The corona is $6.15, while the entire range hovers right around that $7 mark. It's worth noting that, like the aforementioned La Traviata and OSA SOL, here we have anther CAO that's a good value. Officially, we're rating it Very Good, but unofficially it's Very Very Good. It verges on excellent, but the cigar's appearance is just a little too down home to make it into that category. This is a fun and entertaining cigar that manages to pack loads of flavor into a small format-without excess strength. The 5x52 robusto would be a good choice for those who wish for something a little lusher and more mellow than the corona owing to it having more filler tobacco. We also tried the 7x48 churchill, but found the draw a little tight, which kept the flavors muted until it opened up after the first third. Still, it's not strong, and even though it's better suited as an after-dinner cigar, a seasoned smoker could easily handle this midday. While it's more medium- than full-bodied, toward the end it does lean more towards full. The smoke is chewy, with earth and wood as a counterpoint for a nougat-like combination of baking spices, cake and confectionery. The Pilon lights pretty easily, and burns and draws well. You'd think something like this would be tough to fire up and keep lit, but no. The packaging, as you can see, is simple and tasteful-not always a CAO hallmark. Still, in its own way, this is a chunky and appealing corona that's heavy in the hand. That's not a put down necessarily, because it appears as if the final product was dictated by the leaves themselves, which are rather thick and substantial. It's kind of rustic, with bumps and veins galore and a cap that looks like it was applied by a habitual drunkard. We wouldn't know a pilon from a pylon but we'll take their word for it.Īside from sporting a very oily and attractively hued wrapper, the cigar itself is no looker. The gimmick here is that some of the tobacco is fermented using a slower and more expensive method in which the leaves are arranged in circular stacks ("pilons") which supposedly results in more intense flavor. Someone recently had the good sense to bring back the Sopranos blend, now renamed Consigliere, and it's good as ever.Īnd that brings us to the Pilon.
CAO OSA is also a genuinely distinctive and wonderful line. La Traviata is an excellent medium-bodied cigar at a nice price. Strangely, some of the best cigars the company has released came after their acquisition. Thanks probably in large part to then-marketing director Jon Huber (who has moved on to better things), the products largely lived up to the hype though most weren't quite 'boutique' enough on their own to please the true cigar lunatics. That doesn't mean the cigars weren't good. Remember the ridiculous CAO Vision that came in a neon-lit translucent box? Or The Sopranos, which was packaged in a reproduction of a classic car's trunk? But hey, gotta give 'em points for creativity. Even before it was acquired by big-ass conglomerate (which in turn was absorbed by the even bigger-assed General Cigar Co.), the company was obsessed with gimmicks. CAO has always been one of those brands that's all over the place.
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