Avalon Juke Blue 5 x 50

[ashauler]

Well, I smoked this very soon after I took it out of the pass, but like Newfie mentioned in his thread, I was hesitant to post it up. I'm not as eloquent as Jim, but had many of the same experiences, my review is below:

O.K. here we go, I just couldn't look at this stick any longer, even though I've only had it a couple of days. This is a pretty good looking stick, and the construction appears to be good, I haven't seen this style of "closed" foot before. No soft spots detected.

The pre-light aroma was different than any I have experienced to date and I can really pick up on the pecan wood. This is even more evident in the flavor of the pre-light draw.
The cut and light were effortless, I used a guillotine cutter and a wooden match to light.
Initial pulls provide the distinct flavor of the pecan wood, I think, as it is definitely different than any other smoke that I have had to date. Smoke volume is very
good both from the pull and the end of the stick. The aroma is pleasant, and again, distinctly different.

The ash is very, very flaky and not holding together very well from the start. About 1" into the stick the burn started to work towards uneven and the ash became even more unstable. I notice the color is very splotchy, dark gray to lighter gray to some rusty shades. The burn is working to very uneven and I attempted to touch it up but had little success.

The stick is tunneling very badly, at least I think this is the term when a stick burns in the middle but the binder and wrapper aren't burning at the same pace.
The burn flaws made this stick unsmokable for me about 2/3 of the way through, short of the band. The flavor was becoming un-pleasant as well.

I would agree with the label on the bag this is a med-full cigar, but I would put it more on the medium side though it did appear to be strengthing as it was smoked.

Perhaps I should have let this rest a couple of weeks in my humi before attempting it………I will do this for sure with the remaining sticks so that any problems that may be encountered will not be due to uneven humidification which may have caused the problems with this stick.

[Newfie]

snip...I would agree with the label on the bag this is a med-full cigar, but I would put it more on the medium side though it did appear to be strengthing as it was smoked.....snip

Nice review!!!

That's one thing I meant to mention, is the strength. the first 10 minutes showed me for sure that this cigar has a fair bit of Nico-Kick to it, no doubt!!!!

Also, I'm not quite sure I agree with the "unevenly humidified" statement. Mine was equalizing for 5 days so unless there was a gross difference in RH factors, I don't think that would have been an issue.

[nhcigarfan]

I'll blaze mine soon. Maybe tonight.