Given the cost of these things, I was highly displeased with one that I recently had. I've had some of these put to rest in my humi since they came out and pulled one this weekend to see how they were doing. Well, the damn thing was unsmokable. In something I had never seen before, not only did it burn slower on one side, said side would not even burn completely. One side would only char, or blacken, and not turn to ash as it should. I tried putting the flame to it to even it out, but it didn't work. Even when I put the flame directly to it, it would not turn to ash, just a hard, black charred piece of wood for all intents and purposes. Needless to say, if this happens again, CAO will not be seen in my humi again any time soon.

Why don't you return them for refund or credit to where you purchased them? You clearly got some lousy cigars (which is not in the tradition of CAO's usual high quality).

Come on...you had to know you were paying $13+ for a $6 cigar when you bought these. Buyer beware...fancy packaging + CAO = ripoff. (See CAO Vision for additional info.)

Actually, the odyssey was a very good cigar by CAO as were the eXtremes. You cannot say definitively whether something is good, or overpriced, without trying it for yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by PFSGoldenEagle:
Actually, the odyssey was a very good cigar by CAO as were the eXtremes. You cannot say definitively whether something is good, or overpriced, without trying it for yourself.

All I'm saying is, how can you complain about the cost when you know you're overpaying right off the bat? It's like buying a $150 Jil Sander cotton t-shirt and then complaining that it's pretty ordinary for the money.

Let's break it down: you're paying HBO for licencing fees...maybe $1-$2 a stick. You're paying the packaging manufacturer maybe $20 a box, which adds about $1 to each stick. CAO is marking the whole thing up in the range of 50%, then your tobacconist marks it up about 100% on top of that.

I've tried at least one size of every cigar CAO makes (except for those wretched flavored things)...love the MX2, like the Gold, the Odyssey and Extremes are decent but priced nowhere near as statospherically as the Sopranos so you can't really compare. Of course the Brazilia and Italia are OK but the Crilollo has been hit or miss. The CX2 is wickely pricey for a mediocre cigar and the Vision is absolute garbage.

CAO better keep an eye on their blends because they're relying too much on gimmicks lately -- though the new Gold Anniversary perfectos are excellent.

The Sopranos are terrible, the WORST CAO made IMO. The price isnt even my biggest issue with them,i just didnt like the flavor profile. It had a a burnt/charry flavor, like smoking a stick of coal. It also had almost a fake flavor to me that reminded me of those horrid Diablos that were out a while ago. If they are trying to pass these off as a super premium, its a joke, the most they are worth is around 3 or 4 bucks at most.

quote:

Originally posted by jadawin:
The Sopranos are terrible, the WORST CAO made IMO. It also had almost a fake flavor to me that reminded me of those horrid Diablos that were out a while ago.

Yes! Come to think of it, they do remind me of the Diablo...one of the worst cigars of last year. Discontinued, thankfully.

OK, so you're telling me that you can just look at a cigar and tell that it is overpriced? You don't even need to try them to find this out? Please post in detail how this ability is developed so that I can try to apply it to other areas of life as well. I would simply love to know if that drop-dead gorgeous brunette I work with is a true dream woman or just an overhyped media product that is a high cost letdown simply by looking. It would just be awful to actually have to talk to her or spend time with her to find this information out.

If you are unwilling to give a cigar a chance and go through the due process like you would for any other cigar and dismiss it out of hand because you SUSPECT it is overpriced, then I can dismiss all opinions you have out of hand on the grounds that they are based on nothing more than speculation, not facts or experience. While a lot of cigars are overpriced to be sure, value for the dollar is subjective to each person and you cannot know for certain without trying some whether that is true for any given stick or not. If you want to complain about CAO based on experience, fine. If you want to say I was wrong for even buying one because it was a more expensive CAO and should have known that it would be a let down based simply on that info alone, then save your breath next time because I give weight only to opinions, when it comes to cigars, that are based on experience and not an untested hypothesis or speculation. A lot of good cigars would have gone undiscovered by a lot of people based on that way of thinking.

quote:

Originally posted by PFSGoldenEagle:
OK, so you're telling me that you can just look at a cigar and tell that it is overpriced? You don't even need to try them to find this out?

I say again: I've tried two sizes of the Sopranos. They were lame.

And yes, I can just look at a cigar in its packaging and tell that it's overpriced. If a cigar comes in expensive packaging, with expensive licensing fees attached, you're paying for much more than the cigar.

Me, I like my money to go to the cigar itself, not the box that holds it. Call me old fashioned but at least with an $11 Tatuaje, I know 95% of the cost went to the tobacco and labor. With Sopranos, my educated guess is that number is more like 50%.

If you like it, smoke it, all I'm saying is one look at the packaging and you should know you're paying for the novelty of smoking a cigar with an expensive name, housed in a freaking reproduction of a Cadillac trunk complete with red laquer finish.