CAO Arcana Arriving at Retail
This week, retailers should be receiving the first cigar in a new limited-edition CAO series called Arcana, a brand that distributor General Cigar says is dedicated to “old-world tobacco processing methods.”
For the Arcana’s premiere release, General has rolled out the Mortal Coil, a cigar that measures 6 1/8 inches by 50 ring gauge and features andullo tobacco in the filler. The word coil is a reflection of the andullo, a rather rustic leaf that undergoes a rustic fermentation process. Instead of traditional bulk fermentation, andullo is rolled into long cylinders, tightly wrapped in palm tree pods and hung like a sausage. After two years, the leaves turn into dense logs of concentrated tobacco that’s typically sweet in character.
The CAO Arcana Mortal Coil blend consists of a dark Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Connecticut shade binder and filler blend of Honduran tobacco from the Jamastran Valley, Nicaraguan tobacco from Estelí and Dominican Piloto Cubano. The defining andullo leaves are also from the Dominican Republic.
Made in Nicaragua at the STG Estelí factory, Mortal Coil comes in 20-count boxes and retails for $10.99 per cigar. Only 5,000 boxes will be made.
This isn’t the first time that a rustic leaf has been blended into a CAO cigar. Fans of these limited editions will recall releases such as the CAO Orellana, both of which were made with Brazilian Bragança, a tobacco that ferments in tightly-packed logs similar to andullo.
“With the Arcana series, as we did with Amazon Basin and its Bragança leaf, we are once again shining a light on original tobacco fermentation methods to bring excitement to the fans of CAO,” said Rick Rodriguez, who serves as both blender and ambassador for the brand.
