Tag Archives: CAO

CAO Flathead Resonator and Punch Dragon Fire Cigars

I smoked some new stuff from General Cigars this week, both of which necessitated the use of my Adorini punch, which, in my opinion, is the finest punch on the market.  Adorini makes some excellent humidors, I have two and they are rock solid in form and finish.  I’ve had both for around ten years and they require zero maintenance.  I just throw some bovedas in every few months and they are good.  This punch has two sized punches, 9mm and 13mm, and I fund that I only ever use the larger one and there are only a few cigars that I use it on, CAO Flatheads, RoMaCraft Neanderthals, and now this Punch. The exception might be the smaller ring Flatheads,  but they are few and far between.  It’s good to have options though, and variety is the spice of life, which is why I find myself rotating through several cut styles. None of this has anything to do with the cigars, so let’s get to the CAO Flathead Resonator. First off, I think this is the first Flathead to come out in the post Rick Rodriguez era, Flathead was his baby.  It’s enormous at 8″ x 60, and took me a full 2½ hours to smoke. It’s a little surprising that they were able to pull this off in the age of Connecticut Broadleaf shortages, it takes a pretty large leaf to make 8″ cigars.  Like the rest of the line, this has a Connecticut Habano binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, and is made in the STG Factory in Esteli. I’ve passed the factory on the way into Esteli on the Pan American Highway a few times, but it’s been over ten years, the town may have sprawled beyond there since.  I’d love a tour (hint, hint).  If you like the line, you’ll like this one, although it starts out a little mellower just by the nature of its length.  I had no need to touch it up over the course of the smoke, which would potentially last an entire hockey game, I think (I might test that theory today). It had the sweetness, with some black coffee and cocoa that I like, along with some earthiness.  All in all, an enjoyable, smoke, much more so than CAO’s last attempt at a 8″ x 60.

 

I suppose the elephant in the room is the question of whether General Cigar got permission from Gurkha to use “Dragon” in the name of the Punch Dragon Fire.  Considering the lack of news on a C&D or lawsuit, one might assume that they did. This is the sixth cigar in the Punch Chinese New Year series, the previous five of which had a takeout food theme (save for the Fu Manchu which took a brief departure into facial hair apparently).  They are sticking with keeping this in the budget price range, at $6.99 SRP, which is really good, I think. I have enjoyed the other releases in this series, and pick them up from time to time because they are wallet friendly and very tasty. I smoked a Kung Pow this week, which was the 2021 release, and enjoyed the crap out of it. This was a 6″ x 52 and features a short wrapper, where the first half inch is just binder and filler.  The Kung Pow had a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper over a Honduran habano binder and fillers from Brazil, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.  It’s quite a blend for a $7 cigar!  The Kung Pow is quite good, if you find them around, buy them. They might have been a part of the Pu Pu Platter box that they had that had a sampling the first few years of releases.  I’ve gotten ahead of myself.  The Punch Dragon Fire is a flat capped, 5″ x 60 cigar with a little bit of the wrapper folded over the foot (I think Enrique Sanchez of 1502 calls it the flavor lock, or something like that). Like the Flathead, this is also bade at the Esteli factory, most Punches are made in Honduras. The wrapper is Mexican, binder is Nicaraguan from Condega, and the fillers are Nicaraguan, Dominican and Honduran. There is a fireworks vibe to the packaging on these, and the cigar packs a punch, so to speak.  I found it to be quite spicy, lots of pepper and nicotine. I enjoyed it, but I think it will improve with some age.  The band is nice as it has the year on it, for those of us who save bands, it’s a nice reference.  I like these two new General Cigar releases, even though they are both 60 ring, they are both up my alley.  

 

If you get a minute, reach out to my buddy Kaplowitz (kaplowitzmedia(at)yahoo(dot)com) and wish him a Happy Birthday today!  That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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News: CAO Arcana Mortal Coil Returns

I liked this cigar the last time it was around, much more than the Firewalker that came after it.  It was one of the best CAO cigars to come along in a while.  It seems like I heard about someone showcasing Andullo tobacco at the recent PCA show (La Aurora, maybe?).  

