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Stogie Reviews: Avo Maduro Piramide

8 Jul 2008

I’ve always had good, if not stellar experiences with Avo Uvezian cigars. They tend to be very straightforward. Not that there’s anything wrong with a smoke that’s quick and to the point, but something about me—call it my artistic temperament—prefers a bit more complexity in my smokes.

Avo Maduro PiramideThis is why I find “traditional” tasting cigars like Avos, Punches, and others to be solid doubles, or even triples, but rarely homeruns. They get most of the details right, but the big picture isn’t as beautiful as it could be. I could continue mixing and expending various, increasingly clichéd metaphors here, but I think you get my point: I like a challenging cigar.

I’d never tried an Avo Maduro before, and so it was only logical that I pick one up before consigning the whole Avo brand to the “good, but not necessarily my kind of cigar” graveyard. I am very glad I did.

The Avo Maduro Piramide is a handsome and dignified 7 inches by 54 ring gauge figurado. It’s wrapped up neatly and smoothly, with some bumpy tooth here and there that adds a great deal of character to the boot-leather-brown leaf. There cigar is firm, oily, and smells of rich tobacco and freshly sanded wood. The pre-light and fully lit draws are perfect. Just rolling this cigar around in your fingers, lighting it carefully and methodically, and taking your first puff is a tactile treat.

As for the flavor, it’s definitely straightforward. But if any cigar makes a great case for straightforward flavor, it’s this one. It’s blustery and blunt, full of leather and that indescribable, “classic tobacco taste.” There’s not a lot of chocolate or spice to this stick and, frankly, I’m glad. Let 90% of high-end maduros have their cocoa overtones. The Avo Maduro would feel awkward and out of sorts with any sort of sweetness. This stogie is all about the rough, masculine flavors of tobacco and little else. I could easily picture my literary idol Ernest Hemingway chewing on a cigar like this one, perhaps on the deck of his boat off the coast of Cuba.

Perhaps, as Hemingway reminds me, I could stand to trim some excess and needless complexity from my cigars, my life, and my work. After all, a stogie full of flourish and surprise is certainly welcome. But sometimes there’s great beauty in simplicity.

For uncomplicated, yet intriguing flavor, a great aroma, and near-perfect aesthetics, I award the Avo Maduro Piramide four stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

Jon N

photo credit: Stogie Guys

3 Responses to “Stogie Reviews: Avo Maduro Piramide”

  1. Mac and Nudo Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 7:59 am #

    Heck of a review, Jon. You make some excellent points about how to think about tasting cigars.

    I've never been a huge Avo Maduro fan (probably because I expect that sweetness from a maduro), but I can see where you're coming from.

  2. Jon N. Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 5:39 pm #

    Thank you! I, too, tend to look for sweetness in a maduro. It's just one of those "characteristics of the breed" that we're used to seeing. But sometimes a salty, bitter, or spicy maduro is a welcome change of pace. I didn't find much, if any sweetness in the Avo Maduro, and I kind of like it that way.

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