Mark Twain
Call me Ishmael.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,626
1.) Juke Series Robusto 5x50 - Infinity
This stick remained a few days longer at 63 RH.
The setting...
Once again I retreated to my favorite smoking spot, thought I'd throw in a pic or two to give you an idea of my relaxing outlook.
View
Appearance, pre-draw, smell, taste:
Dark veiny wrapper, almost maduro looking, nice looking stick.
The pre-draw was easy. I didn't like the smell of the stick, smelt like hay and tasted like wheat. I guess this has something to do with the Pecan aging. The cap came off as it should, I toasted the foot and away we went.
Cap
Cigar 1
Cigar 2
The draw was very easy, plumes of smoke. The first inch was very bland... in fact, I didn't like the taste and wandered if I would get through the entire stick. A slight burn on the tongue. The nose was also bland although medium. Uneven burn...
Burn 1
I had to apply a few corrections to the uneven burn...
Burn 2
The first half was not good but then it took a sudden turn, thankfully for the better. I'm glad I didn't chuck the stick because it started to become enjoyable. Very nice nutty taste. The burn did not improve. There were two cracks, one at the near the foot and one lower down. In fairness to the stick, the packaging was very bad, the box arrived squashed which could have contributed to the cracks.
Burn 3
I thoroughly enjoyed the second half and in particular the last 1/4. The wrapper started to come away but this did not influence the taste. The nutty taste became more pronounced.
Final
Conclusion.
I rated the cigar according to the French/Swiss test and came up with 14.45 out of 20, so... 72.25 out of 100. Personally, I would have given this stick a higher score but I can't rate the first half which was relatively tasteless. –Infinity
2.) Blue- Cuppajack
The second cigar I smoked for the Avalon Cigar review panel was also in the “Juke” series, however this time it would be the Sumatra maduro wrapped “Blue.” Filled with Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos the 5x50 toro looked dark and had a very leathery aroma. Tom from Avalon calls it a “full bodied” smoke that “really shows off the pecan [wood] aging process,” while website copy calls the whole Juke line “unpretentious and straightforward” with “rustic construction.” The cigar was certainly rustic with a mottled and surprisingly thin and spotted chocolate brown wrapper and closed-foot. Even with the somewhat coarse construction the presentation of the stick was very nice, with a heavy-paper and foil embossed double-band, though the clipping caused some damage to the wrapper. Prelight draw was smoky and the closed-foot sucked up the flame and produced a pungent cloud of smoke.
My initial impression of the smoke was an overlying sweetness and a very distinct mesquite flavor. I picked up some light pepper in the finish and it suddenly hit me: this was like smoking barbeque sauce! It was a unique and very intriguing flavor that wasn’t unenjoyable. However, the build-problems with the cigar mounted as the head became mushy and started to unravel slightly and the burn started to go astray. The cigar was medium-bodied and flavorful and entering the second third there had been little development of the flavors from the smoky-sweetness of the initial puffs. A new note did begin to assert itself, one that was very familiar to me but I couldn’t quite nail it down and I would spend the rest of my time with the cigar trying, unsuccessfully, to identify it.
Burn
At the half-way point the burn was increasingly problematic and required the first touch-up. As thin as the wrapper was, it was still having trouble combusting evenly and I think the binder may have been at-fault. The ash was flaky and mottled gray and I tapped it frequently to keep it off my shirt and out of my coffee. The nic-buzz started to come-on about this point, which was somewhat surprising to me as the smoke was very smooth. In fact the easy-smoking quality and distinctive flavors of the cigar really made it stand out from the average $5 toro. The sweet woodsy finish was lingering but mild and as the final third of the cigar was smoked I picked up more and more of the distinct nutty flavors that I found in the Ebony.
Final
I found the Blue fit my pallet much better than the Ebony, and the distinctive BBQ flavors were novel but enjoyable enough to keep me coming back to the stick. The cigar scored a 14.5 on the French/Swiss scale, actually falling short of the Ebony’s score by a tenth. This is problematic for me as I “objectively” enjoyed the Blue considerably more than the Ebony, and yet it did not score as highly as I might have expected. The bottom line is the Avalon Cigars Juke Blue is a quality cigar that is very tasty and certainly worth investigating if you’re in the market for a smooth medium-bodied smoke that is most unlike the popular kids, and is a great choice for a “grillin’ and chillin” cigar for all the summer cook-outs that are comin’ up.
