Hola, smokers of the leaf. It’s Super Bowl Sunday for most people, but for myself, it’s just Sunday. Instead of obsessing over grown men chasing and jumping atop the carrier of a ball, I would rather see men chase a small piece of rubber while ice skating and, in frustration, pummel bodies against bodies, and fists against faces. It’s not that football can’t be exciting; it’s just not my brand of obsession. (Ironically, I have a fair amount of obsession regarding old NFL films summarizing past Super Bowls.)
I can’t imagine anyone cares about this obsession, or at least most Americans. Without a need to hold out for a celebratory cigar, I am smoking my ration of tobacco with my morning coffee, and listening to John Coltrane via Pandora as the rest of the family sleeps.
This morning I have decided to pull a CAO OSA Sol Lot 58. OSA stands for Olancho San Agustin, a location in Honduras where the wrapper leaf was harvested, and is rolled with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, with Honduran and Nicaraguan filler. The 58 by 6.5 cigar is hefty and firm between my fingers, and the light brown wrapper feels moderately oily against my skin.
The initial light is full of robust pepper and generic spice, accented by some leather and very slight coffee notes. This full bodied beginning quickly tempers within the first inch of the cigar, and drastically mellows out the peppery introduction into a medium bodied symphony of the same described flavor notes, bringing out more of the leather essence than any other taste in the smoke’s profile.
Throughout the cigar’s progression, the spice notes continue to dissipate and become more and more subtle. By the last half a wonderful roasted nut flavor takes hold and continues to develop till the cigar has to be put down to avoid charring my mustache.
Overall, this is another example of CAO’s superb blending, and a testament to their dedication to providing quality tobacco products to their customers., and is a beyond doubt “must try.”
I brew and drink beer, smoke pipes and cigars, eat till I’ve had more than my fill, and escape in pulp rags till my eyes turn buggy. I don’t claim any expertise in any subject other than the chase of my own earthly pleasures. I write to help others find their own pleasures so that together we will decay in spirit with these lesser pursuits.