CAO Honor Toro (6 1/2 x 52)

Video review HERE.

(descriptions taken from Cigar-Coop.com)

CAO Cigars has announced it will donate a portion of the proceeds of its recently released small batched limited edition CAO Honor to the Amazing Surf Adventures (ASA) Operation Surf program benefitting wounded military heroes.

The cigar is a 6 1/2 x 52 Toro that is made in Nicaragua. It is packaged in 14 count boxes. Each cigar has an SRP of $8.50 per cigar or $119.00 per box.

Factory: STG Estelí in Nicaragua

Wrapper: Dual Ecuadorian Connecticut and broadleaf 

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan

The cigar is interesting looking once you remove the over sized band. You can clearly see the Connecticut wrapper at the foot and the cap with a large portion of the maduro wrapper in the mid-section of the cigar.

The cigar has an average feeling density.

The test draw was good after cutting the cap. The initial flavors were a sweet boysenberry and tangerine, brown sugar, light coffee, and black pepper rated at a 7 1/2. 

About 1 inch in there are now dry oak notes. The boysenberry notes are now gone leaving the sweet, tangy tangerine citrus. The brown sugar and light black coffee notes are also still around. The cigar is mild to medium. The finish is a sweet cream with a touch of lingering pepper.

Into the wrapper change there are a lot more coffee notes and dark chocolate. They both take over the sweet citrus notes. The finish is still a cream but there are also some dark chocolate notes. The cigar is now medium bodied. 

At the midpoint the dark chocolate and coffee notes dominate. The citrus notes are hardly detectable. They could be called sweet cedar. There is now a dusting of dry cinnamon. The dry wood is still hanging around. The cigar is moving toward medium to full bodied.

The dark notes continued to dominate to the end. There is very little in the category of sweetness now. The cigar is medium to full bodied. The cigar started off fairly sweet and gradually went downhill to a dark, unsweet cigar. The change was not a good one for me. Try one and let me know what you think.

Score: 87