3.) Blue- -MiamiCubano
The third and final stick up for review from those nicely donated by Tom Ramsey of Avalon Cigars. This one being called "Blue" on the baggie. On a scale of 25, this one scored a 14.
Specimen - "Blue" (Avalon Cigars)
Specs -
Avalon's website doesn't have a listing for anything called "Blue." But, by the band, it's something in their "Juke" series and a 5x50 robusto, so, in checking their website, I presume this is an "Annie Mae" as it's the only 5x50 listed in the Juke series.
This is listed as having a "natural" wrapper, with a filler of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco. The binder is Ecuadorian. Again, assuming this is an "Annie Mae." This is suspect as I will explain below.
By all appearances, this stick looks nice. Nice wrapper, nicely constructed, nice firm feel to it. "Rustic" and shaggy/fold-over footed as well, just as with the "Ebony."
Ebony1
Pre-light draw was slightly tight on this one. Not a plugged feel in the traditional sense, but it was not smooth. Toast, light and pretty damn quickly this stick starts to burn unevenly and develops a cratering/tunneling effect to it.
Ebony2
Ebony3
I didn't want to touch it up because I wanted to see if this would even out at all or correct itself. It pretty much burned unevenly until the ash fell, but got a little improvement after that point. It never fully evened out though.
Ebony4
Now...the taste. I suspect this is NOT an "Annie Mae" stick simply because it left a taste in my mouth much like you would imagine rubbing "Icy Hot" or "Tiger Balm" on your lips would yield. Having avoided flavored cigars the decades I have been smoking sticks, I suddenly fear that I am sampling one now. It's got a medium-bodied-ness to it that it is not altogether unpleasant at its most basic level, but then it delivers this taste, predominantly in the corners of my mouth that is just terrible. This is my take anyway. In the underlying tobacco, there is some spiciness to it, some earthiness and some woodiness too. But the flavor over-riding it all is this Tiger Balm effect. I can't get past this. It's so prevalent that I even remark to my wife and my smoking buddy together, that I can't get over the flavor of this stick. I pushed through roughly 2/3 of this stick before calling it quits completely. I never smoke flavored sticks and I really don't want to say I smoked one here. Yet, it appears I did. I tried to complete this stick for the good of the reviews and because I felt obligated to do so (to some degree anyway). But, to a larger degree, I couldn't move beyond the flavor profile as described above.
Maybe I am way off on my take of this stick, and I'll be interested to see what others have said about it. Unless you like flavored sticks as I have described however, I would recommend avoiding this one.
Outside of that quasi-tunneling issue though, this was a nice-looking stick.
-MiamiCubano
4.) COMMENTS: Blue - PSTAN
Very hard bunching and heavy in the hand, no give when lightly squeezed. I do not care for the wrapped foot of the cigar in this ring gauge as it is difficult to light and get an even burn without clipping it off. The wrapper was a Maduro however it still had a spot that still showed natural.
Blue 1
I had burn issues the entire time I tried to smoke this cigar and it only wanted to burn just barely past halfway. At that point I was tired of correcting the burn.
Blue Final
This cigar, when burning correctly, produced lots of cool smoke with a pleasing sweet and woodiness to it. The aroma reminded me of BBQ. I really enjoyed the flavor of the smoke as well as its aroma. I just wish the flavor was a little more consistent and pronounced. Nosing the smoke was pleasant with the occasional sharpness. I could tell that this cigar would be a good one if it had gotten past is burn issues.- PSTAN
5.) Blue- Tkoepp
65% too dry. Cracked all over. Did not like the ‘pecan’ tasted like a flavored cigar, not a cigar with flavor. –Tkoepp
6.) Juke: Blue - Mark Twain
This is the second cigar I smoked in the review process. It is robusto sized and of similar construction like the Ebony with a closed foot. The noticeable difference is the darker and coarser wrapper of the cigar. A similar aroma of tobacco is present.
Blue
I chose to leave the foot closed and allow the cigar to burn naturally. This was problematic and required several touch ups before the burn took hold.
Foot
I found the ash to be fairly loose and the cigar suffered from some serious burn problems that required multiple corrections during the smoke.
Burn
Final
I thought that this cigar was very bland in the flavor department. I waited patiently for some type of flavor to pop out, but the smoke was so bland that I really didn’t notice anything of substance coming from the smoke at all. I ended up chucking the cigar just after the mid-way point when I started tasting cardboard on the finish.
I found this to be an unremarkable smoking experience and the cigar tasted unpleasant. I would have scored the cigar lower, but it was well constructed and drew easily.
