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The CAO cigar with the unusual Amazonian tobacco is coming back, only this time, brand owner General Cigar Co. says the cigar has been aged for two years. Called the CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo, these limited-edition smokes are scheduled to launch on January 9.
The blend consists of an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and filler from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. That leaf of Brazilian filler—Brazilian Bragança—is what truly defines the cigar. According to General, seedlings for Bragança are planted in the Amazon soil a full yard apart from each other, resulting in half the yield of typical tobacco crops. Once harvested, the leaves are packed tightly into concentrated logs called carottes (similar to the condensed cylinders of andullo) where the tobacco undergoes six months of fermentation. The carottes of tobacco are then put onto a canoe and, like something out of a Joseph Conrad novel, paddled out of the jungle on the Amazon River.
Eventually, the tobacco makes its way to the STG Estelí factory in Nicaragua, where most CAO cigars are produced. General says that the cigars for the 2023 release have been sitting in an aging room lined with Spanish cedar since 2021. According to the company, the extra age has mellowed some of the blend’s nuances, while making others more pronounced.
Packed in the usual rustic boxes of 18, the CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejos measure 6 inches by 52 ring gauge and retail for $14.99 apiece. A bit of rope-like tobacco is tied around each cigar serving as a natural band. Only 5,800 boxes are being released to the U.S. market.
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