Holiday PressIt's hard to know where to start with this stogie. I have always loved the CAO Cameroon line, so when I had the opportunity to get a rare "Holiday Press" I could not say no. The Cameroon is all Nicaraguan filler and binder with a Grade One African Cameroon wrapper. This particular vitola was produced to look like a bar of gold--trapezoidal in shape. The wrapper is quite beautiful on this cigar despite a few flaws--the veins are all visible, although hard to feel, making spiderweb designs that are awesome to look at. The feel of the wrapper is slightly velvety. The aroma from the body ranges from a touch of vanilla to powerful barnyard, while the aroma from the foot is sweeter with some dark chocolate. Other than that, the other prelight observation is...man, is that a big cigar! It is 7" in length and about 70 ring gauge at it's widest spot. Average thickness is closer to 60, but that still is going to mean about a 7" x 60, which is a seriously big cigar.
This one was hard to cut and light. Hard to cut because with so much surface area, it is hard to know where to begin. Hard to light because..well, because of so much surface area. The prelight draw was dark chocolate. After getting this baby fired up there was a sweetness and a creaminess not unlike caramel, and there was just a little spice on the lips after each puff. The smoke was medium in body and it did not seem like it would be all that strong, but there was a lot of tobacco in there.
During the first third, the flavors remained caramel with a little coffee on the finish. There was a drying to it, too, that made me thankful for the lightly sweetened iced tea that I enjoyed with this cigar. As expected, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to smoke this oddly-shaped creature. It was awkward, but fun, and I got plenty of smoking enjoyment.
In the second third, the coffee flavor because more predominant--not a strong, black coffee, though, more of a creamy, sweet coffee. I have not had one of these in a while and this was reminding me of why I always liked this line--it also made me want to pick up a few more of these at the next opportunity. I had over an inch of ash hanging on the end and was about to tap off when it fell, narrowly missing my tea--disaster averted!
The Holiday Press Cameroon continued to be flavorful all the way to the end. Although the regular vitolas of this stick are not know for their nicotine punch, with this much tobacco, it is almost a given--I had to put it down with about an inch left over. The construction of this cigar is pretty amazing. Although I can't say it burned perfectly evenly the entire time, it was even enough that when I tapped ash, it was not noticeably crooked. It would burn faster in some spots than others, but always seemed to catch up with itself. The fact that this odd bird smoked so evenly and so well is testament to the skills of the rollers. While I cannot really recommend this vitola because of its "limited" status, I can heartily recommend pretty much any of size in this line as a worthy smoke.
Body: 5/10
Strength: 8/10
Complexity: 7/10
AFP Scale:
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
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