CAO L'Anniversaire Cameroon Review

Hello and welcome to my first cigar review! I’ll be starting with the CAO L’Anniversaire Cameroon. I picked one up on my last trip up to the local cigar store, The Cigar Affair. It was a Corona, 5.5” x 42.

Upon initial inspection the cigar had a solid feel but there were a few soft spots toward the middle. I noticed the wrapper to have a smooth feel but the visual appearance showed a lot of veins. I found the smell carry a light bit of nuttyness and a good amount of wooden scents with just a tiny hint of spice.

I cut the end and found the wrapper frayed and flaked a bit but stayed well within acceptable limits and kept itself solid. The draw was very easy and smooth.

Lighting the cigar was easy and took very little heat to get going. I could quickly catch on to a very diverse mix of flavors. I could catch tastes of the nuttyness and a little coco / coffee type. The wood and spicy tastes were very strong and pronounced.

The first bit was nice but I soon found myself getting a little irritation in the back of my throat. They best way I can describe it is to use a little history. I grew up in a woods and every fall we had to rack and pile up leaves and burn them. I was quickly reminded of the scents, tastes and throat irritation I would get being around these bonfires.

About half way I noticed the burn was not going very well. There seemed to be an issue with the filler being tightly packed in the center and becoming loose out to the wrapper. It was causing the wrapper to burn much faster than the inside. This lasted just right though the middle area of the cigar and cleared back up for the last third of the smoke.

On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this cigar a 2. There were small hints of flavor but the woodyness with strong hits of spice in my limited experience was just too overpowering. With the irritation I found myself experiencing I found it hard to completely enjoy the cigar when I kept needing to clear my throat and get a drink of water.

I won’t write it off and perhaps I’ll pick up another to give it a second try as I continue to expand and improve my understanding and knowledge of cigars.