CAO Expedición 2020 Toro

Founder and creator of CAO, Cano A. Ozgener, started making some of the best-known Meerschaum pipes in the world in his garage as a hobby. While traveling to different trade shows, he noticed the need for humidors and started making those as well. During the cigar boom of the 1990s, he was introduced to Carlos Toraño who then introduced him to Nestor Plasencia. The rest is, well, history as the pair began creating unique blends that have developed into the cigar brand that we all know and love today.

The CAO Expedición 2020 in your shipment today was exclusively created for the members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA) in 2020. While most of CAO cigars are made at the STG Estelí Factory in Nicaragua, this unique addition to the CAO portfolio was made at the STG Danlí Factory in Honduras. Starting from the inside working our way out, the Expedición 2020 features a tri-country blend of fillers from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras that is secured by a Connecticut Shade binder and finished with a stunning rich and dark Connecticut broadleaf oscuro wrapper leaf. Light ‘er up on a warm sunny afternoon with a Bulliet Bourbon and you will enjoy medium bodied notes of cocoa and fruit with a pleasant sweetness, finishing off with subtle hints of white pepper.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.