Friday, November 20, 2009

Disappointing Box of CAO Italia Novella

About a year ago I won a box of 25 CAO Italia Novellas (i.e. petite corona size) in a cigarbid auction. I had smoked 5 of these before and found them to be incredibly full, rich and flavorful and thus unusual for their small size.

My excitement about this blend has dulled since then. Out of the 25 cigars in the box, 10 were prohibitively tight in draw. Out of those 10, five were wrapped so tight as to be completely unsmokable. The other 15 were excellent, as I expected.

To my mind, 15 out of 25 is a poor batting average for a box of expensive cigars. Luckily I won them for only $55.00, because their list price has skyrocketed since then - a whopping $116.00 at Famous!

I am wary of ever buying these again - even though when correctly rolled, they are one of my favorite cigars.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's too bad. The Ciao and the box pressed size are absolutely delicious. - gmrfish