Score: 13.2 out of 20 possible points
This stick remained a few days longer at 63 RH.
The setting...
Once again I retreated to my favorite smoking spot, thought I'd throw in a pic or two to give you an idea of my relaxing outlook.
View
Appearance, pre-draw, smell, taste:
Dark veiny wrapper, almost maduro looking, nice looking stick.
The pre-draw was easy. I didn't like the smell of the stick, smelt like hay and tasted like wheat. I guess this has something to do with the Pecan aging. The cap came off as it should, I toasted the foot and away we went.
Cap
Cigar 1
Cigar 2
The draw was very easy, plumes of smoke. The first inch was very bland... in fact, I didn't like the taste and wandered if I would get through the entire stick. A slight burn on the tongue. The nose was also bland although medium. Uneven burn...
Burn 1
I had to apply a few corrections to the uneven burn...
Burn 2
The first half was not good but then it took a sudden turn, thankfully for the better. I'm glad I didn't chuck the stick because it started to become enjoyable. Very nice nutty taste. The burn did not improve. There were two cracks, one at the near the foot and one lower down. In fairness to the stick, the packaging was very bad, the box arrived squashed which could have contributed to the cracks.
Burn 3
I thoroughly enjoyed the second half and in particular the last 1/4. The wrapper started to come away but this did not influence the taste. The nutty taste became more pronounced.
Final
Conclusion.
I rated the cigar according to the French/Swiss test and came up with 14.45 out of 20, so... 72.25 out of 100. Personally, I would have given this stick a higher score but I can't rate the first half which was relatively tasteless. –Infinity
2.) Blue- Cuppajack
The second cigar I smoked for the Avalon Cigar review panel was also in the “Juke” series, however this time it would be the Sumatra maduro wrapped “Blue.” Filled with Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos the 5x50 toro looked dark and had a very leathery aroma. Tom from Avalon calls it a “full bodied” smoke that “really shows off the pecan [wood] aging process,” while website copy calls the whole Juke line “unpretentious and straightforward” with “rustic construction.” The cigar was certainly rustic with a mottled and surprisingly thin and spotted chocolate brown wrapper and closed-foot. Even with the somewhat coarse construction the presentation of the stick was very nice, with a heavy-paper and foil embossed double-band, though the clipping caused some damage to the wrapper. Prelight draw was smoky and the closed-foot sucked up the flame and produced a pungent cloud of smoke.
My initial impression of the smoke was an overlying sweetness and a very distinct mesquite flavor. I picked up some light pepper in the finish and it suddenly hit me: this was like smoking barbeque sauce! It was a unique and very intriguing flavor that wasn’t unenjoyable. However, the build-problems with the cigar mounted as the head became mushy and started to unravel slightly and the burn started to go astray. The cigar was medium-bodied and flavorful and entering the second third there had been little development of the flavors from the smoky-sweetness of the initial puffs. A new note did begin to assert itself, one that was very familiar to me but I couldn’t quite nail it down and I would spend the rest of my time with the cigar trying, unsuccessfully, to identify it.
Burn
At the half-way point the burn was increasingly problematic and required the first touch-up. As thin as the wrapper was, it was still having trouble combusting evenly and I think the binder may have been at-fault. The ash was flaky and mottled gray and I tapped it frequently to keep it off my shirt and out of my coffee. The nic-buzz started to come-on about this point, which was somewhat surprising to me as the smoke was very smooth. In fact the easy-smoking quality and distinctive flavors of the cigar really made it stand out from the average $5 toro. The sweet woodsy finish was lingering but mild and as the final third of the cigar was smoked I picked up more and more of the distinct nutty flavors that I found in the Ebony.
Final
I found the Blue fit my pallet much better than the Ebony, and the distinctive BBQ flavors were novel but enjoyable enough to keep me coming back to the stick. The cigar scored a 14.5 on the French/Swiss scale, actually falling short of the Ebony’s score by a tenth. This is problematic for me as I “objectively” enjoyed the Blue considerably more than the Ebony, and yet it did not score as highly as I might have expected. The bottom line is the Avalon Cigars Juke Blue is a quality cigar that is very tasty and certainly worth investigating if you’re in the market for a smooth medium-bodied smoke that is most unlike the popular kids, and is a great choice for a “grillin’ and chillin” cigar for all the summer cook-outs that are comin’ up.
3.) Blue- -MiamiCubano
The third and final stick up for review from those nicely donated by Tom Ramsey of Avalon Cigars. This one being called "Blue" on the baggie. On a scale of 25, this one scored a 14.
