2004 CAO Cameroon Trois Diamant Magnum L’Anniversaire

[smbauerllc]

Specifications:

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper Color: Colorado Maduro

Wrapper type: West African Cameroon

Filler: Nicaraguan

Binder: Nicaraguan

Vitola: Magnum (Toro)

Manufacturer: Tabacalera Perdomo

Humidimeter Reading: 60%


Environment:

Temperature: 68 degrees

Humidity: 47%

Wind: steady 6mph

Setting: outside, on a bench in semi shade, under a massive, old tree, but still with my gorgeous view of the Big Horn mountain range nearby and cloudless skies and lots of sunshine, and a very slight breeze.

Paired with: heavy cream and sugar coffee of generic manufacture, purchased in bulk, by the Veterans Home of Wyoming for us. Not bad, but not great. Reminds me of Navy coffee I drank many gallons of for 5 years, mostly on night shift.

A 6x52 Magnum (Toro) with a toothy, very veiny, medium to rough texture, medium texture, short cap, firm bunch with just the slightest give, and slightly visible seams.

Paired with heavy Cream and sugar coffee.

Due to the number and size of the veins, and a small part of a wrapper seam being folded back on itself, I would have to score its visual appearance as fairly unattractive.

Due to all this, it has already lost 4 points so even if everything else scores the maximum, it will fall short of the maduro from my last review that scored a record breaking and nearly impossible to beat, 97.

Just for some rare additional details found for a cigar of the exact same age vs having to use information for recent production versions, the robusto was Cigar Aficionados #17 cigar of the year in 2004 with a score of 92. Their review describes it as “wonderfully sweet and cedary and with just enough spice”, so we'll see how that compares 18 years later.

Recent production and CA's 2004 review all list the entire linea as box pressed, but I only see the slightest hint of it near the foot, so unsure what to make of that.

Hopefully Bruce aka @Ljutic (or anyone else) can shed some light on this, as I would think 18 years of being stored in its box with others would create a box press that wasn’t done by the manufacturer, or maintain the manufacturer’s box press, not cause a manufacturer’s box press to disappear. He has quite the nc collection as you can see from all my reviews, and has a very surprisingly good memory when it comes to his cigars.

Slightly uneven burn, but not enough to bother correcting, short, conical coal, strong, light gray ash and a perfect draw.

Ample smoke volume and a subtle yet fragrant, pleasant floral aroma. Was only detectable by retrohaling, otherwise there was no detectable aroma.

Of medium richness, mild strength and body, and perfect balance of floral and woody flavors.

Cant say the woody flavor was specifically cedar like in CA's review. Their reviewers must have superhuman senses to discern a specific type of wood in the taste.

Finish was weak and brief, consisting of the same woody and floral flavors.

Some light sweetness which CA’s review Also mentioned, but no spice, bitterness, burn on the tongue, sharpness or saltiness.

Looking back, the eXtreme Magnum scored a 90, and the Maduro an incredible 97, but the Cameroon fell short of both with a final score of 84 out of 100.

Had good character and overall was still a good cigar, but it lost quite a few points in the appearance section, which isn’t set up to be a large scoring section anyways and the flavor/strength category especially which is amongst the highest score sections, plus dropped 1 or 2 points in every other category.


I friggin love cigars