CAO Traviata

Ooooo... NOM! Thanks for the hot story, TMC! I heard someone twitter about these but this is the best summary so far. I've enjoyed several boxes of CAO products and would really like to try the Traviata.

[TheRiddick]

You seem to completely miss my point. Go back to my second post and see that I made it clear that yes, I do understand that Pepin uses non Nicaraguan leaf for his CLIENTS, but none in his own lines. Main reason I gave a specific example (601 Conn).

Complexity wise, Cuban cigars have as varied a mix of complex and non-complex cigars as Nicaragua (I only go back smoking Cuban cigars for 20 odd years, and have on occasion smoked 30-35 year old Cuban cigars, so I am probably not be up top par with your own experience). Your statement that Cuban cigars have nothing to do with "full body" is precisely the reason I think we are talking apples and oranges, Cuban blends have been GREATLY adjusted starting in late '90s and if you have not smoked (much) earlier versions of these you have no idea of what I am saying. I have moved on to Nicaraguan smokes ever since just to get that full bodied cigar.

Nicaraguan cigars can be, AND ARE, as complex as Cuban, it simply depends on how one grows the leaf, seeds used and how blends are then assembled.

Just read that Pepin interview, many things will fall into place in regard to this discussion. And come to think of it, Pepin himself does not advertise "Cuban" anything, at least not in anything I have seen, nor have I seen Fernande do so, they simply do what they know best.

I do not disagree with you that too many these days advertise their products as "Cuban" in flavor, its a shame IMO, but of all people CAO is one company that should not do so, none of their cigar lines has ever resembled anything "Cuban".

[Jimbo14]

Very neat - I am a fan of CAO.

How dare CAO make money by using standard business tactics.

How dare their customers buy their cigars. Don't they know that King Don Pepin has a thousand million blends which are of course better??

How dare they sell a decent product at a decent price (considering sales, CAO are generally $3-4 a stick) that people are willing to buy?

[elderboy02]

I definitely want to try one of these. They look great

I'm looking forward to trying out the new cigar. I see many of you complain about the "gimmicks" that cao uses to sell a cigar but they also produce a very high quality and consistent cigar.


http://caocigarswholesale.com - a better way to find cigars

Why not give them a chance to release the cigar....or let's see what the show attendees say about the cigar. If it's a good cigar, isn't that all that matters?

[macpappy]

Originally Posted by uptown_isy

Why not give them a chance to release the cigar....or let's see what the show attendees say about the cigar. If it's a good cigar, isn't that all that matters?

Oh, come on, you know it's no fun to actually wait until a cigar comes out to determine if it's worth smoking. It's a lot more fun to just bash a company and say all their cigars are crap...

I think he is talking about plate tectonics or continental drift. But Cuba was part of the Florida Platform and Hawaii is just a volcanic island formed by eruptions. Cuba could have been where modern Hawaii is in the supercontinent Pangaea in terms of latitude and longitude but then it loses Island Dynamics and therefore loses its climate conditions due to a different latitude and it was about 250 MYA so in the modern era it is completely irrelavent to this discussion.

I'd like to point out I want calling out CAO on being gimmicky I was just saying Cubanesque is in itself a gimmick no matter who does it

[Mr. Ed]

Originally Posted by Aldebaran

I'd like to point out I want calling out CAO on being gimmicky I was just saying Cubanesque is in itself a gimmick no matter who does it

Or they're positioning for a point in time if the embargo ends and they can actually acquire Cuban tobacco for their blend.

I don't work for any cigar manufacturer or company so this is just my best guess, but I think that the re-release of defunct Cuban brands with non-cuban tobacco isn't just coincidence. If the embargo ends, they won't run into the same legal issues as some other brands that have Cuban doppelgangers.