Cigar Aficionado

Davidoff’s Avo cigar brand was named for Avo Uvezian, one of the original stars of the cigar industry. Known for his sharp attire and stylish manner, the man in the mimbre hat and white Brioni suit was a familiar sight in cigar shops and cigar events for many years, including his annual birthday dinners where he would showcase a cigar dedicated to his age at the time. Uvezian died in 2017.

On March 22, Avo would have turned 100 years old, and Davidoff of Geneva is poised to celebrate the milestone at the PCA show next month. The company has not released any details at this time, but it’s likely that those plans will include a commemorative cigar. 

The Avo cigar brand was created quite humbly. Uvezian was a talented musician (he claimed to have written “Strangers in the Night,” although he’s not credited with penning the song) and in the 1980s he was playing piano at a bar in Puerto Rico, always with a stash of cigars. He was scolded by his daughter one day when she saw him give away a smoke, telling him he should sell them instead of letting them go for free. As the story goes, Uvezian met with cigarmaker Hendrik Kelner in the Dominican Republic, and Kelner began producing his cigars. The brand first appeared in 1987 under the name Bolero in Puerto Rico and, one year later, under the name Avo in the Davidoff shop in New York City. 

Avo became a hit, and sales quickly surged into the millions of cigars. By 1995, during the heady days of the 1990s Cigar Boom, Davidoff made a deal with Uvezian rumored to be $10 million (worth more than twice that today) for the distribution rights to his namesake cigar brand. Now, Avos are a familiar part of the Davidoff cigar family, with a host of different styles. They have been rated continuously by Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider over the past 30 years. 

Look for more information on this subject after the PCA show. 

Read Next: Joya de Nicaragua’s Cinco de Cinco Corona Doble Coming To The U.S.