Avo Uvezian was born in 1926, the son of a family of musicians in Beirut. He moved to the United States in 1947, and after studying at the world famous Julliard School in New York City, went on to play the piano with some of the greatest jazz musicians of the 1950s and 60s. In the 1980s he opened a restaurant and bar in Puerto Rico. This event marked
Avo's discovery of premium
cigars, for which he developed a passion and became a true connoisseur.
At his restaurant, Avo started having cigars rolled to give away to his customers. The cigars were well liked and soon people started asking to buy them. In 1982 he met master cigar blender Hendrik Kelner in Dominican Republic who started making cigars for him.
The success of this brand has been impressive. The first
AVO was sold in 1988. That year,
Avo sold 100,000 cigars. In 1991, production had soared to 750,000 cigars. Four years later, Davidoff bought the rights to distribute the Avo cigar brand for $10 million dollars. Currently each year 3 million
AVO cigars are made.
AVO cigars are made from selected aged tobaccos, with a large proportion of a specially fermented, matured Piloto Cubano tobacco from the Dominican Republic. The binder leaf is Olor tobacco from the Villa Gonzalez region, and a Connecticut Shade wrapper leaf provides the perfect finishing touch to the
AVO cigars.