Amazon Anaconda

CAO’s popular Amazon series of cigars began in 2014 with the Amazon Basin. This was a limited edition cigar that featured indigenous tobaccos to Brazil’s rainforest. This “Bragança” tobacco is planted without tilling, fertilization, or clearing techniques and each year, the natives venture deeper into the jungle to plant in virgin soil. After fermentation, CAO blended the Brazilian Bragança with Dominican, Colombian, Nicaraguan, and Ecuadorian tobaccos to form the final blend. The cigars were then banded with twisted tobacco leaves, making for a unique look and smoking experience. Amazon Basin proved to be such a popular release that a second run was released in 2016.

In 2017, CAO announced two followup blends, turning the Amazon concept into a proper trilogy. Fuma Em Corda followed the Amazon Basin, with CAO again using Bragança tobacco, this time accompanied by another Amazon leaf called Fuma Em Corda. This tobacco is essentially Brazilian Arapiraca, only it has been fermented in large, snake-like coils to take on a completely unique, rich and intense profile. Fuma Em Corda features the same look as Amazon Basin, using twisted leaves instead of a traditional band, only the pattern has been altered to distinguish the cigars.

And shortly after Fuma Em Corda hit the market, CAO debuted the final chapter in the Amazon Trilogy—Amazon Anaconda. This cigar uses both Bragança and Fuma Em Corda tobaccos, as well as a third Amazonian leaf called Bahiano Habano. This leaf is grown in Brazil’s Bahia region and showcases a dense, potent flavor profile. CAO’s parent company, General Cigar, spent years working with the local farmers to enhance the desired flavors of their Bahiano Habano, eventually purchasing only the ligero primings (the highest priming) to best showcase the intense properties of the tobacco. The final blend of Amazon Anaconda is said to be somewhere in between the sweet characteristics of Amazon Basin and the savory profile of Fuma Em Corda. The cigars again feature the same look, offering a new pattern of the twisted, smokable bands.