Cigar Review: Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Corona, 6” x 44 ring gauge / approx. $6.50, Burns Tobacconist

We recently got a visit at Burns from a couple gentlemen from the Esteban Carreras cigar company. I got to talk to them a bit about some of their lines, and specifically about some of the newer blends. During the course of the evening, I bought a few single sticks of some of those blends that I hadn’t experienced before, with the aim to publish a series of reviews on them. This is the first in the group, and with a name like Chupa Cabra, I had to start with this one. I first heard of the Chupa Cabra about 20 years ago when I was growing up in Southern California (yes, the creature is more commonly known as “chupacabra”…one word, instead of two, but the band for this cigar is clearly two words, so that’s how I’m referencing it). The story is that a hideous creature with big teeth, maybe spines–who knows what else?–would invade farms and animal pens by night, sucking the blood out of smaller pets and livestock, thus becoming known as the “goat sucker.” It’s a pretty cool crytozoological tale, right up there with Sasquatch in my book…yeah, I want to believe in both, although I have yet to see definitive evidence of either. Someone mentioned to me that this particular cigar actually isn’t named directly after the mythical creature, though, but instead was named after a boat that won a race that the owner of Esteban Carreras was also in. That story may be just as specious as the furry little creature tale, though, so…don’t repeat it!!! Chupa Cabra is available in 8 sizes, although the Corona is the smallest of 2 or 3 sizes carried at my home B&M, which is why it was chosen for this write-up. The company website has no information on this blend, although two retailer websites agree that it is Nicaraguan filler and binder with a Habano Oscuro wrapper (country of that wrapper is not mentioned).

The look of the cigar is mostly very nice. The main band is fairly typical of Esteban Carreras stuff and looks very good; the secondary band is a nice way to denote the blend, but the gold text on the dull burgundy background almost disappears, and that background almost blends in perfectly with the wrapper leaf…a little more contrast might help the cigar to pop better on the shelf. The cigar sported a tightly-coiled pigtail cap and a closed, semi-shaggy foot. The wrapper looked and felt oily and had a bit of toothiness to it as well. The color was a dark milk chocolate brown with a touch of red, and it smelled of earth and leather. I clipped the cap and it came off cleanly, leaving an excellent draw that had flavors of coffee, semi-sweet chocolate and earth.

Once lit, the flavors of dark roast coffee and dry cocoa powder came through the strongest, along with a mild sweetness and an earthy core. The retrohale was full-bodied and a little spicy. As I got about half an inch into the Chupa Cabra, I found the smoke fairly full in body, oily and mouth-coating. Soon after that, I noticed the draw starting to falter. It wasn’t super-tight, but it suddenly stopped producing much smoke. I applied some extra flame to make sure everything was burning right, but it didn’t help much. The extra puffing at this point did cause some extra bitterness to creep into the flavor profile. When I tapped ash the second time, I discovered the probably cause: a big hollow in the center of the filler.

Once I got past the hollow spot, the draw got better again. The burn line had stayed mostly very even and the ash was never flaky. During the second third, the Chupa Cabra’s flavors trended to a sweeter profile, with more chocolate and some raisin. The dark roast coffee and earth were still there, but less prominent.

In the final third, the Cupra Cabra took on more earthiness and a smoother coffee flavor, while it lost most of the sweetness. Normally, that’s something I don’t like to see, but here the flavors were good enough that it didn’t bother me and I kept enjoying the cigar right to the end. I found the body to be full, although not overwhelmingly so. The strength was about the same. At the end of the day, what I found with this cigar was a very enjoyable smoke, despite the construction issues near the end of the first third. That may be an anomaly, although only repeated testing will tell for sure…and test it repeatedly is what I shall do. Very good smoke well worthy of picking up a few sticks here and there.

Body: 8/10
Strength: 8/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10