CAO Amazon Basin

The CAO Amazon Basin is a ground breaking project by General Cigars Corp (GCC). The giant tobacco conglomerate was in search for a new and undiscovered tobacco. With scouts around the world, they found the exotic tobacco grown deep in the Amazon rain-forest. The Amazon Basin Indians were growing this tobacco in the jungle for generations but it was recently discovered twenty years ago by GCC. This tobacco is called “Braganca” and it goes through a very different cultivation and fermentation process than all other cigars. Due to the tobacco’s rarity and the fact that it is harvested only ONCE every three years, only 1500-2000 boxes are produced annually depending on crop yield.

Introduced in 2014 at the IPCPR Annual cigar show, the CAO Amazon Basin was the talk of the show. The CAO Amazon Basin is made of very unique and hard to find tobacco grown in the Amazon Rain-Forest and harvested just once every three years. Unlike traditional tobacco plantations where the plants are arranged in neat rows, these seeds are hand picked and planted in areas where there is available sunlight. Once harvested, the leaves are rolled by hand into tubes called carottes and undergo six months of natural fermentation, a technique similar to that of Andullo tobacco. Once fermented, it takes four to six weeks to get them from forest to factory, a process that involves being hand carried to the river, put into canoes and rowed to the mainland, and then driven to the port and shipped to Nicaragua where the cigars are made.

The CAO Amazon Basin has a dark, oily, rosado wrapper. It is silky smooth to the touch and the color of the ring itself is not far off from its rope that is wrapped around the cigars, serving as its distinct cigar band. Designed after the old Amazon-Indian tie technique, the band is made up of a coil of twisted tobacco wrapped around the cigar four times just down the tip and you can smoke right through the coils. The flavor is unique and refreshing with strong notes of rain-forest sap, peanut, cocoa and spicy raisins.

Since the release of the Amazon Basin in 2014. GCC made a second release in 2016. Both times GCC had great success with the cigar and all were quickly sold out. Years later, GCC created a trilogy of Amazon cigars: Amazon Fuma Em Corda (2017), CAO Amazon Anaconda (2017), and CAO Orellana (2019).

Now back in 2020 is the Amazon Basin in its original blend.
The 2020 year of crop yield is less due to drought and rain forest fires, making for a very limited number of boxes.