AVO Companero Limited Edition 2009 Review

Wrapper: Dominican

Filler: Dominican and Peruvian

Price: $15.00 - $16.00

Back in December, one of my readers noticed that I had never reviewed an AVO cigar. After messaging each other back and forth, he offered to send me a couple to try out and review. If you remember, last month I reviewed one (Review Here), and I saved this one to try out later. Well over the weekend, I took this one with me to one of my local shops, and smoked it before a couple of friends joined me.

The Dominican wrapper on this cigar is flawless. It is a darker brown with almost no veins running through it. The cap is consisted of multiple layers, and all of them lay perfectly flush. The stick itself is very solid from cap to foot.  The smell coming from this cigar reminds me of a very sweet chocolate mixed with a little bit of spice. When I cut this cigar, there was nothing revealed, except a perfectly even roll of filler tobacco.

Upon lighting this cigar, I was hit with a strong peppery spice, as well as some strong wood notes. But, after a few puffs, the spice really mellowed out and let the woodiness take over. Once the spice completely mellowed out, there was a nice earthiness that came out. Shortly after the earth flavor came out, I was picking up some hints of leather. Once the leather came out and combined with the earthiness, the two flavors took over and the spice added a good accent to them.

By the time the cigar burned about an inch, the woodiness picked up and became very strong. I also started to pick out some sweet notes that accented the flavor profile perfectly. Since the spice remained very mellow, the sweetness was much more prominent.

Once the cigar rounded into the second third, the flavor profile became very creamy. The leather and wood notes were still both strong and the spice is even lighter than before. The spicy and sweet accent flavors alternate every few puffs, which keeps your taste buds busy. By about halfway, the spice picked up a little bit, although it was still quite mellow.

The last couple inches were very complex. The leather flavor picks up a great deal. The woodiness and earthiness both are still strong and combine for a great base flavor throughout the cigar. One of my favorite things about the flavor profile was just how creamy it was. The cigar just got better as the cigar progressed and led to a fantastic finish.

The ash was a medium shade of gray and was very nicely layered. The ash held on for up to two inches at a time. The burn was a little wavy at first, but once the cigar hit the halfway point, the burn completely evened out. The draw was very easy and produced a thick white smoke. The smoke gave off a very earthy aroma with a slight spice marbled throughout it.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to get more of these, but if I get the opportunity, I surely will be grabbing a couple. This cigar was great all the way through, and only got better as the cigar progressed. If the burn pattern would have been better, i may have given this cigar a near-perfect score. But I feel that a 9.5 out of 10 is right.

Thanks for reading,

Zack the Stogie Man