The Arcana Thundersmoke By CAO

The third Arcana is the Thunder Smoke, and rather than focus on a tobacco fermentation technique, this one uses all African tobacco for the filler.  If you're wondering how they get the name Thunder Smoke, there's a waterfall at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe named Mosi-Oa-Tunya, which translates to the "smoke that thunders."  The farm where the Zimbabwean tobacco is grown is not far from there, inspiring the name. It's slightly confusing because this cigar has a smell that reminds me of fire-cured tobacco, but there's no indication that any of it is fire cured. So to the best of my knowledge there's no correlation to the name.  It still hits with a campfire like smell to me, but it could just be the natural smell of the tobacco.

BRAND / CO:  CAO
CIGAR:  Arcana Thunder Smoke
VITOLA:  Toro - 6.5" x 52
STRENGTH:  Medium
WRAPPER:  Honduran, Natural (Olancho San Agustin)
BINDER:  Mexico (San Andrés)
FILLER:  Cameroon / South Africa / Zimbabwe
ORIGIN:  Dominican Republic, General Cigar Dominicana

APPEARANCE & CONSTRUCTION:   Good
Great looking tobacco for the wrapper here.  It's a rich dark chocolate brown with a strong reddish hue.  It's oily, has great sheen, and heavy mottling that adds a lot of contrast.  There's a mild, well distributed tooth dotting the wrapper.  It has a lot of veins but they're all small and thin.  The seams are nearly invisible, tight and blend in. The triple cap is clean and even.  The band is huge, covering most of the cigar. It's also a bit reductive, with a black on dark gray zebra stripe pattern and cut to look like a smoke cloud.

DRAW & BURN:   Terrible / Good
The draw is absolute shit and totally plugged, but it's an opportunity to do my best Phil "Katman" Kohn imitation (IYKYK) with my trusty PerfecDraw.  I plunge that bastard multiple times, twisting and dragging the barbs through the tender insides of the cigar until I'm finally able to get a workable draw. It's still too tight for my liking, but it's smokeable.  It's been a while since I've had a cigar this plugged up, but if you look at the journal photo, you can see where the tobacco at the head looks solid because it's so tightly packed.  I think this is the first time I've ever used the "terrible" rating which is zero points.  I went with terrible because, "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul," is a bit wordy.

However the burn starts off quite nicely, just slightly uneven.  The ash is a light gray with large gaps between the dark striations.  It's a little flaky, but not too messy.  The ash holds well getting to the end of the first third. At least I was able to free up the draw enough to support good combustion throughout the smoke.

FLAVOR PROFILE:   Great
Cigars like this are why I stopped worrying about reviewing the cold draw or smell before I actually start smoking it.  First, I tend to only pick up generic sweet tobacco and maybe one or two other unique scents.  So most cigars end up with similar descriptions.  Second, what happens when the cold smell or draw doesn't match the profile when it's actually burning?   Do you really care about what it was like pre-light?   Or do you really just care about the flavors you get when it's burning?  Right.  If a cigar tastes like red hot asshole when you smoke it, nobody cares how wonderful it smells unlit.  Yes, I love the smell of opening my humidor, but we buy cigars to smoke, not just to sniff.  

If you read the intro, I noted that there was that fire-cured campfire smell to the cigar.  There's NONE of that in the burn.  It's actually quite sweet, earthy, a good hit of espresso bitter, dark chocolate and quite a bit of salt from the wrapper.  I'm actually quite enjoying it in the first third and it's nothing like what I would've expected from the cold smell.  I was unsure I even wanted to smoke it based on the cold smell.  As the first smoke progresses, I'm getting charred oak, musty barnyard and a slight black licorice flavor with light aromatic notes.  This isn't very creamy, but it's smooth with only light natural bitter notes.  Nice complexity and pleasing to start.

Through the halfway point, no real changes, just slight fluctuations in intensity most notably in the pepper.  The sweetness is raisin like, still earthy with a toasted woodiness, that goes between cedar and oak, light mustiness, and a nice mix of pepper and baking spice.   By the end, this is a straight shooter with no transitions.  This isn't a world changing cigar, but the African tobaccos are working in harmony with the rest that creates a pleasing profile.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:   Good
This is a solid blend and of the three Arcana I've had so far, the one I think is most palatable to the average smoker as your Cameroon, Olancho San Agustin, and San Andrés are all tried and true well appreciated tobaccos.  Given the reasonable price point it's definitely one worth trying out if you want something different as I don't think it'll offend.  In the end, it offers a fairly traditional dark and sweet profile.

I'll need to see if my other examples have the same draw issues or this was a one-off, because that did drag the rating down.  It's not box worthy good, or one I'd look to smoke often, but it was a fun and enjoyable way to try out some less common African tobacco. I just hope to not have construction issues with the next one.

Purchase Singles or by the Box HERE

Review written by Sean McCloskey of The Collective