CAO Black Bengal

The CAO Bengal is good, but not great. As I sat underneath the stars smoking this short, but satisfying cigar, I remembered this was about my fourth Bengal over the last couple of years. They've all been good, with a pleasing tartness with spice. Above all they are a smooth, mellow smoke that always taste like it's been aged and is never harsh.

This is one of those cigars that seem like everyone loves but I find lacking. It nicely constructed, draws well with a nice presentation but the flavor, to me, is very one dimensional. Theres a little pepper towards the middle but otherwise it's just a flat tobacco taste. I've found the Felipe Dominica which is similar, to have more complexity and a better price to boot.

Perhaps with more age I will grow to enjoy the last 8 I have. Or not.

The CAO Black is yet another reminder that most cigars are better after a nap. When I first got these I thought they were boring. After a few months in the humidor I am kicking myself for not stocking up on them. On the mild side of medium, flavors are all over the place from spice to creamy/buttery and back again.

Smoked this after three months in the humidor. Very nice light cigar. Flavor remained consistent throughout the smoke, but noted an underlying flavor of baby powder. Not unpleasant, just unexpected. I also noted natural vanilla flavors and a clean cedar note. All in all, for a light cigar, an exceptional smoke; I would go out of my way to get one of these again.

Unique spicy aroma, but the flavor just doesn't deliver. Sat it down about halfway through, came back into the room 5 min later and thought "Wow, if only it tasted as good as it smells." Unfortunately, they don't. Kind of weak.

Aged 2 years. A smooth, light wrapper. A cedar sleeve encases this medium-mild to medium bodied cigar that looks larger than it's advertised 6x50. It was soft to the touch and had an underwhelming bouquet, so I wasn't really expecting much. Flavor started out coconut.vanilla.earth.wood, quite pleasing with a little bite. The middle turned into a vanilla.earth.cedar flavor which would have been nice if it weren't for the light amount of high frequency taste I hate. Purging eradicated this unwanted flavor, but took a bit of the bite away. The little kick returned on the last third and the flavor was coconut.earth.wood. Burn was perfect and draw was fine. All in all, much better than I expected.

I forgot how much I like this line of cigars. I had a box of the storm (robusto) sized sticks. I aged those without the cedar and the flavor was better I think. Like ToroTom said cedar is the flavor of the day here. I would suggest taking of the cedar sleeve for aging. There is a nice cinnamon spice and light vanilla notes that you get more of when aging without the sleeve.

The burn is uneven from the start, but the flavors are very nice — a slight bite of spice at first, followed by lots of cedar. After an inch the smoke becomes quite creamy. Mild to medium in body, but the bite gives it a little more gravity. Lots of cedar. Earthy overtones, but solidly cedar from start to finish. Nice everyday woody cigar.

Very good cigar. This stick has outstanding construction, with a perfect burn and ash. With flavors of vanilla and cedar with some light spice makes this smoke very taste. It's also very creamy and smooth, especially with some humi time on them. Very enjoyable.

This is perhaps the best tasting CAO I've had to date. I really enjoyed the flavor which was coffee/chocolaty throughout. It was smooth to the very end but also strong on the nicotine. Overall I would describe it as medium bodied. The particular Bengal I had did have some construction issues. On initial inspection everything looked great. The wrapper is silky smooth with absolutely not a single vein. However, this wrapper is also very delicate and began to split at the bottom pretty much as soon as I started smoking. This did not really detract from my enjoyment of this particular cigar because the binder was in good shape and held everything together. I have a few more Blacks that I will smoke soon and I do not expect the wrapper issues to be a problem.

I generally love most CAO cigars, but my favorites are the Criollo and the Maduro. This one is great because just about everyone will enjoy smoking this one. I like a little heavier smoke.

These will make you happy if you take care of them. Fragile wrapper...don't over handle them. Top marks for appearance and construction. Nice, solid flavors of creamy vanilla, cedar, and some spice once aged properly. Mine are just getting good now and they have been aging for 8 months!
Be patient and you'll be rewarded with an attractive, smooth tasting, medium bodied, solid smoking cigar. Value rating based upon $4.

Attractive but FRAGILE ecuadorian wrapper. Densely packed Honduran, Mexican, and Nicaraguan fillers once aged seem to be moving from a medium to fringe of full pepper (with a little harshness) to a more creamy, smooth, sweet tobacco medium-bodied flavor with some hints of pepper and vanilla. Burn and draw was perfect. Nothing mindblowing here. These are just good cigars (once aged) that should make a medium-bodied fan happy if scored in the sub $4 range.

i got this cigar in a sampler pack and it was great. the flavor was there and the stick just looks incredible. alittle pricey for me, but one of my favorite sticks.

I pruchased a ten pack of these from CI based one its great rating. I have now tried to smoke 4 of the ten and have yet to really enjoy one. They are a nice looking cigar but very very fragile. Three of my cigars had wrapper issues, one had the cap come off. The burn was ok, the draw a bit easy for me, I felt like I was sucking air through a straw. The taste was fine once I got past all the other stuff. I will let the set in my humi for a couple of months to let them settle and see if they get better. Its not a humi problem, my other gars are in great shape. My RP's, Gurkhas, Onyx, R&J's all love it in there. Maybe I just got a bad pack, we'll see.

I got carried away on c-bid and now have two boxes of these. I like them. You will like them if you like pepper. They look beautiful. They smoke like a champ. I find them to be medium bodied. Along with the hints of spice and pepper you get an occasional vanilla blast and some earth. Very nice finish to this hour and 10 minute smoke. I like to age them separately from other types of cigars. I noticed they "marry" very quickly with other strong sticks taking on even more pepper. When I store them with mild or their borthers and sisters they don't pick up as much strong pepper flavor. Overall this is another quality stick form CAO. Slightly overrated for the price. Aging correctly could make them fantastic. I'll let you know. Don't pay more than $5.

Another great CAO smoke. A very smooth, medium bodied cigar with a taste of cedar and a finish of vanilla. Burned great and even with a great tight solid white ash that didn't fall until almost half way through. Great from start to finish, a nice change of pace from the full-bodies I normally smoke.