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April 12, 2026 · 9:43 am

Davidoff Puro Dominicano, Avo Syncro and Camacho Ecuador Cigars

I was sorry to read about the passing of Gary Korb, who fairly recently retired from Famous Smoke Shop where he was the main guy behind their Cigar Advisor magazine site. I first had contact with Gary in 2004, he tried to weasel his way into a ticketed event I hosted as media. He was an inspiration, for sure! I had a pretty good rapport with him, last time I saw him he actually told me that he had mentioned my name in their search to replace him. I felt honored. My condolences to his family. He probably would have loved the cigars I’m about to talk about.

I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t smoke Davidoffs if they didn’t send me some to try. I consider myself fortunate to have done whatever I have done to warrant this consideration. I recently received some of the new Davidoff Puro Dominicano in their Black Band line. These come in three sizes, a Short Robusto (4½” x 52), a Corona Larga (5 7/8″ x 44), and a Perfecto (5½” x 50), which is the only figurado of this size in the Davidoff portfolio, which is what they sent. They used tobaccos from six regions in the DR, Yamasá for the wrapper, Martin Garcia for the binder, and Villa González, Mao, Piloto, Navarette and Yamasá in the filler. I went into this cigar wondering if it would be a good fit for me, many times I don’t appreciate the flavors found in Dominican puros, though a lot of folks do. This cigar was a delight. I was surprised by the prelight draw, which was very free. Odd for a perfecto. I’d say that it started off earthy, maybe loam or mushroomy, not usually my jam. The burn was perfect with a flat ember, no cone, no tunnel, just perfect. I sipped it, like I would a lancero, because the draw was so free I didn’t want it to heat up too much. I really enjoyed this cigar much more than I thought I would. I wanted to smoke another one this week, but I felt like that would be pretentious. $25 is a lot for a cigar, but they could probably have gotten away with asking more, this is a really nice smoke.

Somewhere along the way I came into possession of an Avo Syncro Nicaragua in a square tube. I can’t remember where or when, but it has to have been in my humidor for seven or eight years. I decided to smoke this one finally after hearing some discussion on KMA Radio about the square tubes, which Avo apparently released in 2015. This one was a bugger to get out of the tube. The cigar is a 6″ x 54 box press, which is probably obvious since it’s in a square tube. Who would put a round cigar in a square tube? By the way, Abe and Coop, CAO Anniversary had a square tube going back to 2003 or so, so Padron and Avo weren’t the pioneers in this area! ( while I’m at it, Coop: ” The Spanish phrase el reloj (the clock/watch) is phonetically pronounced el rreh-LOH or el rreh-LOHKH. The stress is on the second syllable of “reloj” (loh), with a rolled “rr” at the beginning and a soft “h” or slight “kh” sound at the end”. It’s my mission in life to correct Coop on this). I was surprised that this started with some harshness, but the dark fruit took over and it was really a nice cigar, very tasty. Kudos for not putting a cedar sleeve in the tube, I can’t seem to learn to take cigars out of tubes for long term storage because they always seem to just taste like cedar after a while. This one was good, I wonder if they are still available?

I had picked up a five pack of Camacho Ecuador Toros a few weeks back, and thought I remembered liking this blend. The toro is 6″ x 50, which feel like a corona in this day and age. It has an Ecuador wrapper of some sort, Brazilian binder and Dominican and Honduran fillers. These came out in May of 2014, so they’ve been around for a while. I realize that this is probably my least favorite Camacho. I’m starting to question my palate lately, but it’s always been questionable. This started out with some sourness, which I’ve gotten a lot lately for some reason. It didn’t get better, and while I powered through it, I really wanted to put it down and get something else. Perhaps I’ll stay away from this one for a while, maybe some age will help, maybe I’ll give the rest away, I don’t know. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. I smoke more delicious cigars than not, so I have that going for me. Side note, I kinda wish Davidoff would have an informational site about their cigars and not a direct to consumer sales site. If I’m looking at the wrong one, someone please correct me! I feel like more of a shill than I already am linking to a sales site!

