New Releases
CAO Puts the America Blend in a Flathead for the TAA
The CAO Flathead American Muscle, a box-pressed 6 x 60 with the America's two-tone wrapper, is limited to 48,000 cigars for TAA stores.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group has announced CAO’s cigar for the 2026 exclusive program of the Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA), a group of about 80 retailers that gets special releases from manufacturers each year.
It is the CAO Flathead American Muscle, and it mixes two CAO lines. The blend is the one from CAO America, but the cigar takes the box-pressed shape of the CAO Flathead. It is a 6 x 60 gordo with the America’s look: two wrappers twisted together like a barber pole, a lighter one over a darker one. STG names them as Connecticut broadleaf and Connecticut shade. The binder is Brazilian, and the filler comes from the Dominican Republic, Italy, Nicaragua and the U.S.
CAO America already has a 6 x 60, the Landmark, but that one is round, not pressed. CAO brand manager Cory Beardsley said the idea was to bring the two lines together in a cigar that feels familiar to fans of both.
The cigar is made at STG Estelí in Nicaragua, in boxes of 12 at $12.99 per cigar, and production is limited to 48,000 cigars. It is due on October 29.
This year’s TAA meeting is taking place this week at Casa de Campo, in the Dominican Republic.