CAO Black Limited Bengal (6 x 50)

Video review HERE.

The CAO Black Limited Bengal has been around for about 8 years so this blend is probably the current production. CigarsCity.com asked me to review this cigar because they had not seen many reviews online. 

The cigar is wrapped in a cedar shroud. Once removed the cigar reveals it's Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. The binder is Nicaraguan and the filler is a mix of Honduran, Mexican, and Nicaraguan.

The cigar is fairly light in color and well made. It has a nice feel in the hand but not very heavy. Here is a shot of the foot.

After cutting the cap the test draw had just a touch of firmness. Basically it was perfect. The initial flavors were on the darker side for a Connecticut cigar. They were a low grade citrus with graham cracker notes, coffee, and earth. The citrus was a tangerine citrus but it was overwhelmed by the coffee and earth notes. 

1 inch in the flavors are about like I initially described. The split of flavors are a 70/30 dark notes to citrus/graham cracker. The cigar is heavy on dark notes. The pepper is a black pepper rated at a 7. The finish is a sweet cream with roasted nuts.

About 2 inches in the sweet tangerine notes are elevated a little more. There are also some roasted nuts on the front end. The graham cracker notes are fading. The finish is  unchanged other than there are faint cocoa powder notes. The cigar is starting to even out in flavors.

With about 2 inches remaining there are cocoa notes on the front end to go along with the tangerine notes. The cigar is almost balanced now with an even amount of sweet notes to dark notes. It's taken about 2/3 of the cigar to get to this point.

You'll get about 1 hour out of this toro. The citrus notes and roasted nuts are pretty good at the end. The cocoa notes decreased. The other dark notes are still in play. The cigar is medium bodied at best. It started out at mild to medium and achieved medium bodied after about `/3 of the cigar. The finish is about the same. There are still come cocoa notes on the finish but none on the front end. The cigar started out very unbalanced but got to more balanced at the end. 

Score: 88