Tag Archives: CAO

by Craig Vanderslice | March 21, 2021 · 9:32 am

CAO Arcana Mortal Coil and Some Random Thoughts

Before I get to the cigar, let me get some stuff off my chest. Little things get under my skin that maybe shouldn’t. but they do. Simple misuse of cigar terminology, for instance. Call it a pet peeve. One that came up recently was while listening to a podcast that I don’t often listen to, and the host is a large reason why. I firmly believe that if you are hosting a cigar podcast, and consider yourself experienced in the cigar industry, you should have a good grasp on simple terminology. For instance, if someone says they take the wrapper off a cigar and put it in their wallet, I’m picturing peeling the outer leaf off and it making a big mess in someone’s billfold, leaving an ugly cigar with just the binder, basically ruining the cigar and changing the flavor dramatically. I try to correct this when I see the mistake made in forums by laymen, I pretty much correct those who refer to either cello or the band as the wrapper. Generally the question is something like: “should I remove the wrappers from my cigars when I put them in the humidor” and my response is :“ No! The wrapper is the most expensive leaf and takes skill to apply, and adds flavor to the cigar! You probably mean the cellophane” or something similarly smart ass. But I don’t expect this mistake from someone hosting a podcast, writing a cigar blog, or otherwise in cigar media. In talking to other people, this isn’t this individual’s only flaw by any stretch. I find his interviewing style egregius and he’s unentertaining. I’ve gone as far as to remove the link to the show from my site as it’s no longer worth having any association with. This is actually one of the kind of cigar media guys who could give the rest of us a bad name in the industry. That’s the end of my rant, before I go any further down a rabbit hole. I smoked cigars this week, let’s talk about that!

I smoked a few cigars this week that I can’t talk about that were really interesting, and a couple that I want to smoke more of before writing about, but the one standout was the new CAO Arcana Mortal Coil. With Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) coming to their senses and hiring back their PR director recently, samples have begun showing up in my mailbox again, and I haven’t had to journey out looking for this cigar, which I would have done anyway, because it sounded amazing. The Mortal Coil has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, with a Connecticut Shade binder and Dominican Andullo, Honduran Jamastran, Nicaraguan Esteli and Dominican Piloto Cubano fillers. It’s 6 1/8″ x 50 and they only made 5000 boxes (I think they left out how many per box!). I found this to be a powerhouse cigar, and I loved it. It was rich and spicy, with some nice sweet flavors, and I really enjoyed it. I wan’t enamoured with the band though, it’s about 7½” long when unfurled. I get it, it coiled around the cigar, but it’s a lot of band to deal with, and must irritate the folks in the STG factory in Esteli who have to apply it to the cigars, as it’s totally different that banding any other cigar. That being said, it’s not a cord of tobacco, so there’s that. Overall, it’s a really good cigar for my palate, and I’ll be picking up some if I see them in the shops, just to have on hand for a treat. I appreciate the interplay of the Broadleaf and shade wrapper/binder combo, the CAO Bones has the same combo and I really like that.

Speaking of bands, my wife is working on another cigar band table project and needs yellow bands! What cigars have yellow bands? Leave comments with suggestions, or if you have some, let me know and we can come to an arrangement (wink, wink).

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Arcana, CAO, cigar, cigars, Mortal Coil

by Craig Vanderslice | October 27, 2020 · 7:00 am

News: CAO Presents a New Vision Cigar

CAO proudly presents Vision, a limited edition cigar inspired by the fans of CAO and the tutelage of the brand’s Blender/Ambassador Rick Rodriguez by the legendary Benji Menendez.

“Whether traveling across the world visiting cigar shops and even in doing virtual events as I have been for the last several months, the CAO fans always tell me that CAO Cameroon is one of the absolute best Cameroons on the market. It got me thinking about the time I spent learning the art of leaf priming and selection with Benji Menendez. Back then he loved Cameroon wrapper (he still does, by the way), and he spent a lot of time teaching me which tobaccos are the best for bringing out the Cameroon’s natural sweetness. I’ve never developed my own blend with a Cameroon wrapper, and I thought it was time to do it, to share my take on a Cameroon-wrapped cigar with Benji and the fans of CAO. It’s my way of saying thank you for this amazing career I have in the cigar business,” said Rick Rodriguez.

Rick and the CAO blending team in Nicaragua experimented with dozens of combinations before ultimately meeting Rick’s ideal of what CAO Vision should be. Calling upon the knowledge imparted in him by Benji Menendez and based on the preferences of his own seasoned palate, Rick settled on a blend that features tobaccos from three countries and four growing regions.

After meticulous selection for aesthetics and flavor, only the finest Cameroon wrapper leaves were chosen for CAO Vision. The delicate, toothy wrapper was placed over an Ecuadoran Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan Habanos fillers from Estelí and Jalapa. The result is an unforgettable cigar that delivers elaborate notes of nuts and spice and culminates in a subtly-sweet finish.

Just as Benji Menendez’s knowledge was a gift to Rick, Vision is a gift to the fans of CAO who continue to support the brand year in and year out. CAO Vision is packaged as such, in a custom-made, 20-count humidor, constructed out of Spanish cedar with piano hinges. The humidor features cascading lights that illuminate the sheen of the Cameroon wrapper and underscore the cigar’s meticulous construction.

Handcrafted at STG Estelí in Nicaragua, CAO Vision will be released in just one size, a 7” x 50 Churchill called Vision which will sell for a suggested retail price of $18.99 per cigar. For the U.S. market, 2,500 boxes will be made available beginning on November 9.

In support of the brand’s popularity in export markets, CAO will release 2,000 boxes of Vision to select retailers in Europe and Asia.

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Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, Vision

by Craig Vanderslice | October 21, 2020 · 9:16 pm

CAO Expedición TAA Exclusive and A Recent Guest Appearance

One of the cigars I picked up when I visited CigarCigars in Berwyn, PA last weekend was a CAO Expedición, the latest TAA exclusive. This is a 6 1/8 x 52 Toro, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to it. One of the other reasons was that it was a CAO with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, which I have had good experiences with. Many of my favorite CAOs have Broadleaf wrappers. Like the Bones, this also has a Connecticut shade binder, which is very interesting. The wrapper and binder are around fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Now that I think about it, the Bones also has fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua and the DR. I’m sure they use different fillers, as they are very specific about the varieties used in the Bones, and they make the Expedición in Honduras and the Bones is made in Nicaragua. There’s also the fact that the Expedición seemed much smoother to me than the Bones. I really enjoy both, but I’ll stop comparing the two now and concentrate on the Expedición. It was very good. It had the nice, rich espresso with some sweetness and a little underlying nuttiness from the binder. It wasn’t the typical bold Broadleaf cigar, the shade binder adds a uniqueness that’s really interesting. I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable cigar.

Monday evening I was a guest on the I’d Tap That Cigar Show‘s Impromptu Night Live show along with Dave Mayer and the staff of the Wooden Indian Cigar Shop, one of my favorite local cigar stores. I’ve included the video here, but I’m let to believe that I won’t be allowed to embed videos at some point. This is a drag, because I have over 100 videos of my own on YouTube and I only ever really used that as a place to store videos and embed them on my site. I don’t want to have to send my readers off of my site to watch the occasional video content I may decide to present. Anyway, watch it here while you can, and check you Kevin’s channel, he always has some great guests.

Don’t forget to go back to Sunday’s post and enter the contest to win some great cigars, a fantastic ashtray and a nifty hygrometer! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, I'd Tap That, TAA, wooden indian

by Craig Vanderslice | September 23, 2020 · 9:15 pm

Fratello Arlequin and CAO Bones Blind Hughie Cigars

I’d like to remind contest winners Xolatol and Gregg Hearl to send me an email with your contact info so we can get your CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers out to you! I’d hate to have to track you down and drag the info out of you! Time is running down on this promotion and CigarProp is still in the lead! The Dojo sampler is sneaking up and Dojo has a huge following, so anything could happen. Kevin’s sampler is made for the cooler weather that’s coming, so stock up!

I had read somewhere that Fratello‘s Arelequin was due to ship soon to retailers and I decided I should smoke the one that came in the Space Fresh Pack that I recently bought. I had been looking forward this one, it has a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Peru, and sounds like a darned tasty blend. This was a toro, measuring 6″ x 5o, an ideal size in my opinion. I believe the production version will be 6″ x 52 box pressed. This, like all but the Oro, is made by Joya de Nicaragua. I absolutely loved the last half of this cigar, and that requires some explanation. I’ll also say that I’ve purchase two more Space Fresh Packs (because why not? Fox Cigars has them!). The first half of this cigar was plagued by a void in the filler somewhere, which resulted in a tunnel, and hence a bad draw. This, in my experience, is an anomaly for cigars from that factory. It’s probably the first cigar of hundreds I’ve had a construction problem like that with. You might ask why I mention it at all, fair question, it’s not meant to disparage the brand or the cigar, it’s an odd situation, it was not exactly a regular production cigar, and once it burned past the void and started burning right, it was delicious! So much so that I was compelled to seek out more so that I could smoke it again as soon as possible. Maybe the responsible thing would have been to wait until I got the replacements and ignore the problem, but sometimes stuff happens and if I had given up on the cigar I would have missed out and not gone back for more! It had a nice rich cocoa flavor with that spice that’s unique to Peruvian tobacco. I can’t wait to smoke this again.

I probably should have kept to a theme and smoked a Fratello Bianco or Classico, but I had wanted to try the new CAO Bones in another size, so while I was out over the weekend, I picked up the Blind Hughie 6″ x 54 Toro size. Blind Hughie is a dominos game, the whole line being themed after the game. If you missed it last time, this cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Connecticut shade binder and Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This cigar might be my favorite CAO cigar since the Flathead series, and it’s priced better, which is a win. I like the interplay between the Broadleaf and shade, although it’s less prominent in this vitola than the robusto to me. I still enjoyed this cigar quite a bit, it really hit the spot tonight, burn and draw were just right and it was a finger-burner. I need to give the Churchill and Gordo a try.

