AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021

By Tony Casas | June 1, 2021

This week, I take a look at the AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 paired with a bottle of Alesmith’s 2015 Grand Cru beer.

The Good Stuff:

Released in March, the AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 is the newest cigar to be added to AVO’s portfolio. Inspired by the copper material used in both music and art for centuries, the blend features an Ecuadorian Sun Grown wrapper over Ecuadorian binder and filler tobacco from the Dominican Republic. The cigar is offered in a single 7 1/2 x 50 format and comes packaged in boxes of 20 running $16 a stick with only 4,550 boxes produced. I picked mine up from our good friends at Cigars International.

• Size: 7 1/2 x 50
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
• Binder: Ecuadorian
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $16
• Pairing: Alesmith Grand Cru (Strong Ale 10% ABV)

Prelight:

The AVO Improvisation 2021 starts out with a beautiful, milk chocolate-brown wrapper that is consistent in color with the exception a few lighter areas around the minor veins that run their course throughout the cigar’s long, slender body. The wrapper’s texture is very thin and brittle with a good amount of oils and slight tooth. The wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself show casing some minor tobacco webbing as it leads up to the cigar’s round, double-wrapped, cap. The cigar itself is very firm, rightly packed, and extremely heavy. It’s polished off by the standard AVO crest in a beautiful mixture of white, black, gray and copper metallic ink. There is also a secondary band with the same color and the year “2021” embossed in the front.

The wrapper on the AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 gives off some light musky aromas while the foot of the cigar carries strong spice and pepper over earthy aromas. The cold draw produces mostly earthy flavors over some slight spice, dark chocolate and moss.

First Third:

The AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 starts off with some very light, black pepper over musk, grains, pecans and leather with some really light mossy undertones. The draw is absolutely perfect as each tiny puff kicks out massive cloud of thick, white smoke which stick around for a considerable amount of time before dissipating while the cigar releases a good amount of stationary smoke as the oils burn off the wrapper while the cigar rests in my ashtray. The burnline is razor thin with only some slight waves as it produces tightly compacted white and light-gray ash which held on for about 3/4 of a inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 and a creamy mixture of leather, dark chocolate, and musk lead the charge backed by light earthiness, moss, and pecan. This is a great flavor profile. The retrohale brings out some soft spice, and sharp pepper that I don’t pickup during the standard experience. The cigar is still burning like a champ without any help from torch and I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

The flavor profile remained much the same into the final third, and thats a good thing. The dark chocolate, leather, musk mixture is still the dominant force in the profile backed by pecan, vanilla, and earthiness. It took me almost 2 hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub. I experience no harshness, nor any extended heat. I never once had to reach for my lighter to touchup or relight the cigar. My only gripe was the wrapper split on all the cigars I smoked. I first thought it may had been over-humidified so I dry boxed it, but same result. While the splitting was minor and did not affect the experience, the fact that it happened so consistently was worth mentioning.

Overview:

The AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021 is a perfect example of what I love from AVO cigars. A complex, yet balanced experience with unique, raw flavors at a affordable price tag. Yes, affordable. I put most AVO cigars up there with the likes of Opus, Davidoff, and Padron and at $16 a pop for such a long smoking cigar I would call this an affordable super-premium cigar. This is a great stick to have around when you are looking for something that will last you a while yet still deliver the experience you are craving.

Pairing:

The Alesmith Grad Cru is a 10% Belgian-style strong ale brewed at the Alesmith Brewery in San Diego California. The beer leads with sweet apple and pear backed by light brown sugar, caramel, light malt, and piloncillo with a very light mouthfeel before finishing with more apple and pear long with more malt and caramel. This isn’t a complex beer, nor does it need to be. It’s a perfect summer ale and the flavors really added a special something to the AVO Improvisation Limited Edition 2021.