2 Regular Guys Review: C.A.O. America Monument
The CAO America was officially released at RTDA in Houston this August. We 2 Regular Guys were not special enough (oh, we know we are special though) to get the invite this year to join the Thompson Cigar entourage headed to the tradeshow. Corona Chris and the venerable Al Remp did however, so they’ve got the stories. Needless to say our first question when those guys got back into the office was not “so, did you smoke the America?” but rather, “so, you brought some back for us right?”
Despite our youthful enthusiasm Corona Chris and Al were utterly un-phased. We would instead have to wait until our inventory of Americas arrived. When they arrived, we raided the shipment in a very timely manner and smoked several. Then Corona Chris told us around Veterans Day that we would patriotically get to smoke more Americas for our latest review. We smoked them in short order –Scott in the cigar city of Ybor with a Guinness; Colm in the Guinness city of Dublin with about eleven Guinness. What follows is what we recall.
Our America of choice was the Monument -6.25” x 54 torpedo. Poetically the America is a beautiful cigar. It is a barber-pole or pin-stripe cigar which means it is wrapped in two contrasting wrappers yielding a definitive stripe spiraling up the stick right to the cap. The darker wrapper is an American-grown Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro and the lighter one is smooth Connecticut Shade. The skill and some small measure of luck to this style of wrapper is in achieving an even consistent burn because the wrapper leaves are different thicknesses –the maduro being thicker. Selecting and pairing the wrapper leaves as well as exceptional care in rolling is required for a high quality result. CAO does this –very well.
So this cigar can win a beauty pageant and it’s exceedingly well constructed. Great, but how does it smoke? CAO, being the marketing demigods that they are, promoted and campaigned for this stick as being an amazing full bodied medium to full strength smoke. Here’s how we judged it.
Pre-light the wrapper impressed us yet again. Not only a pretty face but it also had an enticing mellow toasted aroma to it. The filler also smelled mellow with a subtle threat of liveliness. The cigar cut and lit perfectly. The draw was great. Neither too loose nor too strong and it produced tons of smoke.
Immediately apparent was that it had a clean finish and a lighter body than we expected. The smoke, bare with us, had a smoky taste. You know, like BBQ wood smoke. After dissecting cigars to identify flavor nuances like lemongrass or clove it’s always nice to find a really good tasting cigar that can best be described as smoke or tobacco flavor. It reminds Scott of why he drinks Scotch. Colm does too but he’s pretty sure he drinks it just because he really likes it.
Ok, let’s get obscure. There was a citrus note on the front of the draw and palate similar in character to another good friend of ours the Bolivar. The America has a truly wonderful aroma that is pleasant and gentle to the nose. While it leaves your palate very clean, and with a gin & tonic we’ve no doubt it’d leave no residual aftertaste, this cigar does build slightly in strength and body halfway through.
Most importantly for this multi-colored cigar is that it is consistent and rather well-balanced throughout. We didn’t find it to be the full bodied stick that CAO had psyched us up for but each time we smoke this medium strength medium bodied stick we like it even more than the last time. Both of us 2 Regular Guys have smoked several of these stogies and while we’ll often keep one around in the desktop humidor for a couple days because it’s so darn pretty invariably our cravings will successfully lobby for lighting it up and enjoying it. This cigar should probably be your first choice for any politically motivated holiday. Light one up on Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, or start right now with today.
Many thanks to our faithful blog subscriber AcidGurl for the great rendition of the 2 Regular Guys press-photo. Namaste!
Click Here To Order C.A.O. America!
Despite our youthful enthusiasm Corona Chris and Al were utterly un-phased. We would instead have to wait until our inventory of Americas arrived. When they arrived, we raided the shipment in a very timely manner and smoked several. Then Corona Chris told us around Veterans Day that we would patriotically get to smoke more Americas for our latest review. We smoked them in short order –Scott in the cigar city of Ybor with a Guinness; Colm in the Guinness city of Dublin with about eleven Guinness. What follows is what we recall.
Our America of choice was the Monument -6.25” x 54 torpedo. Poetically the America is a beautiful cigar. It is a barber-pole or pin-stripe cigar which means it is wrapped in two contrasting wrappers yielding a definitive stripe spiraling up the stick right to the cap. The darker wrapper is an American-grown Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro and the lighter one is smooth Connecticut Shade. The skill and some small measure of luck to this style of wrapper is in achieving an even consistent burn because the wrapper leaves are different thicknesses –the maduro being thicker. Selecting and pairing the wrapper leaves as well as exceptional care in rolling is required for a high quality result. CAO does this –very well.
So this cigar can win a beauty pageant and it’s exceedingly well constructed. Great, but how does it smoke? CAO, being the marketing demigods that they are, promoted and campaigned for this stick as being an amazing full bodied medium to full strength smoke. Here’s how we judged it.
Pre-light the wrapper impressed us yet again. Not only a pretty face but it also had an enticing mellow toasted aroma to it. The filler also smelled mellow with a subtle threat of liveliness. The cigar cut and lit perfectly. The draw was great. Neither too loose nor too strong and it produced tons of smoke.
Immediately apparent was that it had a clean finish and a lighter body than we expected. The smoke, bare with us, had a smoky taste. You know, like BBQ wood smoke. After dissecting cigars to identify flavor nuances like lemongrass or clove it’s always nice to find a really good tasting cigar that can best be described as smoke or tobacco flavor. It reminds Scott of why he drinks Scotch. Colm does too but he’s pretty sure he drinks it just because he really likes it.
Ok, let’s get obscure. There was a citrus note on the front of the draw and palate similar in character to another good friend of ours the Bolivar. The America has a truly wonderful aroma that is pleasant and gentle to the nose. While it leaves your palate very clean, and with a gin & tonic we’ve no doubt it’d leave no residual aftertaste, this cigar does build slightly in strength and body halfway through.
Most importantly for this multi-colored cigar is that it is consistent and rather well-balanced throughout. We didn’t find it to be the full bodied stick that CAO had psyched us up for but each time we smoke this medium strength medium bodied stick we like it even more than the last time. Both of us 2 Regular Guys have smoked several of these stogies and while we’ll often keep one around in the desktop humidor for a couple days because it’s so darn pretty invariably our cravings will successfully lobby for lighting it up and enjoying it. This cigar should probably be your first choice for any politically motivated holiday. Light one up on Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, or start right now with today.
Many thanks to our faithful blog subscriber AcidGurl for the great rendition of the 2 Regular Guys press-photo. Namaste!
Click Here To Order C.A.O. America!
Labels: 2 Regular Guys, Al Remp, Bolivar, CAO, Cigar Reviews, Corona Chris
posted by Cigar Blog Moderator @ 4:37 PM
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