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The Avalon Cigar Review Thread

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Call me Ishmael.
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
1,626
The Avalon Cigar Reviews

First, let me thank Tom Ramsey and the Avalon Cigar Co. for generously donating three cigars for each member of the Cigar Pass review panel which was assembled to smoke them.

The cigars were sent out to a group of six of us about a month ago and were allowed to rest for at least a week by all who reviewed them. The cigars all arrived in boxes that had been flattened during transit, but the cigars were undamaged and I don’t believe that this in any way affected the review process.

Each member of the review team used a cigar analysis sheet generously provided by Ginseng to guide us in our reviews. These analysis sheets allowed us to review the cigars in an objective way, which is a true challenge since smoking a cigar is a unique and subjective process. Each cigar was judged on a 20pt scale. The number of possible points became a little confusing since a typo on the review sheet lists 25pts possible, but the total number of possible points was only 20 and I adjusted the review scale to reflect this. Please don’t be confused if you see some of the members’ reviews list their scores out of a possible 25pts.

I will now present the reviews to the community and show how each cigar faired.

The review order:
Infinity
Cuppajack
Miamicubano
PSTAN
Tkoepp
Mark Twain

The three cigars we received were:

Juke Series, Ebony 7x50 $7.00
Juke Series, Blue 5 x 50 $5.50
Master Series, Honeyboy Edwards 4.5 x 38 $9.25

I hope that everyone has taken time to read the reviews linked above. Here are the totals for each cigar.

Juke Series, Blue

Tkoepp- 13.35/20 - 66.75%
MiamiCubano - 14/20 - 70%
Infinity - 14.45/20 - 72.25%
CuppaJack - 14.5/20 - 72.5%
PSTAN - 14.65/20 - 73.25%
Mark Twain - 13.2/20 - 66%

Total -84.15/120 -70.1%

Average Score - 14

Juke Series, Ebony

Tkoepp - 17.2/20 - 86%
MiamiCubano - 16.25/20 - 81.25%
Infinity - 15.5/20 - 77.5%
CuppaJack - 14.6/20 - 73%
PSTAN - 14.6/20 - 73%
Mark Twain - 16.3/20 - 81.5%

Total - 94.45/120 - 78.7%

Average Score - 15.74

Honeyboy

Tkoepp - 13.35/20 - 66.75%
MiamiCubano - 13.5/20 - 67.5%
Infinity - 18/20 - 90%
CuppaJack - 11.3/20 - 56.5%
PSTAN - 12.25/20 - 61.25%
Mark Twain - 19/20 - 95%


Total - 87.4/120 - 72.8%

Average Score - 14.56
 
I'm very surprised about two things in this review. Firstly, the price of these sticks. Holy crap, MSRP of $9.25 for the little perfecto. Secondly, I found the Honeyboy very tasty, maybe it'll fair better in the robusto vitola in my review series.
 
Martin2D said:
I'm very surprised about two things in this review. Firstly, the price of these sticks. Holy crap, MSRP of $9.25 for the little perfecto. Secondly, I found the Honeyboy very tasty, maybe it'll fair better in the robusto vitola in my review series.
Click to expand...


Thanks to all of you who participated in the review. These objective tastings show us many things including what we can improve upon.

Warmest and best regards,

Tom
 
Very nice reviews guys. I also get the package with smokes yesterday and Im going to smoke one today and add my coment.

But what was my first impresion when I opened the box? Why do they smell so nast? Why this ring is so bad looking?
Unfortunatelly I think high msrp + not good looking is not a good conection. Personally I dont think if I would take it, but I'll let myself to smoke it first and then write about its taste.
 
The perfecto sounds yummy to me (I like Cameroon). But $9.25?
 
Martin2D said:
I'm very surprised about two things in this review. Firstly, the price of these sticks. Holy crap, MSRP of $9.25 for the little perfecto. Secondly, I found the Honeyboy very tasty, maybe it'll fair better in the robusto vitola in my review series.
Click to expand...
I'm not surprised, I also found it tasty, I gave it a 90 :D

Brian
 
Great to read everyone else's take on these sticks. :thumbs:

Thanks again to Tom Ramsey of Avalon for making this happen.
 
