pepin Garcia’s Son Jamie to honor his father Pepin.  Well Pepin created the Le Bijou himself to honor his father, Jamie’s grand father.  Le Bijou means The Jewel and the 1922 is Pepin’s father’s birth year.  It is a good looking cigar.  The wrapper has a dry matte finish to it and it looks like a carved piece of dark wood.  This is another cigar that sports 2 cigar bands.  They are ornate, and beautiful, and large which is odd looking on this petite robusto as most of its length is covered up by the two bands.  Though dual bands have become a bit of an annoyance for me lately as they have become more commonplace; on a positive note the bands on the Le bijou always come off very easily and I have not had one yet that damaged the wrapper.  Because this vitola is so short and the bands are so large, you really need to remove one if not both of the bands before you smoke it.  Again, annoying but not too much so since they do come off easily.

All of the minor annoyances with the bands are quickly forgotten when you light this little “jewel” up.  It starts off with very full and robust, meaty flavors and a peppery kick. It then mellows out a bit and there are notes of wood and earth balanced nicely with a bit of mocha and subtle fruit notes.  There is a creamy characteristic to the flavors as well.  As the smoke progressed into the nub (flavor country) there is lots of spice and those rich meaty flavors return as well.  I literally burned my fingertips a little smoking this cigar down as far as I could before it just started to hurt a little too much.

The cigar smoked well with a good draw and a nice even burn though I did need to make one small correction. After that the burn was problem free.  The ash held well but was a bit papery on the edges and it produced lots and lots of thick white smoke and a strong room bouquet that I found very pleasant.  This full bodied little cigar has earned a spot on my list of box purchase worthy smokes.

Here are a few more takes on this smoke from the blogsphere…

 

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