 

CAO Arcana Mortal Coil will soon be back by popular demand. The limited-edition cigar that
features “Andullo,” the oldest tobacco fermentation method of the Dominican Republic, will ship
to retailers on August 1.

Ed Lahmann, senior brand manager of CAO cigars said, “The fans of CAO spoke, and we
listened. We previously brought back Mortal Coil, yet the fans kept wanting more. So with this
year’s release of the blend, we’re showing the fans of CAO that we’re willing to go the extra
mile for them.”

 

CAO Mortal Coil is centered on Andullo tobacco which appears in the filler and calls upon time-
honored cultivation and curing techniques for sungrown Habano-seed tobaccos. Instead of
traditional bulk fermentation, Andullo tobacco is wrapped tightly in handcrafted palm tree pods
known as “yaguas” that are compressed with rope coiled around the pod. This old-world
process of fermentation takes approximately two years and transforms the tobacco into rough,
leathery-looking leaves with a characteristically thick texture and earthy sweetness.

Wrapped in Connecticut Broadleaf, with a Connecticut Shade binder and a filler made with
Dominican Andullo surrounded by Honduran Jamastran, Nicaraguan Esteli and Dominican Piloto
Cubano, CAO Mortal Coil is a medium-bodied cigar with an alluring aroma. The experience of
Mortal Coil brings forth notes of molasses, dark chocolate and raisin, with hints of spice.
Called “Mortal Coil Toro,” the 6 1/8” x 50 cigar will sell for a per-cigar SRP of $11.99. The
singular frontmark will be packaged in 20 count boxes.

CAO Mortal Coil is handcrafted at STG Esteli and will ship to retailers on August 1, 2023.

 

 

About CAO

CAO was originally launched in 1993 by Cano Ozgener, who was the founder of CAO International Inc., a company that up until that point was known for its tobacco pipes. The General Cigar Co., inherited the entire portfolio of CAO’s pre-existing brands after Swedish Match and ST Cigar Group Holdings merged in 2010, and the tobacco giant still distributes the brand and all its lines.

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New Cigars from CAO, Room 101 and Punch

I’ve been working through some samples I’ve had in the humidor for a bit.  Starting out with the CAO Amazon Basin Extra Ańejo.  The Amazon Basin came out first in 2014, and used a Brazilian Bragança leaf, which is processed what I imagine to be similar to the andullo process of twisting the leaf into tobacco sausages. They allegedly move the tobacco out of the Amazon Rainforest by canoe,  which sounds a little far-fetched.  The cigar has a Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and the Brazilian, Dominican and Colombian fillers.  The Extra Ańejo was rolled in 2021 and left to age, I suppose, longer than the original batch. I’ll be honest, of the four original Amazon Basin blends, I was not a big fan of the original (or the last, I loved the middle two!).  This one was pretty darned good.  Although it isn’t one hundred percent up my alley, it was a tasty smoke.  I smoked it through the tobacco-cord “band” with no discernable flavor difference. It had some sweetness and some spice, and something unique.  I suspect if you were one who loved the original, you’ll really like this.

 

I think the Room 101 Daruma is the first Room 101 cigar to be released since the brand was acquired by Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) and put under the Forged umbrella of brands.  This is a Nicaraguan puro, oddly enough, it’s made by Oliva for Matt Booth.  I suppose this shows that nothing is really changing with the Room 101 brand, STG could very easily made this in one of their several factories.  The only criticism I have is that the fancy-pants outer sleeve on the cigar doesn’t have any identification on it save for the Fu and lotus symbols, which, if you aren’t familiar with Room 101, you won’t know what it is out of the box.  Once stripped of the outer wrappings, the band makes it clear.  I got a sweet wood profile from this cigar, and I really liked it.  It burned well, and was completely enjoyable. I dig it, and my wife wants all the outer sleeves.

