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.
CAOHU 0116
Next up in my Pan-Am Tour package are the cigars code-numbered CAOHU 0116. This pair came in a Lonsdale (about 44 ring gauge, I would estimate) and a Torpedo (about 54 ring gauge). The wrappers on both were very well-match in a medium-dark roast coffee brown with a nice oily sheen. Both had a nice mix of earth and chocolate on the nose. The foot of the Lonsdale seemed sweeter with a touch of berries along with a faint earthiness. The Torpedo had a stronger, riper earthy aroma with cocoa powder backing it up.
I lit up the Lonsdale first. The prelight draw was good and had that same “berry” note, making me think this was all (or at least primarily) Honduran leaf in the filler. That also makes sense of the code using “HU.” Lighting up, I got red pepper, natural tobacco, and earth on the palate, along with a very peppery retrohale. There was a little sweetness in the form of a mild dark chocolate note. Subsequent puffs came up with some more astringent notes.
As I continued on, the cigar got more smoky in almost the way of a campfire woodsiness. There was also a continuing red pepper spice that made me think of Honduran Corojo leaf. The Lonsdale was medium-to-full in body and very tasty. I would like to see CAO actually make this cigar on a regular basis.
The Torpedo had a really good cold draw that had some of the berry sweetness, along with a chocolatey note. After firing up, I got a prominent espresso bean flavor backed up with a moderate amount of red pepper flake that dissipated quickly. More puffing revealed an unsweetened cocoa flavor and just a hint of the berry sweetness from the cold draw.
The Torpedo 0116 was more of a straight-up medium-bodied smoke with a decent amount of pepper over notes of coffee bean and earth. It was a good smoke, but I felt like the ring gauge held back some of the flavor I got in the smaller diameter version.
On an unofficial “enjoyment” scale (completely unrelated to our normal review scale) of 1 to 5, I would call the Lonsdale about a 4.25 out of 5 and the Torpedo CAOHU 0216 a 3.5 out of 5.
Good stuff, sir!