The CAO Brazilia Chango is available here.
There was a time when cigar makers wouldn’t advertise the fact that their cigars contained Brazilian tobaccos. In fact, when Tim Ozenger of CAO first brought the idea to dealers prior to launching the Brazilia line in 2001, they told him to avoid saying it was Brazilian. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the tobacco. In fact, Brazilian leaf has been a mainstay in non-Cuban cigars since the early days after the embargo. The issue was one of branding: Would cigar smokers embrace Brazil.
Thankfully, Ozgener didn’t listen to the nay-sayers, and Brazilia became one of CAO’s best performers.
CAO Brazilia Chango (6½x50)
The blend is Nicaraguan in filler and binder, with a wrapper of rich, dark Brazilian leaf, in this case not the buttery-smooth, slightly sweet Mata Fina that I love so much in the Carlos Toraño Signature Blend, but its slightly spicier, slightly fuller-bodied cousin, Arapiraca tobacco. I chose the Chango (6½x50), a stunning Toro Presented en tubo. The wrapper is a beautiful cocoa color, dripping with oil, and positively veinless. The roll is solid as a rock and the wrapper is perfectly seamless.
The first flavors are big and intense; there’s an initial blast of tangy fresh herbs, with a vigorous white pepper spice, and an earthy character born of its exotic roots. The draw is a hair on the tight side (-1) from a cap cut, producing an average smoke volume (0) of above-average strength (4).
By mid-way, there’s an earthy, floral essence present, not earthy like a the rich soil and mineral (sometimes flinty) flavors present in many Honduran tobaccos, but more like the slightly sweet, earthy quality of moist tropical humus (that’s humus with a ū, not hummus with a ŭ). The spicy background is ever-present, but within the final third, it also develops a woody quality, and a taste of dark roasted coffee beans on a long finish. The cigar smokes to a 2-inch nub in about 75 minutes.
I rate this cigar 9.0. I’m not a huge fan of particularly spicy cigars, though I recognize the quality of this one. These cigars have been resting in the Sasquatch-a-dor for more than 2 years, but those years en tubo have in no way gelded the spirited nature of this cigar. This batch predates the CAO buy-out by General Cigar, but I don’t expect to see any changes in blend or manufacturing quality in subsequent iterations.
Until next time, this is the Cigar Sasquatch saying, “Love what you smoke, and smoke what you love.”
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