AVO Syncro South American Ritmo Toro

Worldwide, AVO sells over three million cigars annually – a big jump from its first year production of 100,000 cigars back in 1988. The brand was created from the passion for fine tobacco possessed by one Avo Uvezian, the son of a family of musicians from Beirut. Avo moved from Beirut to New York to study piano at Julliard, and after opening a restaurant and piano bar in Puerto Rico in the early ‘80s, he discovered his love for cigars. After being introduced to master roller Hendrik Kelner, the two partnered, and six years later the first AVO was rolled. Uvezian and Kelner, together with the Davidoff factory, have created one of the most prestigious brands on the market today.

In this third installment of the Syncro, AVO decided to do something a bit different than the other two cigars in this series that features Nicaraguan tobaccos; they went bigger, much bigger. The South American Ritmo (ritmo translating to ‘rhythm’ in Spanish) features a mind-blowing seven different tobaccos from all the major cigar countries. Handcrafted in the Dominican Republic, this stogie comes dressed in an Ecuadorian wrapper that secures a Mexican binder and a five country blend of tobaccos from Nicaragua, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, which makes seven countries. No wonder they named it after a continent versus a country! Medium to full in body, expect notes of sweet coffee, roasted nuts, charred oak, and slight chocolate. Intricate and complex, our panel loved this cigar and recommended pairing it with a raspberry iced tea on a warm spring afternoon.

Though tobacco is indigenous to Hispaniola, the tobacco industry in the Dominican Republic existed in the shadow of Cuba’s dominance through the 1960s. When the exodus of Cuban cigar makers began in the wake of the revolution, many decided the Dominican Republic would be ideal for the resumption of their livelihoods. Unrest in Nicaragua in the 1980s fueled the Dominican cigar industry further. The country now makes more than half of the premium cigars imported into the U.S.

The Cibao Valley and the nearby city of Santiago are the center of cigar production in the Dominican Republic. Three main varieties are grown here: the mild and native Olor Dominicano; the intense Piloto Cubano, brought from the Vuelta Abajo of Cuba; and San Vicente, a milder and more acidic Piloto hybrid. Dominican puros were once unheard of as it was widely thought impossible to grow quality wrapper leaf on the island, but new growing techniques are now allowing some exceptional puros to be produced.