After a small hiatus, Illinois Hoosier's Review Corner is back! Yeah, I know...
:-)
Tonights' mob hit, is courtesy of Smitdavi. We finally hooked up at a Hoosier game (damn Chippewas!) and he gifted me a few wonderful smokes, this being one of them.
CAO Sopranos Associate
5x52
Wrapper: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Combination of Nicaraguan, Dominican and Columbian leaf
The unsuspecting victim..."Don't Stop Believin'" plays in the background
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The appearance of this stick is wonderful. Dark brown, rough to the touch wrapper, with a couple of nice veins running on it. Aroma is a nice cedar smell, with a little chocolate. Very firm, nicely constructed. Clipped with the ol' Palio easily. Pre light draw is firm and the taste is definitely chocolatey. Lit with no problems.
Obligatory 5 minute pic...
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Early flavor is spicy chocolate, but it is mellow. The aroma is nutty. Burn looks good, ash is light gray. Lots of creamy white smoke.
20 minutes...
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As you can see, another mob hit preceded this one...
The flavor is still holding steady although it has picked up some cedarness. The aroma is fantastic; like a burning cedar plank with chocolate on it. Flavor is not strong, very subtle. The ash is more white than I noted earlier and is holding well. Decent amount of smoke. As I took this pic, I noticed a small split on the foot.
Thanks to being a bit shaky tonight, I clipped the ashtray and dropped the ash at thirty minutes. It was solid.
Here we are at 40 minutes...
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The flavor has definitely mellowed now, just a mild spice. Aroma is still great though as noted earlier. Stick recovered from its ashtray accident just fine, burn is good, with the exception of one little odd spot that I corrected. Draw has been perfect throughout.
The aroma continued to be spicy cedar, but picked up a bit of a stale note. The flavor, though, is unchanged.
One hour in...
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Starting to go ugly here. The stale note was just a temporary bump. The chocolate cedar is back, and I actual got a little floral smell. As you can see, the burn is uneven here and it would not correct itself. The flavor has started to go away and turn a bit harsh, but we'll see where we go.
Ok, only 4 more minutes...and I killed it. The burn was really ragged. An hour later and there is still a bit of taste lingering. Medium finish on this one.
I really liked the first half of this smoke. The chocolate cedar aroma was wonderful and the flavor was smooth until that last 15 minutes or so. As a CAO fan, this stick is pretty typical of the line...good smoke, but would be really good for $4. I would definitely give these another try.
It gets...
3 Big Pussies out 5
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