I’ve been plagued over the last few days with attempts to take over my social media accounts and I’m sick of it. I’m not really that interesting. It’s not like there’s money to be made, it’s just a huge nuisance. It’s absurd how many hoops one has to jump through to change passwords. I’m too old for this shit, please leave me alone! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review

Tagged as Avo, Camacho, cigar, cigars, davidoff, Davidoff of Geneva, Ecuador, Perfecto, Puro Dominicano, Syncro, toro, Tubo

October 12, 2025 · 8:39 am

Bariay 1492 Red and Black Cigars

I had the opportunity this week to sample the Bariay 1492 cigar range, which, for now, I assume, consists of the Red Habano and the Black Maduro. I tried the Robusto and Toro sizes, which are 5¼” x 54 and 6″ x 52 respectively. These cigars are made in the company’s own factory in Nicaragua. Their website mentions that the cigars are chemical free, something which I questioned. It seems the chemical they are referring to is ammonia, which is something we don’t want to taste in our cigars. They use a third fermentation to assure that no ammonia remains in the cigars. They tell me that this is a tricky process, which their blender, César Ramírez, has spent thirty years mastering. Here’s a quote from Alan Kirchhoff, one of the companies principals on the process:

Cesar has spent the last 30 years figuring out our trade secret 3rd fermentation process that he created. He will tell you he has spent many years ruining tobacco to get to where we are today.

When he first went to Nicaragua to talk with the manufacturers to do his process they told that it can’t be done and he also was called the “crazy Cuban”. Cesar spent 6 years in Nicaragua, created his own factory and laboratory and figured out how to produce it consistently to where we are today. Our cigars are not manufactured by someone else. We have our own facility. We process 1st, 2nd and 3rd fermentation in our facilty. We control everything from hand selecting the leaf from our farming partners all the way to the smoke you have in your hands. It is our aging, fermentation, recipe and rolling techniques. All Cesar’s inventions.

Of course, to a cynic like me who’s heard it all over the last 30 years of smoking cigars, the proof is in the smoking. They were kind enough to send me a sampler of their Red and Black cigars in Toro and Robusto to try.

My recent habit is to save the maduros for last, as maduro is my preference, and I always figure I’m saving the best for last. Often I’m surprised. So I started with the Bariay 1492 Red. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, with binder and fillers from Esteli, Condega and Jalapa. I started out with the Robusto. This one started out with an interesting flavor, and caused me some concern, I wondered what I was in for. This seemed to be an anomaly, as the odd taste quickly went away and I was left with a very nice sweetness I expect from a Habano wrapper. The burn and draw were good considering its heft and firmness. The Toro, which I smoked the next day, was better for me, as it had the nice Habano sweetness from the start, with nothing odd about it. Maybe like a Cafe con leche with a subtle spice. These were very enjoyable.

On to the Bariay 1492 Black Maduro. Again with my cynicism, but Red and Black for cigar names is getting done to death. Maybe these guys had their cigars named before others that have used it recently, and they aren’t bad names, heck, it makes it easy to differentiate, but I have to imagine if they come out with a shade wrapped cigar it’ll be called the White, right? Like I said, I’m a cynic, they are perfectly appropriate names, and real easy for gringos. Bariay, by the way, is where Columbus landed in Cuba in 1492. I suppose it’s appropriate that I post this today, as tomorrow is Columbus Day. The Black has a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper, with fillers and binder from Esteli, Condega, and Ometepe. You all know that my preference is the Toro, and in both case here I preferred the toro over the Robusto. The black is all I hoped it would be, and rivals some of my favorite cigars. Of course it has the rich espresso with some pepper spice that I like, and the Toro is a cigar I could easily smoke regularly. I though the Robusto struck me as stronger, but I did smoke it much earlier in the day than is normal for me.

Bariay 1492 cigars are currently available at twelve retailers in four states, and at their retail partner, Old Cuba Cigar Co. in Texas. I look forward to hearing more from these guys. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig