Originally published at Tiki Bar Online
V554 Camshaft, 5.5” x 54 ring gauge / ~$7.50
Just as I was getting ready to smoke this cigar for review, I noticed a story on Cigar Aficionado’s site about how CAO was hitting cruising speed with this release. Maybe so, but I would argue that it’s only after the vehicle hit quite a few potholes in the last few years. After their parent companies merged, CAO was folded into the General Cigar catalog; the team that had taken the company from 0 to 100 stayed in Nashville to pursue other things, while new people tried to make CAO their own. The first new release, OSA Sol, seemed to have some traction at first, but took some knocks and sputtered along the way. Concert was, to me, much more enjoyable, but only in one or two particular sizes. Other news was a little more distressing; while they old blends were supposed to remain unchanged, there simply aren’t many people I know who can smoke a “Nashville CAO” and a “General CAO” of the same frontmark and say it was exactly the same blend. So is the company back on track with this new Flathead? Let’s take a look…
General sent me several samples of the Flathead V550 Camshaft, the second smallest size offered. That in and of itself is worth noting because they didn’t go with the trend of bigger is better, at least in terms of what to send out to bloggers. While there are 60 and 70 ring gauge versions available, they sent the 54 ring gauge stick, and I think it’s a good “middle ground” in the size range for this blend. I’ve smoked about 3 or 4 of this stick, including this review cigar. They are made in Scandinavian Tobacco’s factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, using Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, a Connecticut Habano binder, and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. I practically wanted to say, “You had me at Broadleaf!” but there have been the occasional disappointments in cigars using that wrapper, so I did my due diligence.
The Flathead is dark to the point of almost being black, and the black and silver foil band looks fantastic on the oily wrapper (one picture I saw shows a red and silver band on a different vitola…perhaps all sizes have different colors?). The head of the cigar is indeed very flat and the cigar itself is a very boxy box-press. I used a straight cut on the first couple of these I had and it worked, but then I read Brian Hewitt’s review mentioning that he used a punch; I tried it…double-punched, actually, almost like a side-by-side shotgun…and it worked brilliantly. The wrapper had a wonderful dark chocolate aroma with hints, too, of leather and earth. The foot was almost opposite, with a stronger earthiness and just hints of chocolate. The double-barrel punch job provided a nice smooth draw, although it did put added stress on the cap and the glue holding it down seemed to give up. It was sloppy but stayed together for now…I think this might argue for some extra glue on this type of shape. The cold draw had a darkly sweet flavor with cocoa nibs, dried fruit, earth and espresso all present.
Adding fire to the mix, soon the CAO Flathead had started it’s slow burn into oblivion. And a very nice slow burn it was. I immediately got those chocolatey, sweet earth flavors that come through so well in Broadlead cigars, along with a short but sharp pepper spice on the retrohale. The rest of the first third had plentiful cocoa powder and espresso flavors. The pepper spice abated just a bit but didn’t completely go away.
Midway through the second third, I noted that the construction (besides the cap which was still threatening to come loose) was excellent. The draw was great. The burn line was exceptionally even for a Broadleaf wrapper. The ash had not flaked on me yet. The flavors were mostly the same as the first third except that the pepper spice did almost cease completely during this third.
image courtesy General Cigar
In the final third, the cap, which had been hanging in there pretty well, finally let go and threatened to let the rest of the cigar unravel. In fairness, this was the only one of the several samples that had a problem this bad, but a couple others did have minor issues. Again, I’m thinking that the distinctive shape of the head is part of the problem and more glue on the wrapper might be the fix. I was able to keep it together to finish off the cigar, though, because…well, it’s just that good! The flavors of chocolate and dark roast coffee continued to dominate, with touches of earth and dried fruit coming through. The body was medium to full and the strength was medium-plus. I can say without reservation that this is my favorite CAO release since they became a General Cigar company…and it ranks well within the top CAO releases ever. In order of preference, my favorites have been La Traviata (Animado, original release…I still have half a box), Brazilia (Box Press), and this…the Flathead. (Some say the original release Maduro made in Costa Rica in 1998 was the best ever, but I never had those in their prime. I have had some well-aged samples, but I suspect they are only a shadow of what the cigar was 10 years ago.) This is supposed to be a limited release, so I just have to say…try it soon and, if you like it, buy as many as you can afford! It loses half a point on construction, but if not for that it would be a 9.5…as is, a solid 9.
Body: 8/10
Strength: 6/10
Complexity: 6/10
AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
