CAO Amazon Basin Gets Small New Size
If you’re a fan of CAO Amazon Basin cigars, but don’t have the time for an entire toro, General Cigar Co. has started shipping CAO Amazon Basin Daggers, petit coronas that feature the same Brazilian tobacco as the larger smokes.
In 2014, General introduced CAO Amazon Basin, a limited-edition, toro-size cigar boasting a five-country blend that includes some tobacco grown in the Amazon. Those who missed this year’s allotment in January—or just want a smaller cigar—now have a chance to grab some but in a more diminutive size.
The defining tobacco is called Bragança, which is grown in Brazil and serves as part of the filler blend. A rare tobacco varietal, Bragança seedlings are planted a yard apart and harvested only once every three years, resulting in much smaller yields than typical tobacco crops. After harvesting, the leaves are rolled into dense logs called carottes which undergo a six-month fermentation period before being loaded onto a canoe and paddled down the Amazon River, eventually finding its way to the STG Estelí factory in Nicaragua, where the cigars are produced.
The return of Amazon Basin in this new small size was a response to customer demand. Cory Beardsley, brand manager for CAO, says: “Amazon Basin fans are some of the most ionate in the cigar world. We’ve seen how quickly the original sells out and heard the same question every year: When are we getting more? Daggers are our answer to that. It’s the same blend, same rainforest story, now available in a new format.”
The Daggers measure 4 inches by 38 ring gauge and are composed of a high-priming Ecuador Sumatra wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder. The mixed fillers are from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, along with the Brazilian Bragança. Instead of the rustic crate-like boxes of typical Amazon Basin cigars, Daggers come in paper-wrapped five-packs with a suggested retail price of $24.99 per pack. Only 50,000 packs are being produced.
