CAO Gold

Since I had been focusing on bold cigars, I figured it was time to change things up a little. CAO Gold is a mild to medium cigar from Nicaragua. I have enjoyed many cigars from CAO's collection so I figured it would be a good move to depend on them for my first mild smoke review.

The wrapper on this cigar is Ecuadorian. The binder and filler are all made from Nicaraguan tobaccos. I purchased a Churchill size stick for $8.00. The length is 7 inches and the ring is 48.

The wrapper is a light brown with a few visible veins. It seems a little dry and the cut is disappointing as it leaves some frayed and torn edges. The wrapper isn't quite to the point of unraveling, but if I'm not careful, it will be. And then I will flip out.

The cigar lights easily and the first few puffs release a pretty strong aroma considering this is a mild cigar. A very pleasant scent of cedar practically fills the whole room.

The draw is a little tight but not enough to ruin the smoking experience. Also, the construction is a little off as the stick seems a little too spongy. In fact, the draw becomes even tighter if too much pressure is applied by my fingers to random parts of the cigar.

The smoke is quite light and mild. I have heard some people refer to this cigar as "crisp" although I'm not sure I would go that far. The first part of the cigar has a light cream texture and an almost caramel sweet taste.

The next part sticks with its mild flavors. New tastes emerging now are vanilla and nutmeg. Some faint wood flavors are also present.

What earned this cigar major points in my book was the burn. The stick burned evenly and consistently. Sometimes as you smoke a cigar, it seems to have varying levels of burning throughout. This was not the case here as the draw and burn was exactly the same from start to finish. My favorite part of all this? The ash, a light gray, stayed on the cigar for a delightfully long time. I even found myself carefully puffing to see how long I could keep the ash from falling off. It actually stayed on for more than half the length of the cigar before falling into my ash tray. These kind of things really excite me.

Towards the end of the smoke, the flavors stay in the mild spectrum with the sweetness fading away to woody notes. A slight nicotine taste comes out here but mixes well which is unusual because the smoke is so mild. Normally, the emergence of a nicotine presence is my cue to put a mild smoke down since it will often overpower the delicate flavors. However, it seems to work right now.

At the end of the cigar, some stronger earthy flavors emerge. The faint vanilla tastes fade out and the smoke finishes off with a bit of a pop which even mild cigars sometimes do.

As I have said before, I usually lean more towards the full bodied smokes. That being said, mild cigars still have tastes and flavors to be appreciated. Consistency was one of this cigar's strong points. The smoke could stand to be a little more complex, but the flavors were still enjoyable. The construction and draw took away from the experience a little but the tastes were interesting enough that I would probably purchase this one again if I found myself in the mood for something on the smooth and light side. I found myself a little torn on whether this cigar finished in the high 70's for low 80's. Points were lost due to the fact that CAO Gold advertises itself not as mild, but as a medium bodied cigar. It's not. However, I gave out some very generous points for such a great burn, especially the ash lasting as long as it did which really does contribute quite a bit to the development of flavors. I'll admit, I may have put a little too much weight on this one characteristic. But it really was great.

Overall Rating: 81