 

I was hesitant to even include this last one, because I find just about everything about it to be silly.  If I  didn’t like it’s predecessor, the Punch Champion,  so much, I might have just passed on this one. Punch has been doing novelty releases for a while now, which I guess fits with the branding, which is based on the puppet Mr. Punch from the UK in the 1600s.  He was a clown, and presented slapstick comedy. The Punch Dad Bod is presented with a silly necktie band, packed 5 cigars per can in a 4 -pack.  I suppose it’s supposed to be like beer cans, but it comes off looking more like energy drinks to me. All that, and four of the five samples I received were damaged, and I’ve heard from others they they were damaged as well (both samples and in the wild).  Now, this does have a fragile Cameroon wrapper, over a Connecticut broadleaf binder, with Nicaraguan Condega, Dominican Piloto Cubano, Honduran La Entrada and Brazilian Mata Fina fillers.  This is a six country blend in a fairly small cigar.  Once I get passed all the silliness, it’s a pretty tasty cigar, with some nuttiness, some sweetness and some earthiness.  I rather enjoyed the couple I’ve had, one had some foot damage that wasn’t an issue at all (the other one exploded!).  I have a dad bod, but I’m not particularly proud of it, so this is a Father’s Day “pass” for me, but it’s a good smoke, and it’s priced very nicely, so give it a shot.

 

That’s all for today. I’m so happy that the weather has warmed up and I can sit on the porch and write my Sunday post with a cigar, today it’s a Protocol Themis Churchill, a delicious shade cigar.  Hopefully I will see some of you next Saturday at Battleship Beef Part II on the Battleship New Jersey!  If you like food and cigars, it’s the place to be. Looking forward to seeing some great friends there!  Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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Tatuaje Tuxtla, Alec Bradley Double Broadleaf and CAO BX3 Cigars

I finally got around to trying the three cigars I’ve been looking forward to smoking this week.  I picked up a few of these locally, and will definitely be revisiting these soon. It’s not often I get three winners in a row like this.  I started with the one I was most interested in smoking, the Tatuaje Tuxtla Avion 13. They had all three sizes, and I had a choice between picking up a couple of each size, or trying three different cigars and I chose the later. I would have said that I made the wrong choice, but I have no regrets.  The Avion 13 size is a perfecto shape, 6 7/8″ x 52.  It has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers.  I’ve heard good things about this cigar, Pete talks about it in the video I did with him at the PCA show (which is my second most watched video on Youtube now). I’ve smoked, and enjoyed, an Avion before, but now I’m not sure which one it was, I think it might have been the 2012 version. Sometimes I expect the Mexican wrapper to overpower the blend of a cigar.  This cigar had incredible flavors, sure it had the espresso and cocoa I expected, but they were refined, slightly different.  It’s a beautiful cigar, and I see myself picking up the T110 and 7th sizes to see how they stack up. The Avion size was pretty amazing though.  

 

Another cigar I found that was on my wishlist was the Alec Bradley Double Broadleaf from their Experimental Series. I got the Gran Corona size, which is 7″ x 46, a neat size. This has a Connecticut seed Broadleaf wrapper and binder, which are grown in Honduras. I suppose this answers questions about how in a world of Broadleaf shortages, they managed to make a double Broadleaf.  I liked the size of this cigar, but I’m really curious how this smokes in a larger ring.  They had Robustos and Gordos, looks like there’s more cigars I have to get!  If you like Broadleaf, I think you’ll love this cigar.  It’s rich with sweet cocoa and coffee, dark fruit, and some spice. I can’t help but think what I perceived as spice may have been the sharpness that a narrower ring might have from burning hotter, I’ll let you know when I try different sizes, which I expect to be smoother.  Winner number two this week.  Good smoke. 

