The CAO Estelí has begun to arrive in stores, a full four months early than originally announced.

When General Cigar Co., the parent of CAO, announced the new release last month, the company indicated it would begin shipping on Aug. 15. This week, multiple stores indicated they have taken delivery of the cigar.

The CAO Estelí is a 6 x 54 toro extra that uses a wrapper from Jalapa, Nicaragua, a binder from Honduras and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Production is limited to 1,500 boxes of 10 cigars with pricing set at $8.99 per cigar.

It is limited to the 80 or so stores which are Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA) accounts.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.