CAO Cx2 Cigar Review
First off, thanks to Famous Smoke Shop for supplying the stogies for this cigar review.
One of the good things about this cigar is that it’s pretty easy to figure out what is in it. The “Cx2″ refers to the fact that both the wrapper and the binder are from Cameroon. If for no other reason the fact that there is so much Cameroonian tobacco in this cigar should make you want to try it out. How else will you get to know what Cameroonian tobacco tastes like?
It’s a decent enough looking cigar. There are a couple of pin-sized holes on the wrapper but other than that I don’t see any problems with it. Not very oily, not veiny, nicely packed, smells spicy at the foot and the prelight draw is open.
Cigar Stats
Robusto
Length: 5″
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Cameroon
Filler: Columbia & Nicaragua
Price: $100.00/box of 20 | $5.70/single
Civic Flame!
This sample from the stable of CAO Cx2 Cigars starts off very earthy. Lurking in the background is a little bit of spice – just a pinch for flavor – but the secondary flavor to the earth is a mildly sweet woody flavor.
Actually, this is a very relaxing cigar. There is just enough spice in there to give the earthy and woody core an extra kick. Medium bodied for sure.
Comfortably into the second third now and there have been some changes in the flavor profile. That earthiness has faded a great deal. In it’s place the wood and spice have melded together quite nicely.
The final third of the cigar transitions back to the sweet wood flavor. The earthiness is still sticking around but isn’t a major flavor. The spice is all but gone. A new sweetness, basically a floral sweetness, comes on a little nearer the end.
It is a tasty cigar with some good flavors. The draw and the burn are both excellent. Very good cigar.
89 points
Quesada Tributo Cigar Review
This is a very special cigar from the Quesada family. According to Cigar Aficionado “…the Tributo brand was made by Quesada and his team of daughters, nephews and nieces—known as the “Fifth Generation”—at Matasa (Manufactura de Tabacos S.A.) in Santiago.” Before I jump headlong into the review I would like to thank Cigars Direct for this wonderful cigar.
It’s a great looking cigar; well-made and feels solid to the touch. The wrapper is oily. The only drawbacks I can see (and feel) is that there are a couple of discolorations on the wrapper and the cigar may be a little too tightly packed.
Doing some research on this cigar I found out from A Cigar Smoker’s Journal that the wrapper is unique. According to the indispensable Barry, the cigar “utilizes a special hybrid wrapper which was created using the seeds of the Corojo, Habano 2000, Habano Vuelta Arriba and Sumatra in Ecuador.” So lets see if this is a hybrid that we can all like.
Cigar Stats
Robusto
Length: 5″
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Ecuador Heinz 57
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
Price: $6.50/Single
10 Light!
It is definitely an interesting mix of flavors right out of the gates. Instead of the spiciness that I was expecting the flavor profile is much more tame. Sure, there is some spice but there is also sourdough, darkly mild fruitiness and something else that I can’t quite pin down yet. It’s a seemingly minor flavor yet it slices through the other flavors like a light saber through a Jedi. The best I can come up with is something like a tangerine or some other kind of exotically fruity flavor.
The draw requires the slightest of tugs to get a good amount of smoke coming at your taste buds. Good burn and, after about the first third is through, I’m going to go out on a limb and peg this one as a medium bodied smoke.
As the burn line migrates from the first to the second third the flavors are meshing together very well. It is an interesting cigar. There are a good amount of flavors but I cannot say that any one of them stands out as being amazing. What I am willing to say is that these flavors are great when combined. Plus, it is just an interesting cigar. This may sound stupid but this cigar is actually making me think about it.
I’ve let it burn down quite a bit, nearly to the beginning of the final third, and here is what I’m getting. Basically a bunch of heavy but good flavors. The sourdough flavor is gone, it’s more like toast now. Burnt wood, that dark fruity flavor I mentioned earlier and some wheat. Still like it.
The only other mentionable change is in the strength of this cigar; it moved from being a medium bodied cigar to a medium-full bodied one. Thanks again to Cigars Direct.
89 points
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*****UPDATE*****
Google now gives The Perfect Draw a clean bill of health. I would again like to apologize for what happened over the last day or so. Thanks for understanding.
