This is going to a 3 part review. The next few posts are all CAO related, I'm comparing what I call "CAO's International Cigars"; The America,Brazilia,and Italia. CAO have had these smoke all planned out for a while and once released have gotten some acclaim to em all. At my young smoking adventure I started smoking alot of CAO's and was wanting to one day smoke all the International Lines and see how they compared. So after so many Italia's America's and Brazilia's which one do I think is best? Let's start with the Italia.
Specs-
Size-6x50
Wrapper-Honduras
Binder-Honduras
Filler-Italy,Nicaragua,Peru
Price-$7.10
Smoke Time-30 Mins
Cut-Punch
FIRST IMPRESSIONS-CAO makes very good looking sticks and very pretty bands, this Italia is no exception. The smooth brown wrapper displayed no major veins or defects. The wrapper had no particular smell or taste. The same was for the foot, just a slight earthiness. The stick was solid, probably too solid because the draw was a little tight and produced no particular flavor.
FIRST HALF-I'm reviewing the Italia And The America in halves rather than thirds and this will be obvious why once I get to the later half. This cigar opened up nicely, a nice and subtle spice up front and a good strong finish. This is a very slow burning stick so it took a while for the main flavors to start progressing. A espresso flavor opens up the as the main flavor on the stick and its very well rounded. It kinda makes you feel like you are at cafe in Italy enjoying a nice cup of coffee and watching the happy go lucky Italians, this is a very good flavor. Along with the espresso there's touches of earth and cedar that make it a very good visual and flavorful experience, the best Half.
SECOND HALF-Things go down hill here, bad. When the longest as
h fell, things soon followed. The earthiness that was so enjoyable on the first half gets darker. The cedar turns stale and the coffee is gone. The cigar got so icky,nicotine,tarry and pectin full that I had to put the stick down. It was horrible. There was no finish and no spice, smoke was wispy and smelly. This turned out to be a terrible finish to what was shaping up to be a great experience. I tried out 3 others sticks to see if I got a fluke, nope. All of the cigars I tried in this size had the same problem. First half great, last half miserable. The Italia is the worst of the 3 in CAO's"International Series".
LAST IMPRESSIONS-I really wanted to like this cigar. With such an nice opening of flavors you kinda feel bad for the stick. It makes you think what happened? Maybe a Torcedor was just not feeling it the day he was making this cigar, maybe the leaf just gave up and started rotting, I can't tell you why this happened. But can only say it's a shame that it did.
Specs-
Size-6x50
Wrapper-Honduras
Binder-Honduras
Filler-Italy,Nicaragua,Peru
Price-$7.10
Smoke Time-30 Mins
Cut-Punch
FIRST IMPRESSIONS-CAO makes very good looking sticks and very pretty bands, this Italia is no exception. The smooth brown wrapper displayed no major veins or defects. The wrapper had no particular smell or taste. The same was for the foot, just a slight earthiness. The stick was solid, probably too solid because the draw was a little tight and produced no particular flavor.
FIRST HALF-I'm reviewing the Italia And The America in halves rather than thirds and this will be obvious why once I get to the later half. This cigar opened up nicely, a nice and subtle spice up front and a good strong finish. This is a very slow burning stick so it took a while for the main flavors to start progressing. A espresso flavor opens up the as the main flavor on the stick and its very well rounded. It kinda makes you feel like you are at cafe in Italy enjoying a nice cup of coffee and watching the happy go lucky Italians, this is a very good flavor. Along with the espresso there's touches of earth and cedar that make it a very good visual and flavorful experience, the best Half.
SECOND HALF-Things go down hill here, bad. When the longest as
h fell, things soon followed. The earthiness that was so enjoyable on the first half gets darker. The cedar turns stale and the coffee is gone. The cigar got so icky,nicotine,tarry and pectin full that I had to put the stick down. It was horrible. There was no finish and no spice, smoke was wispy and smelly. This turned out to be a terrible finish to what was shaping up to be a great experience. I tried out 3 others sticks to see if I got a fluke, nope. All of the cigars I tried in this size had the same problem. First half great, last half miserable. The Italia is the worst of the 3 in CAO's"International Series".
LAST IMPRESSIONS-I really wanted to like this cigar. With such an nice opening of flavors you kinda feel bad for the stick. It makes you think what happened? Maybe a Torcedor was just not feeling it the day he was making this cigar, maybe the leaf just gave up and started rotting, I can't tell you why this happened. But can only say it's a shame that it did.
RATING-70
Buy It Again? I'll revisit it eventually, some people really like this cigar, I want to see what I'm missing.
Recommend It? Maybe another Vitola, but not the Positano.
Buy It Again? I'll revisit it eventually, some people really like this cigar, I want to see what I'm missing.
Recommend It? Maybe another Vitola, but not the Positano.
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