Review: CAO OSA Sol Robusto

By:  Doug Wilgar

For CAO International, makers of cigars such as the Brazilia, the Italia, the La Traviata and the famous Sopranos line, the last 12 months have been quite a ride.  They dropped Carlos Torano from their brand and were themselves taken over by General Cigars.  This connection could be as magical and enduring as Disney/Pixar or as destructive as Enron.  The first release from this new collaboration was unveiled at this year’s IPCPR convention: The CAO OSA Sol.  OSA is an acronym for the Olancho and San Agustin Valley in Honduras, where the tobacco blends for this cigar were grown.  The blend is an OSA wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder and a blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos for the filler.  This cigar blend is considered to be medium to full-bodied.  There are three sizes in the initial offer of this cigar, which will be available in retail shops in September: The Lot 50 (5 x 50), the Lot 54 (6 x 54) and the Lot 58 (6 1/2 x 58).  For this review, I smoked the Lot 50.

The Look and Light:

The cigar’s appearance is very appealing, despite the lime-green cigar ring.  The cigar had a nice dark and oily appearance and felt well rolled.  With a standard straight cut, I lit the cigar and found the foot to be very earthy and woody.  I also found the draw to be very tight, which I hoped would loosen as the cigar burned.  The aromas from the smoke were very nice, and there was a decent amount of smoke coming off of the stick.  Throughout the first third of the cigar, I experienced the same earthy, wood flavor that never seemed to develop any complexity.  The burn was very even and smooth.

The Middle:

The cigar did begin to develop some nicer coffee flavors, but did maintain the earthiness on the back of the palate.  The burn continued to be even, however the draw is the true concern.  It could be due to the fact that this is the first batch of the cigar and perhaps there was a push to get the cigars ready for the show so not as much care was taken in the rolling process as would normally be given.  Whatever the reason, the draw of this cigar started tight and seemed to only degrade from there.  Despite the draw issue, the cigar itself had a much fuller, bolder flavor than what CAO generally (pardon the pun) puts out. 

The Finish:

The last third of this cigar became peppery, but continued the earthiness throughout.  The draw did finally loosen a bit, but never developed into any consistency or ease.  The cigar maintained a very even burn and remained so even at the end of the smoke.  I am always impressed with the burn consistency of CAO cigars, and it is good to see that tradition continue after the General Cigar takeover.  Even if this was a cigar that I wanted to nub, however, I wouldn’t have been able to due to the extreme heat coming from the interior of the cigar even at the point where the band was located.  The second picture shown below was taken just before putting it down for fear of setting fire to my fingers.  Commonly, if a cigar has a hard draw, the cigar will tend to burn much hotter due to the amount of force used to draw.  This is most likely the reason for the heat and possibly the lack of true flavor development of this cigar.

Final Thoughts:

The CAO OSA Sol is an interesting cigar that I would like to try again once it is released to the public to see if some of the draw issues are improved.  If it does not improve, I would not recommend this cigar.  The work it takes to maintain the smoke is not worth it when there are many other fine cigars out there to enjoy.  If the draw issues are just an anomaly, this cigar could be quite nice with a little time in the humidor.  If this is an indication of the types of cigars that General will be releasing under the CAO banner, this could be a disastrous marriage, likened to taking vows with Snookie.