Fratello Arlequin and CAO Bones Blind Hughie Cigars

I’d like to remind contest winners Xolatol and Gregg Hearl to send me an email with your contact info so we can get your CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers out to you! I’d hate to have to track you down and drag the info out of you! Time is running down on this promotion and CigarProp is still in the lead! The Dojo sampler is sneaking up and Dojo has a huge following, so anything could happen. Kevin’s sampler is made for the cooler weather that’s coming, so stock up!

I had read somewhere that Fratello‘s Arelequin was due to ship soon to retailers and I decided I should smoke the one that came in the Space Fresh Pack that I recently bought. I had been looking forward this one, it has a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Peru, and sounds like a darned tasty blend. This was a toro, measuring 6″ x 5o, an ideal size in my opinion. I believe the production version will be 6″ x 52 box pressed. This, like all but the Oro, is made by Joya de Nicaragua. I absolutely loved the last half of this cigar, and that requires some explanation. I’ll also say that I’ve purchase two more Space Fresh Packs (because why not? Fox Cigars has them!). The first half of this cigar was plagued by a void in the filler somewhere, which resulted in a tunnel, and hence a bad draw. This, in my experience, is an anomaly for cigars from that factory. It’s probably the first cigar of hundreds I’ve had a construction problem like that with. You might ask why I mention it at all, fair question, it’s not meant to disparage the brand or the cigar, it’s an odd situation, it was not exactly a regular production cigar, and once it burned past the void and started burning right, it was delicious! So much so that I was compelled to seek out more so that I could smoke it again as soon as possible. Maybe the responsible thing would have been to wait until I got the replacements and ignore the problem, but sometimes stuff happens and if I had given up on the cigar I would have missed out and not gone back for more! It had a nice rich cocoa flavor with that spice that’s unique to Peruvian tobacco. I can’t wait to smoke this again.

I probably should have kept to a theme and smoked a Fratello Bianco or Classico, but I had wanted to try the new CAO Bones in another size, so while I was out over the weekend, I picked up the Blind Hughie 6″ x 54 Toro size. Blind Hughie is a dominos game, the whole line being themed after the game. If you missed it last time, this cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Connecticut shade binder and Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This cigar might be my favorite CAO cigar since the Flathead series, and it’s priced better, which is a win. I like the interplay between the Broadleaf and shade, although it’s less prominent in this vitola than the robusto to me. I still enjoyed this cigar quite a bit, it really hit the spot tonight, burn and draw were just right and it was a finger-burner. I need to give the Churchill and Gordo a try.