CAO event/Weekend review (9/26-9/28)

The Maduro Room hosted a CAO event Friday night with David Palm representing CAO and Torano cigars. David had a little trouble getting out of Charlotte, NC so he arrived around 6:30 pm instead of 4pm which he had planned. The usual people started showing up at the shop anyway and we had a good time "just hanging out" until David arrived. Once he did, the shop ran their "buy 3 get one free" deal. The freebies were very good cigars, too. I bought 6 cigars and got 2 free ones. My free ones were CAO Brazilia Impanema's! Below are some pics from the event.

Mitch found a friend:

Twig-ster!
Mike Falls (store manager) with David Palm of CAO

Cool painting
(L-R) Steve, Grady, David, Connie, Mike, me)Of course, Grady Marsh is the owner of the Maduro Room, and Steve works part time there, and Mike is the store manager. This is the first time I've captured all 3 in one pic!

Now, on to the Weekend Reviews!

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial (7x49)

This is a new version of a cigar made by Ashton Cigars that has been around for several years. They managed to convince Don Pepin Garcia to make them a cigar under this brand. The band is slightly different from the original. Below is a comparison. The original band is on the left; new one on the right.

They added another girl, but that's about the only real difference.

This cigar is triple capped, like all of Pepin's cigars he makes. The draw is good. First draws are full of spice and pepper. You can feel it on the back of your tongue! Citrus notes and slight sweetness of caramel are noted. After an inch or so some leather notes appear. The cigar feels a little light in the hand as compared to other DPG cigars. It also seems to burn a little faster, which means it's not as dense as some of his other cigars. But, that being said, the flavor is great! The finish is very long, too. I really enjoyed this cigar!

Score: 94

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

CAO America Potomac (robusto) (5x56)

This is a very nice looking cigar, with the barber pole striping. It has a maduro wrapper that has the stripe of a natural wrapper.

When I cut the cap the entire cap came off! Not good, but...that happens sometimes.

Pretty spicy initially with black pepper notes. Sweet maduro flavor. The finish is nice and fairly long. The ash is very firm. The cigar burned very even. You can see the torn cap in this pic:

This was my first America. I've heard some negatives about them so I didn't expect to like it but I did! It was a very good cigar!

Score: 94