CAO Amazon Basin adds the Extra Añejo to the lineup that launched in 2014. As the name suggests, Extra Añejo speaks to additional aging given to the Amazon Basin blend. The cigars were crafted in 2021 and left to mature for two years in a room lined with Spanish cedar.
The 6 x 52 CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo ($14.99) features an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper with a Nicaraguan binder and a touch of Dominican and Colombian leaf in the filler.
CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo is centered on a tobacco varietal called Bragança, which is grown in an Amazonian rainforest and harvested once every three years. Native farmers transplant the seedlings directly into the soil a full yard apart from each other, resulting in less than half the yield of other tobacco plants.
After harvest, artisans roll the leaves by hand into tubes called carottes, where they undergo six months of natural fermentation.
Produced at STG Esteli in Nicaragua, CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo will ship in 18-count wooden boxes, limited to 5,800 boxes for the U.S. market.
