CAO Amazon Basin returns in 2024

General Cigar Co. is returning to the jungle! More specifically, to the Amazon rainforest. The limited edition of their CAO Amazon Basin has returned to the market for the first time since 2022. The cigar began shipping to retailers yesterday.

Introduced in 2014, CAO Amazon Basin features its Bragança tobacco as part of the filler blend. Grown in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Bragança seedlings are planted one meter apart, resulting in lower than typical yields. After harvest, the leaves are hand-rolled into dense logs called carottes, which undergo a six-month fermentation. The tobacco carottes are then loaded into a canoe and paddled out of the jungle down the Amazon River. From there, the tobacco heads to the STG Estelí factory in Nicaragua, where CAO cigars are produced.

CAO Amazon Basin The rest of the cigar consists of a high primacy Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, and fillers from Colombia and the Dominican Republic. According to the company, the blend is medium bodied.

It comes in only one size, a bull that measures 6 inches by 52 ring, and has a suggested retail price of $14.29 per cigar. The cigar is not secured with a traditional paper cigar band, but instead has a mini tobacco rope intertwined around the top, giving it a rustic look.

Playing further into the rustic theme, CAO Amazon Basin cigars come in approximately 18" hewn wooden boxes that resemble packaging boxes. The company did not reveal exact production numbers, but did state that this was a smaller production run than the 2022 release of 6,000 cases for the US market.