CAO Maduro Robusto

5" X 50, Maduro

Appearance: This was a rather pretty looking cigar. Wrapped in a very dark, almost dark, glistening wrapper, this cigar was a thing of beauty. The one thing of concern was, upon initial perusal, I noticed that this cigar was very firm, almost hard. Hopefully it would not affect the draw.

Pre-Light: The clip was easy as pie with the Palio pictured above. The pre light draw was a little tight but not horrible, and there were notes of sweet chocolate and rich coffee. The flavors before light had this cigar shaping up to be something pretty darn good.


Burn/Draw: The burn on this cigar was perfect, razor straight and with no need of correction. The ash on this cigar was bright white, and firm, and provided me with a great visual contrast while examining this stick. The problem is, that is where the good aspects of that cigar ends. The draw, unfortunately, was tight to the detriment of the cigar. It was hard to draw a decent amount of smoke from this stick, and I believe that caused the cigar to burn a bit hot. Very disappointing.

Flavors: I know a few people who really like this cigar, and because their opinions are quite reliable, i will try this stogie again before passing final judgment. That said, this cigar was not very good at all.after a nice burst of mocha at the very beginning, the draw became an issue early on. I always felt I was fighting the cigar, no matter what I tried to loosen it up. This cigar in return hot and produced very unpleasant flavors. Strangely I got both a burned charcoal note and a soggy vegetable note at the same time. Not pleasant. I gave up about halfway through, life is too short for crap cigars. I will give this stick another chance in the future but my initial impressions are just not good.

TomC