 

This last one had some controversy surrounding it. I understand having to protect one’s trademark, but it’s really hard for me to confuse the band on the CAO BX3 with the Opus X.  Of course, if Fuente let this one go, someone else might take it further until they actually did make a band that could be confused. Both Fuente and Pete Johnson are quite good at protecting their marques.  That being said, nobody is picking up a BX3 and saying “is this an Opus X?”. The BX3 has three Brazilian tobaccos in the blend, one of which is the dark, oily Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper.  It also has an Arapiraca binder and Brazilian, Honduran, Mexican and Nicaraguan fillers. When I lit this up I didn’t think I was going to like it. It had a bitterness that was off putting, but eventually became quite enjoyable. I got the 5″ x 52 Robusto, which I don’t generally buy anymore, but it must have been the only size they had.  This is loaded with flavor, and after the initial shock, it turned into a very satisfying cigar. It was like good, black coffee, with some earthiness. It certainly wasn’t my favorite of the three mentioned here, but it was quite enjoyable, and different from, say, the Brazilia or any of the Basin series.  

 

Friday I posted about a contest, so far everyone who’s entered will be a winner unless things pick up. These are pretty cool prizes, and a decent charity, so please have a look and get in on the action.  Go back one post, or click HERE to get details!  that’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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News: CAO Launches BX3 Cigar

One more news item today, then I’ll start working on tomorrow’s post about the event I attended this week.  Something new from CAO? I’ll be honest, I kind of thought with the exit of Rick Rodriguez we’d be seeing less from the brand. Of course, CAO was one of the first to popularize Brazilian tobacco in premium cigars with the Brazilia, and have done a lot with it since.  I look forward to smoking this as I’ve long been a fan of the Brazilia (and 2 out of the 4 Amazon Basin cigars!).  

 

 

CAO DEBUTS BX3

CAO has always had a rebellious streak (think MX2, CX2, LX2), and the brand’s maverick approach to blending is taking another leap forward through its latest expression: CAO BX3.

 

BX3 is a new collection that harnesses “three times the Brazilian tobaccos” in one robust blend.

 

Focusing on the primary growing regions of Northeastern Brazil, CAO BX3 is made with sweet and aromatic Mata Fina and hearty, vibrant Arapiraca tobaccos that are used as wrapper, binder, and filler in an exciting, four-country blend.  

 

Ed Lahmann, CAO’s senior brand manager said, “Being trailblazers of tobacco is in CAO’s DNA, and with BX3, we’re continuing to pilot the path. Our inspiration was the legendary X series which had put our blending expertise on the map. With BX3, we set out to take the best of Brazilian tobacco and bring it to the next level. The easy thing to do would have been to make a Brazilian puro. Our blending team went that route, and it felt like we were just dialing it in. So they kept at it, peppering in Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Mexican tobaccos in just the right proportions to add character, dimension and layers to the smoke. We’re really proud of the way the blend turned out. To us, BX3 is everything a Brazilian-centric smoke should be. It’s memorable, savory and thought-provoking and it complements our portfolio beautifully.”

 

Handcrafted in Nicaragua at STG Estelí, CAO BX3’s is enrobed in a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper, has a Brazilian Arapiraca binder and a blend of rich and robust filler tobaccos from Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Honduras. All told, the tobaccos create a medium-bodied smoke, that’s rich in character and deeply enjoyable with notes of espresso, dark chocolate, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne, and white pepper. 

 

 

CAO BX3 will be a full-time line, available in all channels. The three-frontmark collection is packed in boxes containing 20 cigars and will begin shipping in the first week in July.

 

BX3 Robusto (5” x 52) —  SRP per cigar $8.99

BX3 Toro (6” x 54) —  SRP per cigar $9.49

BX3 Gordo (6” x 60) —  SRP per cigar $10.49

 

About CAO

CAO was originally launched in 1993 by Cano Ozgener, who was the founder of CAO International Inc., a company that up until that point was known for its tobacco pipes. The General Cigar Co., inherited the entire portfolio of CAO’s preexisting brands after Swedish Match and ST Cigar Group Holdings merged in 2010, and the tobacco giant still distributes the brand and all its lines.

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