Noob Review: CAO Criollo Pato

CAO Criollo Pato, 4 7/8x50, NIC. Aged 1 month.
Smoked December 10, 2012
Smoke Time: 1:15

Pre-Light:   Medium brown, a little toothy, more lumpy. Nice pig-tailed cap, barnyard aroma.

Cold Draw:   Draw was tight, flavor was sweet grass and barnyard.

First 3rd:   Immediately got kind of a weird burn going, burn sort of raced up the wrapper in spots, seen in the pic to the left... started with pepper and something else, maybe a slight citrus? Hard to pick out, but citrus seems the closest thing in my memory banks... Draw is a little tight but not horrible, good amount of smoke, and a slow burn. Smoke smells like sweet hay, I'm getting a little bitter anise flavor?

Burn corrected itself and evened out pretty quick as you can see, and the pepper is settling down. Mouth is watering a bit, not dry at all. About an inch in the pepper is almost gone, and a burnt sweet flavor is coming in off and on. Thick creamy smoke filling my little workshop...

Second 3rd:  Getting some more of that bitter anise/licorice flavor.Also a little bit of toasted caramel or toffee here and there a little bit? Really hard to pick out flavors as they're kind of here one puff, gone the next... Pepper taste in the back of my throat pretty constant. Ash held almost 1½", accidently bumped it or it probably would have held much longer...

Got that weird burn again, and a definite black licorice flavor on my lips...

 Last 3rd:   Not much change from the last third. Flavors are becoming smoother, but still just as random. A few hints of a new semi-sweet flavor, but not nuts, or caramel... can't really pick it out. I read one review that mentioned black cherry, I haven't gotten any of that, but this new semi-sweet flavor does have fruit tones to it, maybe that little bit of citrus I picked up in the first third...

Ash dropped off around 1½" again, there's a little wrapper peel under the band, not major. About 2" from the end it started getting hot and very bitter. Done at this point.






7.5/10
I'm giving this one high marks for definitely keeping me interested in picking out the various flavors coming in and out. I'll have to get some more and let them rest longer and see what happens. I got this in the CAO Commemorative Sampler with the DVD, so it's the only one I have right now, but I'm looking forward to more.