CAO America - Potomac

M

mostholycerebus

Gorilla
I grabbed this for my walk last night, after letting it sit a few days at 65%, I was really looking forward to it.

Appearance - Not bad, the wrapper looked a bit rough actually, the pin-striping was a bit uneven. I suspect because of the difficulty in doing the double wrapper. The cap was well-formed. This thing was very dense, heavy in the hand. I clipped it with my SAK, clean cut but hard to cut through.

First Third - Toasted and then lit it with the Ronson, lit up evenly and perfect. First draws seemed almost tasteless, maybe straw? Then I started getting hints of ligero. Draw was very difficult, one of the worst drawing i've smoked.

Second Third - Slightly more ligero flavor. The burn line is excellent considering it's a barber pole. Still a painfully hard draw.

Final third - The Ligero started dying down, which left: almost no flavor at all. After a few minutes of drawing had and getting basically nothing, I canned it.

In summary, if you wanna know how this stick tastes, take 2 puffs of a LFD chisel and then suck on a Vegas Gold through a garden hose for an hour. Looks wiz though. If I find them cheap i'm gonna get a box for show, for those days when I smoke 3-4 and can't taste the last one anyway. I suspect my draw problem was not representative, as no one else has mentioned same.
 
I had one of these the other day. I wasn't bad; just very mild and uneventful. I definitely agree with not much flavor. It would be an OK smoke for about 4 bucks or less, but definitely not worth it for the price they are going for.

Good review! :tu
 
I think im going to stay away from these unless I get them for free or really cheap. With the price tag and the not so great reviews this smoke seems to be turning out to be more hype than anything else.
 
WOW.....I had high expectations. And for almost $7.00 per stick I was ready to give 'em a go because they were from CAO.

I'm hesitant now.......

Thanks for the review and honesty!!
 
Lemme say... I haven't closed the book on these yet. I had a 5-er of the CAO Criollo's, and hated the first two I tried. I left them for 6 months, and when I came back, these were one of my favorites ever. I'm gonna try and get a few more Americas, let them sit, and maybe re-visit this in a few months.

Though i'll agree that I doubt these will ever be a deal in their price range. There are SOOO many good sticks under $5, when you go over that the competition becomes even more intense.
 
I got one. I'll let you guys know what I think when I try it. Not fair to judge a cigar with one sample, but given the less than stellar reviews, I'll probably only give it this one chance.
 
BigFrankMD said:
Paying $5+ dollars for a cigar to then have to let it rest for 6 months to taste good is bullshit im sorry.
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Hold on now doc... its the nature of many cigars - aging them improves them. Patience is a virtue, and definitely when it comes to premium hand made cigars. This seems especially true of those coming from ISOM. :ss
 
SmokeyJoe said:
Hold on now doc... its the nature of many cigars - aging them improves them. Patience is a virtue, and definitely when it comes to premium hand made cigars. This seems especially true of those coming from ISOM. :ss
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I know I know. I am very impatient. At least I admit it. lol
 
I bought one of these last night when I was at the B&M with ZYA_LTR. I, of course, try anything CAO just because. I wasn't surprised at the price, as I have just come to accept that CAO prices are higher than most other sticks in the same class. Anyway, I loved the look of them, as it's something different in the CAO lineup.

I clipped and lit it up and the first few puffs were full bodied. As the smoke went on, I had the same thoughts, "this stick is definitely lacking in flavor". I had to do a few touch-ups, but it probably wasn't the cigars fault, as I was playing cards at the same time and wasn't keeping my attention to it. I smoked it down to about an inch and put it out. I would smoke one again if it was in my humi, but I'm not going out of my way to go and buy a lot of em. There are tons of smokes that are much better for that price.
 
I've liked almost all of the CAO lines I've tried (Criollo, MX2, Gold), but I think I'll wait on these until more favorable reviews come in. They do look cool though. :)
 
I have one of these in the humi now. . . I've had pretty good success with CAO, and am looking forward to lighting this one for myself. The draw problems could simply be that you got a bad stick. I've had tough draws on stick that are "go to" on my list and when I give another chance turn out fine.

Don't give up on these right away. I'll post my results after my burn.

Sorry to hear of your bad experince.
 
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