Kingantz
Growing too fast.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
- Messages
- 7,648
It’s a spring like morning with Blue Jays squawking loudly everywhere and mocking birds singing their songs. The sun is up, shining bright with crystal clear blue sky, the makings of one beautiful day. I decided to take a vacation day due to cabin fever and knowing what today would be like, it just seemed appropriate. After fixing a fresh cup of coffee, I already knew the cigar to have this morning, which was the CAO La Traviata that Israel was kind enough to send for a review (thank you as always Israel).
This was one gorgeous cigar with excellent construction; the medium to dark brown Ecuadorian Habano wrapper is very oily with prominent veins running the length and smaller web like veins throughout. It had a solid, hefty weight in the hand, a slight give when squeezed, and after punching the cap I found the draw with slightly over-resistant, so used the Palio to clip some off the head. This helped open it up a little more and a sweet, rich tobacco taste came through in the cold draw.
Slowly I lit the foot with my Dupont lighter, blowing on the forming embers to get an even burn, the second hand smoke pouring from the freshly lit tobacco smelled delicious in the nose, sweet and rich. I took a couple quick puffs and then a slow, long draw that produced a perfect amount of medium strength smoke with a nice, medium spiciness on the back of the tongue and throat. The body was thick and oily, yet smooth and creamy on the palate with rich flavors; that of hazelnut, coffee, vanilla, and a hint of leather. A lasting finish was left on the palate after slowly exhaling.
Through the first third and into halfway, the burn is sharp with a compact, dark gray ash forming that holds strong until tapped off in the ash tray. Medium strength smoke is flowing well through the perfect draw leaving an oily texture on the lips and tongue with just the right amount of spice. It’s very smooth as I exhale slowly through the mouth and nose with the same rich, delicious flavors coming through, a bit of cocoa seems to have found its way into the mix. The finish is very lasting on the palate.
The final third was consistent as before with sharp burn, perfect draw, rich and delicious flavors, and a lasting finish on the palate. This was probably the best CAO I’ve had to date and thoroughly enjoyable. I can see these only getting better with some good down time; will be interesting to see how they smoke in a year or two. Many thanks again to Israel for the opportunity to smoke an excellent cigar! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Unfortunately, the pics of the cigar smoked were "corrupted" somehow.
This was one gorgeous cigar with excellent construction; the medium to dark brown Ecuadorian Habano wrapper is very oily with prominent veins running the length and smaller web like veins throughout. It had a solid, hefty weight in the hand, a slight give when squeezed, and after punching the cap I found the draw with slightly over-resistant, so used the Palio to clip some off the head. This helped open it up a little more and a sweet, rich tobacco taste came through in the cold draw.
Slowly I lit the foot with my Dupont lighter, blowing on the forming embers to get an even burn, the second hand smoke pouring from the freshly lit tobacco smelled delicious in the nose, sweet and rich. I took a couple quick puffs and then a slow, long draw that produced a perfect amount of medium strength smoke with a nice, medium spiciness on the back of the tongue and throat. The body was thick and oily, yet smooth and creamy on the palate with rich flavors; that of hazelnut, coffee, vanilla, and a hint of leather. A lasting finish was left on the palate after slowly exhaling.
Through the first third and into halfway, the burn is sharp with a compact, dark gray ash forming that holds strong until tapped off in the ash tray. Medium strength smoke is flowing well through the perfect draw leaving an oily texture on the lips and tongue with just the right amount of spice. It’s very smooth as I exhale slowly through the mouth and nose with the same rich, delicious flavors coming through, a bit of cocoa seems to have found its way into the mix. The finish is very lasting on the palate.
The final third was consistent as before with sharp burn, perfect draw, rich and delicious flavors, and a lasting finish on the palate. This was probably the best CAO I’ve had to date and thoroughly enjoyable. I can see these only getting better with some good down time; will be interesting to see how they smoke in a year or two. Many thanks again to Israel for the opportunity to smoke an excellent cigar! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Unfortunately, the pics of the cigar smoked were "corrupted" somehow.
