Cigar Website Review: Camacho

I first had opportunity to come across the Camacho website while doing research for a couple of their cigars that I was reviewing. Previous to that, I had not been a huge fan of Camacho's cigars, so I had not had any reason to go to their website, but I was very impressed by their style and efficient use of Flash technology to produce a site that is attractive, informative and easy-to-use.

I have made my views on Flash-based sites very well known: most of the time, they are vehicles for crazy eye-candy that causes massive download times on anything less than cable internet connections and is terribly difficult to navigate. Great examples of this are the Cigar Family site (Fuente and Newman) and the Rocky Patel site; one great exception to this rule is CAO. Camacho is another exception. From the start--the home page--the load time is not exceptionally long, and to make things even better, you are not stuck...most of the links are available to click on before the rest of the page loads.

The page on company history is broken in different sections for the "History of Camacho," "Tobacco in Honduras," and "Production Tour." Each of these sections has easy-to-read pages linked that tell the story of the cigar company.

The "Cigars" section is broken down into sections for "Super Premium," "Premium," and "Core Brand" (brand that are made by them but marketed under different names). Each cigar has its own page with a description of what the cigar's "claim to fame" or taste profile is, a listing of where the different tobaccos used hail from, and a list of available vitolas.

Their "Events" page is clean, easy to read, and--most importantly--up-to-date. There is nothing listed before August 21 (as of this writing) and events are listed as far out as December.

"Where To Buy" is also easy-to-use and very intuitive.

Probably what is most notable about the site is that "Back" and "Forward" buttons will work on your web browser when on this site. Although there is quite a bit of Flash used on the site, they have judiciously sprinkled it throughout the HTML and CSS pieces rather than make the whole site a Flash extravaganza...smart. Whoever designed this site deserves major kudos for their clean and attractive design and coding. Instead of the train wreck that many Flash sites turn out to be, Camacho's site is a joy.

Grade: A