CAO Concert

Early 2012 is when I first heard about a new line called "Concert".  Rick Rodriguez, the man behind the idea and blend, wanted to pay homage to CAO's legacy and to the city CAO called home for so long: "Music City"  Nashville, TN.  Rodriguez shared with me the ideas and early concepts behind the line and I thought it was a very respectable and honorable thing to do now that CAO is part of General and no longer based in Nashville.

Fast forward a few months and I was able to reconnect with CAO and Rodriguez for CMA Fest, the annual Country Music festival held where Country artists perform for fans at various venues around town.  CAO was a sponsor of the festival and used the event as an opportunity to quietly start branding the new line with live music while building up to the actual release at IPCPR today.  It was here that Rodriguez bestowed upon me my first "Concert", pre-release and fresh from the factory.  We shared a couple, and I took one home to review properly for the blog.  So let's start, shall we?

The "Concert" uses four different Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers unique only to "Concert".  It is bound with a Connecticut Broadleaf and wrapped with a beautiful chocolate-y Ecuadoran Habano Rosado.  The wrapper has a nice oily sheen, and a nice spring when pressed.  I detected earthy notes with sweet tobacco and a hint of spice in the pre-light aroma.  Toasting the foot was easy and the draw one of the best I've had in a long time.

The opening number featured flavors of hay and then a burst of pepper.  There was plenty of smoke and the stick had a great draw.  Finishing up the 1st third, the pepper started giving way to some spice flavors.

In the 2nd third, the pepper had subsided and gave way to a creamy spice taste with a bit of graham cracker.  There even seemed to be a bit of a honey in my retrohale.  The burn has stayed pretty even and the smoke still plentiful, all the while remaining cool.

The ash held on extremely well, as you can see.  On this 5 1/2" cigar, I had an almost 3" ash.  

In the last third, the intensity picked up again with a mix of spice and pepper to round out the cigar.  The burn remained even and the cigar never needed to be relit.  The draw remained constant throughout and provided a great finish to this cigar.

The "Concert" is very smooth, rich and definitely a full-medium bodied cigar.  The construction was great, and so was the experience of smoking this gem.  All of the "Concerts" I smoked were very consistent and enjoyable. Rodriguez wanted to create a "harmony" with the 4 distinct fillers, and I think he did a great job.  There will be four sizes released: AMP (5 1/2" x  46) SOLO (5 1/2" x  50) ROADIE (5 1/2" x  54) and the STAGE (5 1/2" x  60).  All things considered, he has raised the bar for the company, and for others who are releasing new products this year.  I give the "Concert" a 94.

Now to discuss the band, and the box. I think the CAO team has come up with a great concept since Nashville is known as "Music City".  I love the guitars with "f" holes and the guitar pick on the band.  And the box as a guitar amplifier is a great idea!  However, the box is more like the no longer made VOX AC50 amplifier with it's white chicken head knobs rather than the Marshall amplifier that Cigar Aficionado stated in their article on the "Concert". (Sorry, that's the musician in me coming out).  I know that there will be contests, and "swag" offered at events, so there will definitely be a great deal of fun surrounding the promotion of this release.  Look for a September release and a tour stop near you later this year and into next.

UPDATE: (Sept 16, 2012)  After having a few of the Concerts now that they have been officially released, I would like to say that the flavor profile is almost identical to what I had before.  The graham cracker is a little lighter than I remember, but that's about it and see no reason to deviate from the 94 rating I gave them earlier.  Congrats guys!