The Awakening LE 2024 by Avowed
The Awakening. The first one I grabbed broke my heart. As I plunged my PerfecPunch into the head, I heard a crack and the binder ruptured, taking the wrapper with it. No amount of cigar glue was going to fix it, so that was a quick $30 but more painfully, the loss of a limited edition cigar! These are a one-and-done deal with the rare wrapper leaf being in limited supply and this is the last of it. Luckily for me I had backups. Unless you're smoking a cigar immediately at the lounge where you bought it, NEVER BUY JUST ONE!
Regarding the wrapper leaf, "Awakening’s famed wrapper leaf (an Ecuadorian Hybrid) was designated Capa Marron internally and was last grown almost a decade ago. Each limited-edition Awakening was then aged at Kelner Cigars SAS after production to allow the ligero-heavy tobaccos to marry and provide an experience worthy of one last farewell." So yeah, even if it were able to be brought back, it'd be over a decade before new cigars were ready. But they have no plans to do that. They're doing 2000 boxes of ten and that's it. ONE. AND. DONE.
BRAND / CO: Avowed
CIGAR: Awakening Limited Edition
VITOLA: Robusto Grande - 5.5" x 52
STRENGTH: Medium
WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Hybrid, Natural (Aged 10-Yrs)
BINDER: Ecuador (Habano)
FILLER: Dominican Republic (Criollo 98, Piloto Cubano, San Vicente) / Pennsylvania
ORIGIN: Dominican Republic, Kelner Cigars, S.A.S.
APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION: Good
Another beautiful roll with a milk chocolate brown wrapper. It has good oily sheen and heavy mottling with just the faintest tooth, that's barely there. The veins are all thin and light, they're visible but almost non-existent. The seams are tight and blend in while the triple cap is tightly and evenly applied. As with all the other Avowed cigars, the embossed and detailed bands are high quality and well done. No question this is an ultra-premium cigar when you look at it.
DRAW & BURN: Good / Good
The draw is open, not much resistance, but still good. The burn starts beautifully but starts to get uneven quickly so I'm going to pace myself to see if it catches up, or if it canoes and need a correction. Then I immediately cave and give it a mild touch-up, and now we're good with a full burn. The ash is a very light gray, but very smooth without the usual stacked few striations and more of a crackle look to it. It's a little flaky at the end, but I'll blame that on my early relight. After that early correction, the burn has evened out nicely.
Unfortunately, it went out after the first inch so a relight was needed. Two things I'm keeping in mind. First, with the original cigar exploding at the head, this one came straight from my tuppador reserves. I like to give a cigar a week or two in my main humidor before smoking. Second, they might get an hour or two, or even more time out of the box before smoking depending on my day. This got none of that, but it's burning beautifully now with a dead even burn line.
It did need another relight to start the final third. Also, be careful ashing, this wrapper is delicate. I needed a little extra effort to get the ash broken off to relight and it cracked where I was tapping it against my silicon ashtray.
FLAVOR PROFILE: Excellent
The first puffs hit with baking spice and woodiness, then pepper. I'm now getting breadiness and malty chocolate, saltiness again too. I'm getting some earth and leather, and I usually hate leather but this is actually quite pleasant. The sweet is very caramel-like as well. Somehow even though I find I'm getting a lot of the same flavors between each of the Avowed blend, they're all unique and different in their own right. The woodiness is very cedary and slightly charred. By the end of the first inch, the pepper picks up and is tingling the mouth.
Getting into the second third and this is coming across as a far more refined and nuanced blend than New Dawn or The Vow. It's all the good things you expect from finely aged tobacco. The caramel sweetness is carrying really nicely with the toasted breadiness, and while I'm getting some baking spice, the pepper is the star of the show. The refined leather is still there, but earth has backed down. Another super creamy and very smooth cigar even with that medium dash of pepper. Most importantly, that malty chocolate is right there giving it a delicious base.
With a relight to start the final third, the pepper and woodiness get a kick in the ass. I'm getting a little more pepper throat burn. It's the first time I've had any harshness, but it's minor. Overall, this is another of a blend.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE: Great
The Awakening has a level of refinement and some unique flavors that you won't find in the New Dawn or The Vow and I'm three for three in really enjoying the Avowed lineup. But is it worth the 55 to 75 percent price premium over those? Mostly... It really is a delightful blend, but you're not going to be worse for wear if you miss out on this and are stuck "slumming" it with the production blends because they're fantastic in their own right. This won't fit everybody's wallet, but if you're looking at a similarly priced Fuente, Padrón or Davidoff and this is an option, definitely give it a go.
I think The Vow is currently my favorite of the three blends, but this is a close second. With that, I definitely need to get the Higher Calling which is their next limited release and is based on The Vow. I'm probably going to need to grab a proper box of these before they're gone while I'm at it!
Purchase Singles or by the box HERE
Written by Sean McCloskey of the Collective.