MiamiCubano said:
Great to read everyone else's take on these sticks. :thumbs:

Thanks again to Tom Ramsey of Avalon for making this happen.
Click to expand...
x2.

Also a big thank you to Marc for putting this together.

Brian
 
Michal said:
Very nice reviews guys. I also get the package with smokes yesterday and Im going to smoke one today and add my coment.

But what was my first impresion when I opened the box? Why do they smell so nast? Why this ring is so bad looking?
Unfortunatelly I think high msrp + not good looking is not a good conection. Personally I dont think if I would take it, but I'll let myself to smoke it first and then write about its taste.
Click to expand...

The next time you ask a manufacturer to send you free cigars (particularly when they also pay for the shipping to Poland) you might want to refrain from making negative comments about something you haven't even tried. If you indeed feel that "Personally I dont think if I would take it" you can feel free to repackage the smokes and return them to the factory. I think you got your money's worth already.

I am not afraid of honest reviews. Our sticks may not be for everyone, but putting us down before you have taken the time or given the courtesy of trying the product is just plain rude.
 
While look and smell are a part of any review (usually), I do agree that it's only fair to do a complete, honest review if you're going to post about the cigars.
 
avalon_cigars said:
Michal said:
Very nice reviews guys. I also get the package with smokes yesterday and Im going to smoke one today and add my coment.

But what was my first impresion when I opened the box? Why do they smell so nast? Why this ring is so bad looking?
Unfortunatelly I think high msrp + not good looking is not a good conection. Personally I dont think if I would take it, but I'll let myself to smoke it first and then write about its taste.
Click to expand...

The next time you ask a manufacturer to send you free cigars (particularly when they also pay for the shipping to Poland) you might want to refrain from making negative comments about something you haven't even tried. If you indeed feel that "Personally I dont think if I would take it" you can feel free to repackage the smokes and return them to the factory. I think you got your money's worth already.

I am not afraid of honest reviews. Our sticks may not be for everyone, but putting us down before you have taken the time or given the courtesy of trying the product is just plain rude.
Click to expand...
I missed that earlier!

Michal, I agree with Tom (Avalon Cigars). He has every right to be pissed.
Having read many of your posts, perhaps you didn't mean to express yourself that way. If not, IMO an explanation or apology would be in order.

For the record Tom, your presentation is good IMO. I was as honest as I could be with my reviews and although I gave 2 of your sticks a lower score, they will
improve with a little age, again IMO. The Honeyboy is a good smoke right now.

Brian
 
Infinity said:
avalon_cigars said:
Michal said:
Very nice reviews guys. I also get the package with smokes yesterday and Im going to smoke one today and add my coment.

But what was my first impresion when I opened the box? Why do they smell so nast? Why this ring is so bad looking?
Unfortunatelly I think high msrp + not good looking is not a good conection. Personally I dont think if I would take it, but I'll let myself to smoke it first and then write about its taste.
Click to expand...

The next time you ask a manufacturer to send you free cigars (particularly when they also pay for the shipping to Poland) you might want to refrain from making negative comments about something you haven't even tried. If you indeed feel that "Personally I dont think if I would take it" you can feel free to repackage the smokes and return them to the factory. I think you got your money's worth already.

I am not afraid of honest reviews. Our sticks may not be for everyone, but putting us down before you have taken the time or given the courtesy of trying the product is just plain rude.
Click to expand...
I missed that earlier!

Michal, I agree with Tom (Avalon Cigars). He has every right to be pissed.
Having read many of your posts, perhaps you didn't mean to express yourself that way. If not, IMO an explanation or apology would be in order.

For the record Tom, your presentation is good IMO. I was as honest as I could be with my reviews and although I gave 2 of your sticks a lower score, they will
improve with a little age, again IMO. The Honeyboy is a good smoke right now.

