CAO Vision is returning as a limited edition. Back in 2007, CAO made the news with a cigar. It wasn’t the cigar that created waves in the cigar communities though. It was the box. A glossy white box that doubled as a humidor. But the CAO designers didn’t settle for just a white glossy humidor box. To create a futuristic look, a blue LED light was added. 

And now the CAO Vision is returning. In one single size. That us a 7×50 Churchill. And it’s a limited edition. Limited to 4500 boxes for the global cigar market. 2500 boxes are going to the United States. The remaining 2000 boxes are for the international markets. Each box contains 20 cigars.

Updated box and a new blend

The new release utilizes Cameroon wrapper. It is unclear what the origin of the wrapper is. CAO parent Scandinavian Tobacco Group purchases a lot of Meerapfel Cameroon from Africa. But the company is also growing what they call Cameroon in Brazil. The binder is Ecuadorian Sumatra with filler from Nicaragua. The original blend had a Dominican wrapper and binder. The filler came from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Nicaragua.

Another change is the production facility. The original CAO Vision is a Dominican cigar. The new version comes from Nicaragua. The original CAO Vision is a creation from an era when CAO was an independent cigar brand. The CAO Vision was a collaboration with La Aurora. That’s mentioned in our interview with Jose Blanco last month. Although by the time the cigar was released, General Cigars acquired CAO. General Cigars is part of STG. The production of the new CAO Vision takes place in STG Esteli.

Cameroon wrapper

Working with the famed Cameroon wrapper is new for CAO Blender and brand ambassador Rick Rodriguez. “Whether traveling across the world visiting cigar shops and even in doing virtual events as I have been for the last several months, the CAO fans always tell me that CAO Cameroon is one of the absolute best Cameroons on the market,” Rodriguez says via a press release. “It got me thinking about the time I spent learning the art of leaf priming and selection with Benji Menendez. Back then he loved Cameroon wrapper (he still does, by the way), and he spent a lot of time teaching me which tobaccos are the best for bringing out Cameroon’s natural sweetness. I’ve never developed my own blend with a Cameroon wrapper, and I thought it was time to do it, to share my take on a Cameroon-wrapped cigar with Benji and the fans of CAO. It’s my way of saying thank you for this amazing career I have in the cigar business,” he adds.

Benji Menendez, an Industry legend, oversaw the Dominican Partagas production for many years. His father, Alonso Menendez owned the Montecristo brand in Cuba before the Castro regime confiscated it after the revolution. During his tenure at General Cigars, Menendez worked with Cameroon tobacco often.