CAO's TAA Exclusive Is a Barberpole Muscle Car

TAA exclusive season kicked into gear with CAO's Flathead American Muscle, a mashup of two existing brand pillars. The blend takes the America line's multi-country filler, including Italian tobacco, and dresses it in a box-pressed 6 x 60 Flathead format with a Connecticut broadleaf and Connecticut shade barberpole wrapper, plus a Brazilian binder. Made at STG's Esteli factory, it runs $12.99 per cigar in 12-count boxes, capped at 48,000 cigars for TAA retailers. It releases October 29 as the TAA show convenes at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, joining an already-crowded field of 2026 exclusives from Casa Carrillo, Joya de Nicaragua, J.C. Newman, Espinosa, Gurkha, and others.