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C.A.O. Rock n Rolled Tour Kicks Off

By Jesse | October 10, 2008 |

I’m a little behind on getting this up and due to a problem with my audio recorder I didn’t catch all of the conversation I had with Jon Huber. I’m scheduling a later time to get him on the phone and redo the interview. If you were in Cincinnati on Oct. 7th and you missed the CAO Rock n Rolled Tour stop, you better have a damn good excuse.

This event was the kick off of the C.A.O. Rock-n-Rolled Tour, and this was an awesome way to start. Last count before I left is over 120 boxes of cigars were sold due to some really great specials they had going on. Miguel our local C.A.O. Sales Rep and the guys from The Party Source never slowed down, the only pause in the frantic pace is when they stopped to do the drawing for the raffle prizes.

While my interview didn’t go as planned I did get some great insights from Jon. When I first met Jon Huber briefly at the IPCPR I was a bit intimidated. Between the tattoos, hanging with celebrities, and the success he’s brought to C.A.O. he’s not the type of guy you expect. Jon Huber is a laid back guy that had plenty of time for a guy publishing a cigar review site out of his garage. (Yeah I do most of my work in my garage.)

We talked briefly about a few things covered in the Cigar Press interview he did and how he got his start in the industry. An outsider to the industry who had a passion for cigars, he wrote letters to every advertiser in Cigar Aficionado until finally getting a job at C.A.O. I really enjoy hearing stories like this, it gives me hope that one of those cigar companies out there will read this site and offer me a job.

Whenever you sit down with someone in the industry you have to ask them about their favorite cigars. Jon is a full bodied cigar smoker and right now the C.A.O. LX2 has been what he’s smoking most of then these days. His go to of the C.A.O. Lines though is the C.A.O. Criollo. I asked him a bit about the Criollo as it never seemed as hot as the other C.A.O. Brands out there, and personally it is one of my favorite smokes. Jon believes they didn’t do quite as good a job with the marketing on the C.A.O. Criollo as they have on the other brands. The Criollo isn’t a typical C.A.O. cigar, being a bit more in the traditional cigar flavor profile.

One of the big things I had to ask Jon about was the new partnership between C.A.O. and the Torano Family. It is a unique partnership as C.A.O. as a brand is edgy, while the Torano brand is more traditional. Over time it is going to be interesting to see how these two brands are marketed.

I had to bring up the C.A.O. Cx2 which was launched 2 years ago and hasn’t seen the popularity the Mx2 or other C.A.O launches have typically seen. The Cx2 idea didn’t transition well from paper to reality and had a few things going against it. Cameroon is more expensive and much more fragile, which led to a more expensive cigar. Also the Sopranos was launched at the same time as the Cx2 and generated quite a bit more buzz than they expected and crowded out the Cx2. The Cx2 isn’t going away, but will only be available through ~~Cigars International~~ Famous Smoke.

Finally we talked a bit about the C.A.O. LX2 being that is the cigar everyone is talking about I could hardly leave it out. I spoke to both Miguel and Jon about this cigar and they are both excited to see what happens when this cigar hits the shelves. The Lx2 will also have a lancero size available at first in a special limited edition humidor with 28 cigars in it. Depending how well this limited run does the lancero will be added to the line as one of the regular sizes.

I’m looking forward to doing a full interview with Jon Huber where I can post the audio. I’ve also decided that one of my priorities next year is to drive down to Nashville and hang with them for a day. I wonder if they’ll break out the good stuff for me.

Here are a few photos from the event: