Cigars provided by General Cigar Company
In 2018, Rick Rodriguez of CAO Cigars embarked on a “virtual tour” off the Pan-American Highway, the longest drivable highway in the world. The Pan-Am Highway is a network of highways that allows someone to drive all the way from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina—about 19,000 miles—except for a 100 mile break in the Panamanian rainforest.
The tobacco in CAO’s cigars comes from so many countries along this road (America, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Columbia, and Ecuador) that it was natural to build an event series around an exploration of the highway and what it provides.
Part of the tour package was an event-only sampler of some blends Rick and the CAO team came up with, exclusive to the events. I couldn’t find any information about the cigars in the sampler, but there appear to be 3 blends, each presented in 2 vitolas. My local General Cigar rep gave me a sampler so I could share the experience with our readers.
CAOCA 0216
Each blend has a code number printed on the band. The numbers mean nothing to me, so I’m just working left to right through the box. The first one I smoked was the CAOCA 0216 in a size that appears to be very close to a traditional Corona.
The Corona had a slight bend in it, which could cause draw problems, so I wanted to be aware of that at the beginning. The wrapper leaf was slightly oily and a milk chocolate brown color. It had an aroma of fresh earth and a bit of cocoa powder. I got more of the same from the foot, along with a touch of cedar. After clipping the head, I took a test draw and found it to be very good, despite the bend in the stick. The cold flavors had notes of berries and wood, as well as a touch of red pepper.
Upon lighting, I got a good amount of pepper, red and black, along with a bread and cocoa powder note that was almost a dark chocolate brownie note. The retrohale had notes of roasted nuts and more red pepper.
As I burned through the stick, flavors of earth and espresso bean mostly took over the profile, with just a bit of sweetness sticking around. I got a good amount of red pepper throughout. My best guess is that this uses a good amount of Honduran filler along with a Mexican wrapper.
The second size of CAOCA 0216 looked to be a standard Toro, about 6” x 50 ring gauge without using any measuring devices. The wrapper leaf appeared to be slightly lighter in color but it had the same earth and cocoa powder aroma to it. The foot had a less pungent earthiness with more cedar than the smaller cigar I smoked earlier. The draw was very good and when cold I still got berry sweetness and a hint of wood, but not any of the pepper the first stick had.
The Toro started off more balanced and smooth. I had definite earth and cocoa powder notes, but more subtle sweet and woody notes. There was still pepper, but it was more of a black pepper on the finish. The retrohale on this one was more nutty and slightly sweet, with just a touch of pepper.
The Toro was a better cigar from start to finish, in my opinion. It maintained a better balance than the Corona, with sweet and nuttty and woody notes coming and going and a slight pepper burn throughout. I really enjoyed this one.
On an unofficial “enjoyment” scale (completely unrelated to our normal review scale) of 1 to 5, I would call the Corona about a 3.5 out of 5 and the Toro CAOCA 0216 a 4 out of 5.
