Avalon – Juke Red
Posted By ironmeden on August 18, 2008
This week starts off the Cigar Rights of America Freedom Tour in New York City. We are very lucky here in the Twin Cities to be one of two stops on this tour on Wednesday evening, the other being in Milwaukee. Here is a list of the scheduled attendees for the event in Minneapolis at r.Normans:
Carlito Fuente, Arturo Fuente Cigars
Christian Eiroa, Camacho Cigars
Jose Oliva, Oliva and NUB Cigars
Keith K. Park, Prometheus/God of Fire Cigars
Nick Perdomo, Tabacelera Perdomo
Paolo Garzaroli, Graycliff Cigars
Rocky Patel, Rocky Patel Cigars
Tim Ozgener, CAO Cigars
I’m looking forward to talking with Rocky, Nick Perdomo and Paolo Garzaroli. To me its quite amazing to get these type of cigar industry leaders here in this area. Not to put this area down, but most people don’t think of the Twin Cities right off the bat when they think of leading cigar consumers. My first thoughts would be Chicago, New York, any large city in Texas and of course any city in Florida.
You may ask the reason why the Twin Cities is getting this event? I can tell you the reason, its due to two guys who are dedicated in this area to cigars and a customer friendly atmosphere at their 2 shops, Tobacco Grove in Maple Grove, MN and Burn in Burnsville, MN. Jeff Haugen and Joel Rogers have been a leader in this area for cigar aficionado’s since the early 90′s and have raised their stature with the leading cigar manufacturers in putting Minnneapolis/St. Paul on the map. Not only are their stores packed to the ceiling with the most famous cigars on the market, Fuente, Gurkha, Oliva, CAO, they will always try new cigars on the market such as Kristoff, Arganese and the cigar i’m smoking tonight, Avalon. Their customer’s will then know if it’s on their shelves, they have went through a very strict tasting by Jeff and Joel as well as their top notch employees. But that is why personally I enjoy their stores, because they will always have something new for us to try.
This is not to take away from the other great stores in this area, but having seen these guys over the last 5 years work as hard as they have, it is truly an inspiration to a guy like me who has future ambitions in this industry.
Now yesterday I went into Tobacco Grove to work on our cigar club’s website and when I went in and looked around I saw a cigar that Elvis and I have been trying to get a sample of for over 2 years. We had talked with the owners of Avalon a few times, written emails and were always told a box would soon be on the way for review and to share with our club members. At one time we had thought they folded shop since their website didn’t work for a while, but recently they have released some new lines. Being late to the game with a line of cigars is rare for Elvis and I, we try to find the latest smoke available and get out a review.
I picked up the Juke Red which measures 7 x 38, which would probably be considered a Lancero. I was quite impressed with the band. With a copper edging on the top and bottom, the front of the cigar has a older black gentleman with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. The back end of the cigar is red with the name Avalon in very descriptive lettering.
This is their Full flavored cigar in the line of Juke’s. The wrapper is Nicaraguan Rosado, the binder Sumatran and the filler is Nicaraguan. This description sure spells out full flavor.
The cigar itself has a slight reddish hued wrapper with a pigtail at the top of the cigar and the foot of the cigar tapered off. The smell of the cigar has a slight sweetness.
I clipped off the top of the cigar and lit the foot with my Xikar lighter. After the foot had burned off the tapering I had a very complex first draw. There was a little bitterness to the draw. After a few minutes that went away. This is a very robust cigar at the start with a little spice to go along with the complexity. The cigar did start to flower about an inch in.
Through the 1/4 point of the cigar, it had a rustic hearty flavor, it was difficult to really pick out certain flavors.
At the halfway point the cigar seemed to calm down and lighten up a bit. I was getting a fruity cherry flavor. This didn’t last long but the complexity was still there.
Towards the end of the cigar it seemed to ramp up and I was tasting a little dirt and ash tastes.
This cigar is sure an interesting smoke. I would recommend this for a cigar smoker who really wants to try something different. I may have to have a few more to truly get a feel of this cigar. At this time i’ll give it a 3 out of 5.
Loading ...
[...] Go to the author’s original blog: Avalon – Juke Red [...]