Avo Classic No. 2 - Cigar Review

PROLOGUE

Hold on.

If you're familiar with Portland Meadows, you know Flores has been a hot jock as of late. His new ride is Desert Melody outta CA and is set to go off Race 9 at 8/1 as I type.

Hold on.

Never.
Fired.

Make sure to keep reading for more Kap's Lock Picks later in this post. Oy vey.

THE CIGAR

Avo Classic no. 2
Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper
Dominican binder/filler
5 x 50 Robusto
Courtesy of Cigars City

PRE-LIGHT

Nice milk chocolate complexion with caramel under-tones and a subtle dark green marbling over-top. A couple of veins attach to the hand-feel, but mainly they are smaller and not at all threats to the burn; there is also a tiny bit of spider web veins. Seams are not overly tight, but even and too, noticeable. Foot tobacco has a greenish under-tone to it and several ticks up to dirty blond on its Hershey bar colored self. Packing density there seems medium. Cap is well appointed, but a vein ridges up there and you can feel it on your lips unless you screw it in yer smoke-hole as to avoid it. Charmin squeeze test confirms that medium density with a lively almost exuberant springiness.

Schnoz notes from the shaft are creamy hay and mild tobacco. There is an added grassy note at the foot. I nibble off the cap to a very creamy cold pull with a good bit of hay and grasses. Touch of leather. Smaller touch of something like finely ground white pepper -- might be a little something else in the mix, a green pepper, we'll see. Resistance on the draw is at medium.

LIGHT

10:25am
Toasting the foot gives off the aroma of sweet hay and hazelnuts on a leather backing. The stick is quick to toast and light and is not hurried, but quite accommodating in doing so. First hot pull is very creamy and that component adheres to hay on the immediate draw, then finds the hazelnut coffee as the finish approaches, and then through it. Second hot pull is retro-haled and finds the addition of a very kind and finely ground white pepper which falls to the tongue and prevents before it occurs, an overly sickly sweet cream mouth-feel. Very nice and very well recommended retro-hale here with this Avo. A third hot pull is a nice mixing of the first two and it seems our table is set for the opening act.

Ash is white to medium grey and is building up in tight ladder-rungs with a small trace of exterior flaking. Burn is a bit wavy but not worsening and slow enough to catch itself. Burn-line is razor-thin. Profile is -medium. Construction is holding, and draw is, as well.

ACT I

A fairly delightful smoker, and a smoky one at that. Big bursts of creamy white smoke plumes which leave a very desert-like room-note of pale coffee with sweet cream and traces of vanilla. Off the foot, you can pick up a leather note that seems to dissipate in the room. Draw notes are hazelnut coffee, roasted barely medium with perhaps a least lil bit o' caramel. An occasional retro-hale lets the white pepper not be forgotten. Very sweet creamy and simple mouth-feel. Nice. Good moisture level on account, again, of the white pepper. Backing is a leather which is barely more crisp than a suede and the cream attaches there, as well. A comforting, if not a bit dull, smoke.

Ash drops at an inch of nicely oiled powder, which lacks a bit of density. White pepper is on the draw now, as well. It adds a nice warmth to the sweetness there. Very comfy. It's as if I'm smoking my childhood security blanket.

ACT II

It seems like we get to the second act at a breakneck pace that somehow doesn't impede upon the relaxing offering. Perhaps I've been lulled. White pepper plays a more prominent role here, all other flavors and notes remain. Construction is a beaut and unchanged.

Profile is still at a -medium. Great mouth-feel. Great medium+ legs to the finish which is reminiscent of a hazelnut flavored coffee creamer. Smoke is pluming like -- like -- something that plumes a lot. Sorry, it's Monday and my similes usually don't kick in till Tuesday. White pepper continues to mount and is now with a trace of toasted white bread. Backing is a further away now suede. Blonde coffee and its hazelnut forge ahead as primary flavors.

At the end of the second act, leather resurfaces and a new note comes in, a green something or other. I think that we're in a late transition. Construction notes hold. Draw is unchanged and perfection. Burn is a slightly wavy even. Burn-line id razorsville, baby. Backing is now a sweet hay, as leather is officially a flavor note.

ACT III

Floral notes delineate themselves as that green sense I was getting. The ash clumps again and an inch seems its best. It shows the same consistency as ever. The mouth-fell has picked up a vague woodiness and is a nice brace against the cream. Primary notes are the same hazelnut coffee and now a leather is added. Secondarily, we have white pepper, floral notes I feel as yellow, and traces of toasted artisan white bread. Sweet hay backing. The caramel has flirted twice now at coming on, but now appears to have completely fallen off. Finish is unchanged and too a bit warmer. Smoke itself remains quite cool.

Smoke out-put from each end grows to a full+ and is, I'd imagine, tantalizing to even a non-smoker. Although in all fairness, I've not been a non-smoker since I was six. As the slow burns, all notes huddle closer in a bit of warm dampness. Very nice. I smile a bit. Honey comes in at the band and I reach for a toothpick.

NOTES

Ahhhhhhhhh...

If a Nat Sherman 1930 is akin to smoking a history textbook, this Avo Classic no. 2 is like smoking a well-worn pair of bedroom slippers.

PAIRINGS

Keep it breakfast/lunch; keep it coffee. Do brunch with an iced tea or lemonade. Once the sun goes down and the bar opens, this ain't the stick for that. Music? Something with a concertina, not an accordion.

FINAL GRADE

****B+****

EPILOGUE

11:45ishAM
PORTLAND MEADOWS
Noon (PDT) post time
1-7,4
2-2
3-5
4-4
5-6,8
6-1*
7-1,9
8-9
9-1
10-9,8*

LESS SCHTICK MORE STICK

Mellow: Verily
Coarse: Nope
Sweet: Verily
Spicy: Nope
Savory: Nah
Strength: Pencil-necked geek
Draw: Great
Burn: Wondy
Construction: Marvelous

Primary note: Cream

This was a lot of fun. Good, clean fun.
Archie Comics, Richie Cunningham fun.
I'm gonna go buy myself a nice pair of panties.

Thanks for reading, gentlepersons.