CAO America Monument Review

Well it's the 4th of July and raining in Central Florida. This is no surprise to any of us who have lived here for awhile. Since my child was suffering from a double ear infection, I was able to enjoy my stogie at home and watch the fireworks from the city of St. Cloud from my driveway. Not to mention that everyone in a 2 mile radius was setting off fireworks. It made it really easy for me to just sit & relax & enjoy this cigar.

I've had this cigar before, but since I've started blogging, I haven't had a chance to review The CAO America Monument Torpedo. From the 1st time I ever saw this sitting on the shelf, I thought it was one of the "cooler" looking cigars. It's 2 toned wrapper makes it look so much different than most you find. The dark color of the Maduro wrapper twisted in with the Connecticut wrapper gives this cigar an eye-popping advantage over other brands. Not to mention that the entire line has some great names : Potomac-5 x 56, Monument-6 1/2 x 54, Landmark-6 x 60, Constitution-6 x 50, Bottle Rocket-7 x 50. Throw in the fact that it's labeled "America" and has American grown tobacco in it, it makes a perfect Independence Day cigar!

At first, it was hard to light this cigar. It might have been because it only sat in my humidor for 3 days, but once it was lit, it was smooth sailing from there.

FIRST HALF: The cigar had a nice easy draw and was very smooth. The smoke wasn't as thick as many Maduro cigars I've tried. Many people I talked to say it's because of the lighter Connecticut wrapper blended in with it, even though you can't really taste the lighter side of it. The overall taste is enjoyable. It has a slight hint of nuttiness towards the end of the first half, but it has a strong almost leathery taste. Since it is a Maduro cigar, it does have that "bite" that many Maduros possess. CAO's website says this is a "full" flavored cigar. It definitely is more towards the full end of the spectrum, but I think it is more of a high medium to low full flavored. The CAO Brazilia would be more of a full flavored cigar.
SECOND HALF: The second half of the cigar really evened out. The "bite" of the Maduro faded and made way for a more intense flavor. The nuttiness taste faded out but I started to pick up a slight cocoa & coffee flavor in it's place.
 

I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. It's a great cigar if you aren't a huge fan of the stronger Maduro cigars. It was an easy to draw cigar with an even burn that required no relights during the 90 or so minutes of smoking. I was only drinking water but this would go great with a nice red beer or a lighter stout. You could even pair this with a mild red wine or a lighter scotch.