Specimen - "Blue" (Avalon Cigars)
Specs -
Avalon's website doesn't have a listing for anything called "Blue." But, by the band, it's something in their "Juke" series and a 5x50 robusto, so, in checking their website, I presume this is an "Annie Mae" as it's the only 5x50 listed in the Juke series.
This is listed as having a "natural" wrapper, with a filler of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco. The binder is Ecuadorian. Again, assuming this is an "Annie Mae." This is suspect as I will explain below.
By all appearances, this stick looks nice. Nice wrapper, nicely constructed, nice firm feel to it. "Rustic" and shaggy/fold-over footed as well, just as with the "Ebony."
Ebony1
Pre-light draw was slightly tight on this one. Not a plugged feel in the traditional sense, but it was not smooth. Toast, light and pretty damn quickly this stick starts to burn unevenly and develops a cratering/tunneling effect to it.
Ebony2
Ebony3
I didn't want to touch it up because I wanted to see if this would even out at all or correct itself. It pretty much burned unevenly until the ash fell, but got a little improvement after that point. It never fully evened out though.
Ebony4
Now...the taste. I suspect this is NOT an "Annie Mae" stick simply because it left a taste in my mouth much like you would imagine rubbing "Icy Hot" or "Tiger Balm" on your lips would yield. Having avoided flavored cigars the decades I have been smoking sticks, I suddenly fear that I am sampling one now. It's got a medium-bodied-ness to it that it is not altogether unpleasant at its most basic level, but then it delivers this taste, predominantly in the corners of my mouth that is just terrible. This is my take anyway. In the underlying tobacco, there is some spiciness to it, some earthiness and some woodiness too. But the flavor over-riding it all is this Tiger Balm effect. I can't get past this. It's so prevalent that I even remark to my wife and my smoking buddy together, that I can't get over the flavor of this stick. I pushed through roughly 2/3 of this stick before calling it quits completely. I never smoke flavored sticks and I really don't want to say I smoked one here. Yet, it appears I did. I tried to complete this stick for the good of the reviews and because I felt obligated to do so (to some degree anyway). But, to a larger degree, I couldn't move beyond the flavor profile as described above.
Maybe I am way off on my take of this stick, and I'll be interested to see what others have said about it. Unless you like flavored sticks as I have described however, I would recommend avoiding this one.
Outside of that quasi-tunneling issue though, this was a nice-looking stick.
-MiamiCubano
4.) COMMENTS: Blue - PSTAN
Very hard bunching and heavy in the hand, no give when lightly squeezed. I do not care for the wrapped foot of the cigar in this ring gauge as it is difficult to light and get an even burn without clipping it off. The wrapper was a Maduro however it still had a spot that still showed natural.
Blue 1
I had burn issues the entire time I tried to smoke this cigar and it only wanted to burn just barely past halfway. At that point I was tired of correcting the burn.
Blue Final
This cigar, when burning correctly, produced lots of cool smoke with a pleasing sweet and woodiness to it. The aroma reminded me of BBQ. I really enjoyed the flavor of the smoke as well as its aroma. I just wish the flavor was a little more consistent and pronounced. Nosing the smoke was pleasant with the occasional sharpness. I could tell that this cigar would be a good one if it had gotten past is burn issues.- PSTAN
5.) Blue- Tkoepp
65% too dry. Cracked all over. Did not like the ‘pecan’ tasted like a flavored cigar, not a cigar with flavor. –Tkoepp
6.) Juke: Blue - Mark Twain
This is the second cigar I smoked in the review process. It is robusto sized and of similar construction like the Ebony with a closed foot. The noticeable difference is the darker and coarser wrapper of the cigar. A similar aroma of tobacco is present.
Blue
I chose to leave the foot closed and allow the cigar to burn naturally. This was problematic and required several touch ups before the burn took hold.
Foot
I found the ash to be fairly loose and the cigar suffered from some serious burn problems that required multiple corrections during the smoke.
Burn
Final
I thought that this cigar was very bland in the flavor department. I waited patiently for some type of flavor to pop out, but the smoke was so bland that I really didn’t notice anything of substance coming from the smoke at all. I ended up chucking the cigar just after the mid-way point when I started tasting cardboard on the finish.
I found this to be an unremarkable smoking experience and the cigar tasted unpleasant. I would have scored the cigar lower, but it was well constructed and drew easily.
Score: 13.2 out of 20 possible points
