Welcome back to the Blend of the Week. 🔥

Every Monday we put one cigar under the microscope: what's in it, how it smokes, how it's been received, and whether it's worth your money. This week, the CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo: a rainforest leaf that leaves the jungle by canoe, given two extra years to rest.

Two honest notes: CAO lists the body as medium to full, while reviewers of the first run put the strength closer to medium, so think full flavor without a nicotine punch. And launch coverage disagrees on the year this batch was rolled; we're going with CAO's own figure, two extra years of rest.

CAO has spent years building cigars around places, from Colombia to Brazil to Italy, and in 2014 it went somewhere new: the Amazon. The star is Bragança, a tobacco grown on virgin soil in a remote stretch of the Brazilian rainforest. Seedlings go in about a yard apart, which roughly halves the yield, and the crop is harvested only once every three years.

What happens after harvest is what makes this leaf famous. The leaves are hand-rolled into carottes, dense logs of tobacco bound tight to ferment for six months, then loaded into canoes and carried out of the jungle on the river before the long trip to STG Estelí in Nicaragua. When CAO's Rick Rodriguez launched Amazon Basin, his pitch was that CAO got to use Amazonian tobacco before anyone else in the world.

The rainforest shows up on the cigar itself. Instead of a paper band, every Amazon Basin wears a twisted coil of rope tobacco. The Extra Añejo adds one more ingredient: time. Añejo is Spanish for aged, the same word you'll see on a bottle of tequila or rum, and here it means two extra years of rest after rolling.

Flavor is personal, and we don't fake a chair we didn't sit in. Here's what this blend's makeup, CAO's own notes, and the reviewers who smoked the first Extra Añejo run keep pointing to.

What's in it. Ecuadorian Sumatra is grown from Sumatran seed under Ecuador's heavy cloud cover, and it tends to bring earth, cedar and gentle spice rather than sugar. The Nicaraguan binder keeps the burn honest and adds a little backbone. Then the wild card: Bragança, which Rodriguez described as earthy and nutty with a dry finish, and which reviewers often read as a light, chili-like spice. Colombian and Dominican filler rounds it out and keeps it smooth. The extra two years matter: rest lets the oils settle and the sharp edges fade, so the Extra Añejo reads creamier and more integrated than a fresh Amazon Basin.

How it smokes. Synthesized from CAO's notes, reviews of the first run and retailer tasting notes. Not a smoke we're claiming we took.

Pre-light: given the Sumatra wrapper and two years in cedar-lined aging rooms, expect cedar and sweet earth on the cold draw.

First third: the Bragança signature arrives first: dry wood, black pepper and that chili-like tingle, with coffee and natural tobacco underneath. About an inch in, creaminess shows up with a light sweetness.

Second third: the cream smooths everything out, cedar steps forward and a mineral, rocky earth takes the middle. Most of the pepper moves to the retrohale, smoke pushed out through the nose, where it stays lively.

Final third: earthier and deeper, with cedar holding steady and pepper returning for the finish. Smoke Inn's tasting notes add salted caramel, molasses bread and a hint of cardamom.

Construction: the wrapper looks rustic on purpose, with visible veins and an oily sheen. Reviewers reported a good draw and a mostly even burn. Budget 75 to 90 minutes for the Toro.

How it's been received. The first Extra Añejo run earned an 89 and a “Buy One” from Cigar Coop, whose reviewer said the extra aging clearly worked and that they'd buy it again. The demand speaks too: CAO has returned to the Amazon Basin blend every year since 2022. Two practical tips from reviewers: if your humidor runs wet, give the Toro a day in a dry box so the Sumatra burns clean, and slip the rope band off before the ember reaches it, since it's tobacco but doesn't burn through neatly.

Pair it with. CAO's own picks are Pinot Noir and single malt Scotch, and both fit. A Pinot's red fruit and forest-floor earth meet the cigar's fruit and earth head on. For Scotch, go sherried: a Glenfarclas 12 or a Macallan 12 Sherry Oak brings dried fruit and caramel that echo the back half. Coffee drinker? A black Brazilian roast keeps it all in the family.

Who it's for. Medium smokers who want to taste a leaf they can't find anywhere else, and anyone who's a little tired of the usual Nicaraguan pepper. Collectors, too: a box of 18 leaves room to smoke some now and rest a few longer. If you want a sweet, heavy maduro or a full-strength pepper bomb, this is more earth and cedar than sugar and power. Fans of the regular Amazon Basin: grab one of each and smoke them side by side.

Where to buy. It's a limited run, and allocation is reaching shops now. Our shop this week is Smoke Inn, with the Extra Añejo Toro in boxes of 18 at $288 and five-packs at $80, right around the $15.89 MSRP. If the page shows Notify Me, sign up; limited runs like this tend to move fast, and the five-pack is the low-risk way in.

The CAO Amazon Basin Extra Añejo is one of the most distinctive stories in the humidor, and the two extra years make it the smoothest way to hear it. A rainforest leaf harvested once every three years, fermented in carottes, paddled out by canoe, then rested until it rounds into cream, cedar and earth. If you've been curious about Amazon Basin, the Extra Añejo Toro is the one to start with.

🔥 Smoked an Amazon Basin before, fresh or aged? Hit reply and tell us how it landed. And if there's a blend you want us to break down next week, send it our way.