CAO Gold Perfecto

CAO quality really comes through in this cigar. The filler leaves from Nicaragua are delicious and well-packed into the roll. The ash on the CAO Gold Perfecto is the longest I’ve seen in a long time. Characteristic Gold flavor was consistent – creamy smooth tobacco taste with mellow spices and cedar. Think a smoother Romeo Y Julieta Reserva Real.

I really wanted to like this cigar – who wouldn’t at this price? It fell well short of my hopes, with only moderate flavor and not great at that. The Gurkha Legend Perfecto got a little spicier toward the middle where it tasted like a Rocky Patel Edge for a couple inches, but nothing you’d call really bold or full-flavored. Probably not a repeat smoker.

I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur but I enjoy a tasty cigar with some depth to it. The CAO Gold Perfecto is very tasty and it offers enough different flavors to be fairly complex. I enjoyed looking for new tastes to appear and they did – toasted bread, earthy musk, touches of leather, and sweet hints here and then. I’d compare it to the Sol Cubano cigars that use very similar Nicaraguan filler tobaccos.

I really enjoyed the look and feel of this plumper. It also offers great aroma in the stick and smoke. It fired up okay but wouldn’t stay lit. I store these cigars at 65% so this shouldn’t happen. The flavor was pretty mild and somewhat one-dimensional, leather and spice throughout. At this price, the Cohiba Black is a better choice.

The first few draws of the CAO Gold Perfecto can be peppery but the flavor soon mellows into a very enjoyable blend of toasted bread or nuts and vanilla. I usually notice more smoke and aroma as the cigar gets shorter. The flavor intensifies somewhat but not much. These are high-quality cigars that smoke flawlessly.