Brian
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian,

We don't get upset in the least if someone does a full review and doesn't care for our sticks. Some people like Chocolate, some other people like other flavors that aren't as good as chocolate. I'm sure that there is not a cigar out there that gets rave reviews from every single smoker. Of course our sticks will improve with age and we use negative feedback to improve what we do. What does get my goat is when people hound us to get free sticks and then don't hold up their end of the bargain. We never ask for fawning praise, we only ask that if you get samples you do a full, honest and timely review. Try asking Rocky Patel, Padilla (or anyone else for that matter) for a free cigar and see how far you get.

Enough ranting...nurse is here with my meds.

Tom
 
Tom, I definitely understand how you can be upset by what he said, however, he was making an observation-(that hopefully came across wrong). I'm just looking forward to his review of the cigars, I hope that he enjoys the hell out of them!

As for the smell....half of the cubans i have smoked, smelled like a horse sharted on them and then were put in a box and sent to me....a "smell" means nothing until it becomes an aroma IMO. Its good that it smells like shit...it'll taste amazing :thumbs:

Tom- great job on sending out the samples! Looking forward to reading the reveiws and hopefully getting my hands on a few!

-Aaron

Btw- who handles the e-mailing over by you guys? I sent an email like a week ago asking how to order, but no response? mabye I sent it to the wrong person?
 
Tom, Im really sorry You felt it that way. I didnt want to be rude, and I dont really think I was, because I wrote "my first impresion when I opened the box" and its only view and smell expressions. Hey, I have a right to write what I think when I see something, dont I? I think it was more like "dont judge book by its cover" than being rude.

Ofcourse I also understand my mistake. I should have smoke it first and then write about all of my impresions. Will try to do it today.

Tom, hope you understand me and we can shake hands.
 
H311oLHD said:
Tom, I definitely understand how you can be upset by what he said, however, he was making an observation-(that hopefully came across wrong). I'm just looking forward to his review of the cigars, I hope that he enjoys the hell out of them!

As for the smell....half of the cubans i have smoked, smelled like a horse sharted on them and then were put in a box and sent to me....a "smell" means nothing until it becomes an aroma IMO. Its good that it smells like shit...it'll taste amazing :thumbs:

Tom- great job on sending out the samples! Looking forward to reading the reveiws and hopefully getting my hands on a few!

-Aaron

Btw- who handles the e-mailing over by you guys? I sent an email like a week ago asking how to order, but no response? mabye I sent it to the wrong person?
Click to expand...

We've had some email issues that i think are resolved by now. Just send the email to me and i'll take care of it. tom@avaloncigars.com

Best regards,

Tom
 
I'm topping the thread to let everyone know that Phillip's (PSTAN) pictures are now uploaded. I'm sorry this has taken me so much time.

I would like to thank Tom again for sending these cigars out to us. It takes alot of trust to do something like this, and this taken in context with the fact that Avalon is a new company must have been nerve racking to say the least.

I know that some have brought up the presentation of the cigars. We did not judge the cigars upon how their labels looked.

Saying this, I would like to add my impressions.

I found the Avalon cigar labels to be refreshing compared to many other NC companies, and I was really impressed with how the label on the Honeyboy Edwards looked.

The current state of NC cigar presentation is poor in my judgement. Too many companies have spent massive amounts of money trying to copy that 'Cuban' look in their cigar presentation. There's no need to point them out, we all know who they are and most of us enjoy their cigars. The lack of originality on some companies labels is disturbing and I think that a new company like Avalon who went out on a limb in search of their own style should be praised for taking chances.
 
Well said, Marc. And thank you for putting in so much effort in organizing and presenting this series of reviews. :thumbs:

Thanks to Tom for putting up the cigars and accepting the reviews our members generated. I truly wish your company much success.

Now, onto business...I would like to present your cigars to the humidor manager of the CigaretteCity chain here in Delaware. My friend manages something like 16 or 17 shops and he is receptive to new and quality cigars.

I'll be dropping you an email, Tom.

Wilkey
 
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