I would like to apologize to everyone who tried to check in on The Perfect Draw during the last 24 hours or so. Evidently, some of the code in my sidebar was dangerous. I can assure you that it is gone now and I will redouble my efforts to make things more secure on this site in the future. I will post an update when Google gives the “All Clear” sign.
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Sincerely,
Travis Lindsay
La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel Maduro Cigar Review
A very impressive cigar to behold. Oily, dark wrapper. Probably a bit too hard to the touch. There are some veins that run throughout. But, even though it does have some negative aspects to its appearance it is just looks like a cool cigar. Plus, it smells like one. It smells aggressive.
The prelight draw gives off a distinct chocolate flavor along with some spice, which was to be expected. For the couple of Chisels that I have smoked their draws have seemed a little tight before I lit them up. But after I have lit the cigars the draw for each cigar has been perfectly fine.
Cigar Stats
pyramid
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: Ecuador Maduro
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: $75.00/Box of 10 | $8.50/Single
Smoke
Sure enough, this cigar starts out very aggressive. Spice and a grassy earthiness. The chocolate flavor is there as well. They mix together wonderfully well and the flavors are fantastically alive. And the draw is great as well. All is good!
In addition to the aforementioned flavors there are some sweet flavors. Toffee, anise and some leather as well. There are a ton of flavors going on in this cigar and they mix together very well.
Full bodied? Sure – but the strength makes sense with this cigar. In no way is it harsh or obnoxiously strong. Exquisitely smooth cigar. Oh, and the burn is even. Yeah!
Slow burning gem of a cigar. A little over an inch in and the flavors are still wonderful. Leather and meat are taking over as the major flavors but all those other flavors are still there and they are great.
While the flavors do not match up perfectly there is a smoky-woody flavor grouping that seems right for this LFD. But just because the flavors do match up perfectly I do not see that as a problem. This is a very complex cigar, there’s bound to be a flavor or two that I don’t think matches up perfectly.
At the halfway point now and meaty/salty flavors are taking the lead. Really complex cigar.
Somewhere around the two-thirds mark the flavors do begin to lose some of their luster. It’s still a very good cigar but just not as much. And that, unfortunately, brings this cigar down a notch. A very, very small notch since this cigar after losing a bit of its “luster” is still better than most anything out there in my book.
94 points
Another View from Cigar Jack.
Variety in Cigars
During my La Aurora trip in May I relearned something that is very important to anyone who is serious about cigars: variety matters.
The first full day there we all visited La Aurora’s factory and once we were all settled into one of their conference rooms Jose Blanco commenced our taste test of cigars. Each one of those cigars were created using only one specific kind of tobacco. I have already talked about this so there is no need to go on further about the process but there was one really important thing about that experience that I hope I can convey to you.
Unless you are willing to smoke a variety of cigars you will never understand what you really like in cigars. Take my experience as an example. When I first started out smoking cigars I was lucky enough to smoke some Fuentes. Solid cigars, medium strength, very good flavors, they are the epitome of what a dependable cigar is. But what if I just stuck to Fuentes? Even though Fuentes are great cigars, and I do recommend them highly, I would eventually have gotten bored with cigars and I seriously doubt I would still be smoking cigars with any regularity.
My first tentative steps away from the venerable Fuente brand were largely hit and miss. I think I took a road that many novice cigar smokers take: I got a lot of samplers along with a couple of sticks I had read about in Cigar Aficionado and on the cigar blogs. The samplers, which were largely comprised of crummy cigars (and by that I mean cheap) accounted for a lot of my “misses.” But that was good for me because I found out I don’t like most of the cheap cigars from Ghurka (there are some very good Ghurkas out there, which surprised me after my initial experiences with their cigars) and that just because the cigar’s brand name is the same as a Cuban brand it isn’t necessarily a good cigar (far from it).
Some of the samplers ended up working out and those successful forays into the unknown of the cigar ecosystem spurred me on to find out more about cigars and to be more adventuresome with my cigar selections. That is when I discovered some of the great boutique cigars like Tatuaje.
So go out and get some cigars that you haven’t tried before. Who knows, you might find some new cigars that you like.
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