That’s all for tonight, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Arlequin, Blind Hughie, bones, CAO, cigar, cigars, Fratello

by Craig Vanderslice | August 12, 2020 · 3:29 pm

CAO Bones and Pilón Cigars

I received some samples of the new CAO Bones cigars from General Cigars last week, along with some Pilóns too. I smoked the Pilóns when they came out in 2015 and wasn’t awfully enamoured with them, which isn’t really unusual for the CAO line, it’s one of those brands where I either really like a marque or I don’t. It’s like the Amazon series, I really like the Fuma and Anaconda, but not so much the Basin and Orallana. I have been smoking a lot of CAOs recently, probably because I bought a bunch from CigarThief, then Bones came along. A happy coincidence. By the way, I had a job interview this morning, I think it went well, I start Monday! LEt’s start with the Pilón. The reason this one has renewed interest is that the French Magazine L’Amateur de Cigare just named it cigar of the year. Here’s the press release that I didn’t post when it came out:

CAO Pilón Named Cigar of the Year by L’Amateur de Cigare

CAO Pilón was named “Cigar of the Year” by celebrated international cigar magazine L’Amateur de Cigare.

The magazine’s prestigious tasting panel rated a total of 450 cigars, with Pilón ultimately winning out against the finest cigars available in France, one of the world’s leading markets for handmade cigars.

Regis Broersma, president of General Cigar said, “We are extremely proud that CAO Pilón received this honor from such a distinguished and respected international publication. When we created Pilón, we developed the brand according to a 19th-century Cuban fermentation technique, so it is ironic that Pilón beat out the best of the best cigars from Cuba, as well as other top cigar-producing countries.”

L’Amateur de Cigare described Pilón as “elegant” and hails its “great complexity and agreeable persistence,” while praising Pilón’s “satisfying finish” and “excellent value.”

CAO Pilón was introduced in the U.S. in 2015 and launched in France in 2018 at an exclusive event in Paris at the DuPont headquarters.

Handcrafted in Nicaragua at STG Esteli, Pilón was created by Rick Rodriguez and the CAO blending team who utilized the labor-intensive pilón process of natural fermentation to maximize the flavor and color of the Cuban seed Ecuadoran wrapper, delivering a taste and appearance unattainable through other methods. The blend consists of spicy Nicaraguan filler and binder leaves from the distinctive growing regions of Esteli and Ometepe. CAO Pilón bears a deep, rich color and an incredible depth of flavor, featuring notes of wood, spice and a touch of sweetness.

CAO Pilón is available in the U.S. and in select markets worldwide in these formats:

Churchill 7x 48 – SRP per cigar $8.49

Robusto Extra 5 x 52 – SRP per cigar $7.49

Corona 5.5 x 44 – SRP per cigar $7.09

Toro 6 x 58 – SRP per cigar $8.49

Torpedo – 7 x 54 – SRP per cigar $8.89

I smoked one that they just sent, and pulled one that I found buried in the humidor from 5 years ago. I didn’t get around to smoking the older one, I decided to celebrate landing a job after nine months of frustration with a Sin Compromiso instead, sorry Ricky! I have my reasons. Anyway, the Pilón still doesn’t really do it fr me. It’s the wood, maybe mushroomy lack of sweetness that doesn’t endear it to me, but must be something the French appreciate! I suppose I can see how a palate that’s used to Havana cigars would appreciate it. I think it’s appropriate now to move from the old to the new!

Bones! As you’ll recall from the press release I posted a couple weeks ago (here), CAO Bones pays homage to dominos and dice games. If you buy a box, it comes with a pair of dice. When I took a pic for Instagram, I asked my son if he had an interesting die I could include in the pic, as much as I love the Cigar Props, it gets a little boring seeing the same poses in the IG feed! Corey came through with his bag of dice, which I thought made for a neat shot. Anyway, this is one of the CAO cigars that hits me right. The Connecticut broadleaf wrapper combines nicely with the Connecticut shade binder and Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican filers to make a very enjoyable smoke that’s, in my opinion, on the stronger side. General almost always sends robustos to sample, in this line they call it the Chicken Foot, which is a dominos game I’m to understand (I’m ignorant in the way of dominos, unless it’s delivered, or comes in a bag, ie. sugar). That means I’m going to be forced to go buy the other sizes to sample. There is a creamy sweetness that is just beneath the surface, barely there, but noticeable under the heavy espresso- cocoa of the Broadleaf. I smoked a second one while watching Ricky and Doug (whom I’ve yet to meet) on a Zoom presentation about Bones last night, rarely do I smoke two of the same cigar on consecutive days, but this one is a good one, I can’t seem to get enough (although it apparently isn’t good enough to celebrate finally getting hired after a nine month search, is it?). I look forward to trying the other sizes especially after Doug and Rick built up the larger sizes on their show. I don’t have a problem with large cigars anyway. I don’t think I’ll be smoking as many in the coming weeks. Anyway, good cigars, good news in a weird year filled with uncertainty. Now, I have 4 days to wrap up some projects!