CAO L'Anniversaire Maduro Review

[jgrimball]

I had one of these last night. The construction was great and it has a nice dark
oily wrapper. It smelled of dark chocolate and coffee. I was excited to finally
light it up. The cigar tasted wonderful but it had one problem.............
I could not get a draw out of it for nothing!!!!! I thought I was going to
pass out from trying to get a good draw. The little bit of smoke I got
was amazing but I was VERY disappointed because I could not even smoke
it because the draw was so horrible!


Are all the CAO L'Anniversaire Maduros like this? or did I just get a bad one?

[Papa Herf]

Justin, what size was your cigar? I have had the churchill and the robusto, neither of which have given me any problems with draw. In fact, according to the guys at CAO, each cigar is draw tested before leaving the factory. After they put the caps on, they use a tiny needle through the cap to push air through to make sure the draw is acceptable. Those are typically great cigars - if you smoke another and have the same problem, post again -

[IHT]

yep, they generally have a terrific draw... i had one last weekend while putting together my new BBQ grill.

[c2000]

I have found that when the draw is very tight you will get a different flavor than if the draw is normal.. When you have your next one and the draw is normal see if there is a difference..

Jerry in Minnesota.

[Ninja Vanish]

I was with the grimster last night when he had that CAO, he was right though, the draw was crazy hard. After he got done with what he wanted of it, I wiped some of the slobber off it and tried to give it a few puffs. It was a wonderful flavor, it did have a very coffee-ish type of flavor but, I had a Padron 2000 maduro that I was smoking and it literally put out probably 10+ times the amount of smoke that this CAO was putting out. I have one of those CAO's in my humi, I'm definitely going to try it because the flavor was unique and good. But if I have the same result with my stick, I will be sorely disappointed. We even tried rolling this thing around on a flat surface with the palm of our hand and squeezing it to try to see if there were any knots or lunps that might be in the way...nothing helped it. Oh well. Sometimes you come across a bad roll every now and then.

[icehog3]

I've had excellent luck with the CAOs grim, definitely try another one...Id' be suprised if you had the same problem again.

[jgrimball]

Thanks for the feedback! I will let you guys know when I get another one and smoke it.

[refill]

Enjoyed the review and brought back memories.
I had the same problem with the same cigar, some of the fog's here told me it was probably over humidified. I let one sit for about 3 weeks in the humi and the draw was great was like a totally diffrent smoke.

[RPB67]

Cao is usually a very consistently good cigar. It usually lights easy and has a nice draw with a smooth and not so harsh finish.

Dont rule them out definately try another.

[Braxxy]

The robusto size of this cigar is one of my favs.

[jgrimball]

Originally Posted by Papa Herf

Justin, what size was your cigar?

I believe I had the Tubo II.

[Mr. White]

I had one of these gifted to me by Glovepuppy, and I coudln't resist lighting it up this evening. I'm not 100% sure on the size but I think it was a Robusto. I'm sure Glovepuppy would know, perhaps he can chime in.


Anyway, I took it, and my book (Deadhouse Gates, by Steven Erikson) out on the porch this afternoon to enjoy some quiet time while the sun was out (it's been raining the past few days, and I've been extremely busy, so this is my first smoke in several days.)

Prelight aroma smelled of Coffee & Chocolate. Construction was excellent on this cigar and because it was a Maduro Box pressed cigar there was no fraying of the wrapper. (I've encountered wrapper fraying with the CAO Cameroons. Because the Cameroon wrapper is very thin.)

Onward: I made my cut using my Havana guillotine cutter and as I began to to toast the foot, a car making a left turn pulled out in front of an SUV going about 60 miles an hour and caused a huge accident. The SUV rolled twice and landed on the grass median. I ran inside and dialed 911... Fire Rescue was there by the time I got off the phone & they already had the scene contained and were treating the victims... Luckily everyone seemed to be ok, not like an incident I saw a couple of weeks ago on Kirkman where someone was cut in half. Orlando Drivers really need to slow down a little bit, but I digress.

Upon lighting my cigar the same hints of chocolate, coffee, and also a bit of leather were in evidence and stayed that way until the halfway point. The Maduro wrapper lent a sweetness to the cigar that made it seem as if I was eating Chocolate cake.

The second half became a bit spicey and a little stronger, but all in a good way... I can still taste the chocolate and spiciness on my tongue as I write this. (And a nice mild buzz too. )

The draw was a bit tougher than I'm used to, but by no means did I have trouble getting smoke from this cigar... There were a couple of minor burn problems that needed correction but I attribute this to the very recent trip it made through the mail system and suspect it would not have been a problem had I let it sit for about a week in the humidor.

Overall a very tasty smoke. I would give it a 9 out of 10 rating.

Thanks Glovepuppy!

P.S. -- Both drivers ended up being ticketed, but when the officer took my statement he said that the driver making the left hand turn probably wouldn't have to pay any fines. Someone reported the SUV driver as talking on a cellphone right before it happened. (Though he was going so fast I don't know how anyone actually saw this.)

[Papa Herf]

Jokieman, you smoked a Maduro that was at least 3 years old - I think that may have come from a split I did with Glove. Those sticks were stored in CAO's corporate humidor for the last 3 years - just thought you'd want to know the story behind your stick. BTW, my tasting review would read very similar to yours. Chocolatey, coffe, bit of a tough draw, which I think is unusual for CAO.

Originally Posted by Jokieman

I had one of these gifted to me by Glovepuppy, and I coudln't resist lighting it up this evening. I'm not 100% sure on the size but I think it was a Robusto. I'm sure Glovepuppy would know, perhaps he can chime in.


Anyway, I took it, and my book (Deadhouse Gates, by Steven Erikson) out on the porch this afternoon to enjoy some quiet time while the sun was out (it's been raining the past few days, and I've been extremely busy, so this is my first smoke in several days.)

Prelight aroma smelled of Coffee & Chocolate. Construction was excellent on this cigar and because it was a Maduro Box pressed cigar there was no fraying of the wrapper. (I've encountered wrapper fraying with the CAO Cameroons. Because the Cameroon wrapper is very thin.)

Onward: I made my cut using my Havana guillotine cutter and as I began to to toast the foot, a car making a left turn pulled out in front of an SUV going about 60 miles an hour and caused a huge accident. The SUV rolled twice and landed on the grass median. I ran inside and dialed 911... Fire Rescue was there by the time I got off the phone & they already had the scene contained and were treating the victims... Luckily everyone seemed to be ok, not like an incident I saw a couple of weeks ago on Kirkman where someone was cut in half. Orlando Drivers really need to slow down a little bit, but I digress.

Upon lighting my cigar the same hints of chocolate, coffee, and also a bit of leather were in evidence and stayed that way until the halfway point. The Maduro wrapper lent a sweetness to the cigar that made it seem as if I was eating Chocolate cake.

The second half became a bit spicey and a little stronger, but all in a good way... I can still taste the chocolate and spiciness on my tongue as I write this. (And a nice mild buzz too. )

The draw was a bit tougher than I'm used to, but by no means did I have trouble getting smoke from this cigar... There were a couple of minor burn problems that needed correction but I attribute this to the very recent trip it made through the mail system and suspect it would not have been a problem had I let it sit for about a week in the humidor.

Overall a very tasty smoke. I would give it a 9 out of 10 rating.

Thanks Glovepuppy!

P.S. -- Both drivers ended up being ticketed, but when the officer took my statement he said that the driver making the left hand turn probably wouldn't have to pay any fines. Someone reported the SUV driver as talking on a cellphone right before it happened. (Though he was going so fast I don't know how anyone actually saw this.)