CAO Fuma Em Corda Ventures Into The Amazon
CAO has gone back to the Amazon basin. Next week, General Cigar will be shipping the CAO Fuma Em Corda, a continuation of the CAO Amazon Basin series first released in 2014. It contains Brazilian tobaccos that have undergone old fermentation techniques native to the Amazon.
CAO Fuma Em Corda is enrobed in a Honduran colorado wrapper and contains a Cameroon binder with filler from Honduras, Nicaragua and Brazil. The Brazilian tobacco is the highlight of the blend—a mix of both Bragança and Arapiraca leaves.
The cigar is named after the fermentation technique applied to the Brazilian Arapiraca tobacco. According to the company, the Arapiraca leaves are bound by tightly wound ropes and left to ferment. General says the technique was borrowed from the native peoples who harvest tobacco in the Alagoas region of Brazil. The natives are said to call the resulting tobacco "fuma em corda."
The Bragança tobacco undergoes a different process. It's packed tightly into tubes called carottes where the leaves are naturally compressed for six months of fermentation, similar to andullo tobacco, which is also compressed into dense cylinders.
CAO Fuma Em Corda is launching in two limited-edition sizes: Robusto, at 5 inches by 50 ring gauge ($8.99) and Toro, 6 by 58 ($10.49). The Robusto is a brick-and-mortar exclusive, with just 3,000 boxes made available to retailers, while the Toro was made for Internet and catalog sales.
CAO Amazon Basin was a limited-edition cigar that first came to market in 2014. It was striking in its roughly-hewn rustic box and twine-like tobacco tied around each cigar. It returned last year for another limited-edition run. Fuma Em Corda marks the second cigar in the CAO Amazon Basin Trilogy, with a third release set to be unveiled at the International Cigar & Pipe Retailers trade show this summer.
It should be noted that the CAO Brazilia line is a separate, regular-production brand.
Fuma Em Corda is made at General's Honduran American Tabaco S.A. (HATSA) factory in Danlí, Honduras.
