CAO Brazilia Box Press (5.5x50)

Pop quiz hot shot.  What's better than a great cigar enjoyed with friends or family?  Answer:  A great cigar enjoyed with friends or family that was given to you as a gift by other friends.  That my friends is what we have here today, presented for your consideration.  A CAO Brazilia Box Press that a neighbor of mine dropped by my house, in fact actually had his daughter run by one day.  I don't know why, it certainly wasn't because I was a great neighbor to have, but I am most thankful for the unexpected and this generous gift (there were actually 3 cigars given that day) was certainly appreciated and enjoyed.

I used a punch on this cigar to open the head, and slowly lit the foot toasting it almost to perfection upon which I took the first draw.  The initial flavors were of an earthy consistency with a strong dark coffee undertone.  I'm not talking weak coffee, I'm talking STRONG coffee, dark coffee, BLACK coffee undertone.  No cream, no sugar, pure straight coffee.  And that ain't a bad thing I assure you.

The earthy taste on the front end is such that it reminds you that the tobacco leaf comes from the ground, and it served well to enhance the smoke never overpowering the smoke.  The smoke itself was easy to draw into your mouth and offered up a great mouth feel.  The burn itself was even and cool allow the cigar to burn for a better part of an hour without any need to touch up the burn to keep it even.  In fact notice in the picture above that this is well into half the cigar and the burn is even with a great ash structure maintaining the well rolled cigar and construction.

As the cigar continued to burn, the coffee flavor was further enhanced as the initial earthy flavors gave way to a mild spicy development.  Not strong by any stretch of the imagination, but present perfectly complimenting the smoking experience.  My wife and I were sharing a drink made up of 2 parts orange juice and 1 part Lemoncello over ice which tastes almost identical to an Orange Julius like what they used to sell at local malls, and you wouldn't think it but it actually paired quite well with this cigar.  I actually went as far as to try the same drink with a couple other cigars without the success I saw with this CAO, and I can't help but think that the strong coffee I discussed earlier actually is the glue that binds this particular drink to the cigar.  Orange juice and coffee together is always a decent match, and it didn't fail to impress here.

All in all I think the CAO Brazilia is a great cigar and one that I'd encourage you to try.  It is a medium strength cigar, but certainly falls to the weaker end of that ranking.  The most important thing about cigars is finding the style you like and then exploring the various offerings, if a medium bodied cigar reminiscent of coffee is something that sounds good to you, I'd strongly recommend you give this cigar a try.

In the meantime this cigar slowly came to a end, and with the setting of the sun and the need to get the kids into bed meant that another great family time together had been complimented by a great cigar, delegated accordingly to the memory banks of my mind.

Until we smoke again...