CAO Gold Corona

5.5" X 42, Natural

One might have noticed that over the life of my Blog so far, I have generally reviewed Medium to strong cigars, both in strength and body. Well for a change of pace I thought I would hearken back to the days when I smoked mild cigars, and review a CAO Gold, a rather popular Natural Wrapped Cigar. Here goes:

Appearance: Smooth and tan, not much in the way of veins, and pretty firmly packed. Overall a pretty nice looking stogie.

Prelight: Despite a hiccup by my normally dependable Xikar (needs sharpened maybe?), I was able to correct this stick to a nice clean cut. The prelight draw was acceptable, with tangyness and sweet honey as prelight notes.

Burn/Draw: fabulous. burned razor straight, nice easy draw with just enough resistance to prove worthwhile. The ash was medium grey and mottled and held for a bit more than an inch. Burned just like a well constructed cigar should. See the telling illustration below.
Flavor: there was much more flavor than I expected in this cigar. It was dominated by sweet and tangy notes. Woody notes like maple, sweet ones like honey, and nutty notes like toasted almonds and pecans. Over the last third of the cigar some spice crept in, cinnamon, and way toward the end some pepper. This is a cigar on the mild side of medium, in terms of both strength and body but definitely provides plenty of flavor. Overall this is a fabulous example how being a mildish stogie does not mean you have to be a bland one. Recommended.

TomC