CAO Mx2 Robusto

[dwoodward]

I am a huge fan of the CAO Black. I smoked my first at my buddies, he is a CAO connoisseur and always has CAO's on hand and was very generous to give me a few CAO Blacks in the last few weeks to "show me the way" as he put it. The Black being the only CAO I have had yet to date, got me itching to try some more flavors. I recently got my own humidor (300ct Salerno from Tampa Humidor) and I ordered about 80 cigars of sampler packs, almost all 5 star samplers from Cigars International, so I made sure to pick up the CAO 5 star sampler. The sampler came with 1 of each of CAO's finest including a Black, and I have been very eager to bust one out since laying them to rest in my humidor a couple weeks ago.

CAO Mx2 Robusto (5.0" x 52)

Description (From Cigars International)
"CAO’s Mx2 is a long-awaited, limited production cigar that employs two flavorful wrappers. The outermost leaf is an ultra dark, super oily Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro, while the inner wrapper is a fuller-flavored Brazilian Maduro. This double-wrapper combination promotes a rich, flavorful smoke that’s smooth throughout with lingering hints of spice. To mix the pot even more, the folks at CAO use a blend of select long-fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras, Peru, and the Dominican Republic to complete this complex cigar, packing it full of spicy sweet layers of flavor."

Wrapper is very dark, almost black. It is oily and shiney, looks as tho it would be a very tastey maduro.

I cut with my double guillotine cutter, cut very well and smooth. Initial pre light drag was super smooth and unnoticeable. Very tasty prelight, sweet and earthy. Got really excited prelight to get this cigar underway. Toasted fairly well with my new butane torch lighter, produced a lot of smoke during this process.

First puffs were very strong and Earthy, tasted very dark and uninviting, kind of scary and mysterious. Drag remained unnoticeable and super smooth. As I got a few puffs into the first third the favors stayed very earthy but I started picking up some coffee and chocolate tones. Very good and very dark, kept my interest very well. The ash fell off about 1 inch into the cigar, almost all over me. Further along the cigar started to show hints of mild sweetness, while still keeping the same Coffee, Chocolate, Earthy taste. Very enjoyable.

As the second third came into play, the cigar started to mellow out a little bit. The dark earthyness was gone, but I was getting more sweet chocolatey flavors and coffee and kept me very interested. Midway thru the 2nd third I started to get some strong leathery flavors and the sweetness started to reside a little bit. The burn is still staying very even, which struck me as a little unusual. Into the end of the 2nd third I started to get some more sweetness and chocolate, very tastey and very robust.

As I pulled the paper off and entered the last third, this cigar started producing massive amounts of smoke. I am still getting a nice smooth chocolatey taste, but its also starting to put out some spicy flavors that I cannot put my finger on. Further along the sweetness went away and was replaced with very pleasant robust spicy and woody flavors. Very tastey, my mouth was litterally in a state of bliss. The burn became a little uneven thru the final third, but didn't require any touchups.

I smoked all the way down to the nub taking around 1 hour 20 minutes to smoke. The cigar finished very strong and spicy. Very flavorful all the way thru. I was very impressed.

Would I smoke again? Absolutely. Would I buy a whole box? Probably not. The cigar was very good, top notch in my book. But was a little powerful for my tastes. For those of you that like very robust, dark flavors, you might find this cigar amazing. To me it was very good, very well crafted, but just a little out of my usual favorings.

Overall, I give it a 8/10. A medium-full bodied treat that should be on every maduro lover's must try list.

[kelmac07]

Nice review Derrick...I keep these stocked in my humi.