Cigar Review: CAO Colombia Tinto

Vitola: Tinto (robusto)
Size: 5″ x 50 ring gauge
Price $5.99
Obtained From Maxamar’s Cigars

Background

Before General purchased CAO they were doing a lot of experimenting with tobacco from different regions.  If you were lucky enough to get to see the Escaparate you would have seen many of these different blends resting.  They did end of releasing some of them to single shops as one shop exclusives.  I did get to try a couple of them at the time, and if I’m correct there was one with Colombian tobacco in it.  I doubt that this is the same blend as that though.  According to their website this uses some special tobacco from Colombia called Ica Mazinga.  They claim it burn beautifully and smokes effortlessly, we’ll see about that.  It does make sense with the burn characteristics described like that it would be in the filler along with Brazilian tobacco.  The binder is from Cameroon and the wrapper is from Jamastran.  They come in four different sizes and packed 20 to a box.  The box is very similar in construction to the Brazilia box but it is different colors.  This was the first one of these I smoked.

Prelight

The wrapper on this sample was a golden honey that almost reminded me of Ecuadorian Connecticut shade, but it was slightly darker than CT shade.  The wrapper had some oils to it and was fairly smooth to the touch.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give with no soft spots.  When I put the wrapper to my nose I detected the aroma of hay with an intense barnyard coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got flavors of hay and cinnamon with a good draw.

Flavor

It started off with a fairly strong sugar sweetness that changed to wood, leather and spice a short way in.  Towards the end of the first third I started to get some cream and cedar from it as well.  It was firmly in the medium range to start.  The cigar changed slightly to tobacco, wood and leather in the second third with some bitterness starting to show itself toward the end of this third.  The cigar didn’t move up or down in regards to strength.  The final third saw the flavors stay pretty constant from the second third.  With the bitterness intensifying due to the construction issues.

Construction

The first third started out ok with the draw only slightly tighter than I like.  When I got into the second third a fairly major tunnel developed.  It didn’t fix itself and caused some bitterness in the last half of the cigar.  The tunnel also affected the draw of the cigar.

Value

These are very reasonably priced.  Definitely less than the one shop releases of the past.

Conclusions

Overall this was only an ok cigar.  I think the construction issues really hampered the smoking experience causing bitterness to be there through half of the cigar.  CAO’s website calls it a mild to medium cigar, however to me it seemed like it was trying to be a mild and a strong cigar at the same time and it didn’t really work out.  I would probably try this cigar again since it is very reasonably priced and it does seem to sell well at Maxamar’s, but I wouldn’t seek it out.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 1/2
Construction: 1/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 7/10