Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra Hellcat Cigar Review

Back in 2016, Esteban Carreras introduced an extension to their wildly successful Chupa Cabra line that has been in existence since 2012. The new introduction was named the Chupa Cabra Hellcat which sported a new blend and comes in box pressed vitolas that were not available in the previous Chupa Cabra lineup. In case you are not aware, Chupa Cabra is is a legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas, with its first purported sightings reported in Puerto Rico. Chupacabras can be literally translated as “goat-sucker”, from chupar (“to suck”) and cabra (“goat”).

In the cigar world, there has been many sightings of the Chupa Cabra on shelves in brick and mortar shops as well as many online stores. Today I offer a review of the Chupa Cabra Hellcat which has blend as bold as its name and is described as:

• Wrapper – Mexican San Andrés
• Binder – Nicaraguan
• Filler – Nicaraguan

As in the other blends in the Chupa Cabra line, the Hellcat is manufactured at the Tabacalera Carreras S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra Hellcat is available in three vitolas and come packaged in 20-count boxes:

• Robusto Grande (5.5 x 54) MSRP $8.00
• Sesenta (6 x 58) MSRP $10.00
• Toro Grande (6.5  x 54) MSRP $9.00

For this review I sampled the Chupa Cabra Hellcat Toro Grande

Pre-Light Examination

The Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra Hellcat is a stunning cigar to look at from its crisp box pressing to the expertly finished pig tail cap to the closed foot. The wrapper is dark chocolate-brown, silky smooth to the touch and gleaming.

The cigar is well adorned with both a primary band and footer band along with a tissue paper outer sleeve between the two. The primary band declares this as the Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra and the footer declares it as the Hellcat. Both bands use a shiny black  and gold motif. The outer sleeve is white tissue paper and contains the Esteban Carreras logo and throughout. Certainly this is a cigar that the company is proud of.

I removed the footer band and sleeve to do a closer examination and found it have a sweet fermented tobacco aroma along barrel and foot.

I bit the pig tail off to open this up instead of using a cutter. The Cold draw had a nice even draw even with the closed foot. There was a light black pepper on the lips and a earthy notes on the palate.

With the preliminary examination complete it was time to light it up and take a Hellcat journey.

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Cigar Review Notes

• A gentle black pepper hits the palate on first light
• Earthy and butter flavors enter quickly as the pepper recedes
• Chocolate notes enter to round out the early profile
• Light grey ash with a medium density develops
• White peppery spice enters end of first third
• Buttery creaminess maintains
• The ash falls often
• Slight wave starts that eventually fixes itself
• Leather and Espresso notes enter in the second half
• Sweetness enters to compliment the spice
• Started to tunnel in the final third but a touch of flame fixed that
• The final third brings rich cedar to the profile
• Solid Medium in Strength
• Total Smoking Time was 1 hour and 20 minutes to the nub

Overall, the Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra Hellcat was a delightful and flavorful medium strength cigar. The flavors transitioned well and the smoke was creamy throughout. This is a cigar you can enjoy anytime of the day and would pair well with sweet martini or even a cream soda. The burn did have a few wonks along the way but they either fixed themselves or a mild touch up corrected it.