CAO Anniversario eXtreme Belicoso Review

[cv]

rjs and LLGs,

let me start saying that this is a beautiful cigar, box pressed, rosado wrapper, flawless costruction, no soft or hard patches, a beauty!
Taste before burning is quite spicy, draw is ok; it takes a while to light it, is not the fastest lighting cigar for that matter. But then, it never leaves you alone, no need of relighting whatsoever (and I am a slow puffer, generally). Ashes are firm, not falling until 1 1/2 inches, grey, good-looking. Burning is even, just a few corrections needed on around two hours of great smoke... When it comes to taste, this Belicoso shows a rich, full bodied, tasty character: nutty, some chocolate at the beginning, going on some kind of spices (and some pepper too) make an appearence around the first 1/3 and going to the final, no bitterness (and I had it young), and a consistent taste all the way to the end. I usually smoke these puppies to the band, take it off and go on until I can... at this point, some help with the burn may be necessary, if you don't want to speed the pace up. The power yes, is there, but not disturbing in any way, no buzz from this one... but not for the lovers of light cigars, for sure.
Well, hope all of you LLGs out there will enjoy this as much as I did!

cv

[big_bish]

After reading this review, I think I need to run out and try one of these babies.

big_bish

[cv]

...forgot to say, you may get them for 7-8 bucks a pop, which I think is still a good price for the value!
Smoke it happily!

cv

[rjs]

cv,

Great review. Thanks for taking the time. I haven't tried the Belicoso yet, only the robusto and churchill. You've given me a good reason to search one out.

... rjs

[cv]

rjs,

I tried as well robusto and churchill and I think that the Belicoso is way better than both of them. I loved the churchill, while I was not as big on the robusto (great cigar, however) compared to the other two. I guess bigger ring and size help these puppies to taste even greater, and I am always a fan of bigger rings anyway so that's probably just me.
I think that the Anniversary from CAO are between the few cigars that have a ISOM kind of taste... I have a box of Belicoso Maduro an a box of Cameroon Churchill sleeping in my humidor, which will be soon joined by a box of eXtremes (probably in Belicoso), and I am curious to see what some age will do to them!
Enjoy your eXtremes!

cv

[Brandon]

Thanks for the review. Think I might have to fire up one on my Belicosos since I have tried that size yet.

Brandon

[rjs]

cv,

How much age do you have on the maduros and cameroons? I'm not so sure that age always improves (personal taste of course!) a non-isom smoke. Fun to experiment though. Maybe we can collectively come to some conclusions about optimum smoking age for some of the non isoms.

Got to get a box of eXtreme Belicosos to start the experiment.

... rjs

[cv]

rjs,

oh, is not all that much; I have them resting since the beginning of february, but I am curious about letting them there for a while (if I can restrain from smoke them all before...!) and see what happens.
I agree with the non-ISOM aging general opinion, but these Anniversary babies are to me very similar to ISOMs in many ways, and I think that we may have surprises aging them for a while. Just to be safe, I will smoke one of them from time to time and if I will feel that they are getting worst... I will be unfrotunately forced to smoke them all at once! I may give an Anniversary party, in that case... :-)

cv

[rjs]