Smoked: Oscar Wild Hunter Habano

Smoked at: Sharonville, Ohio

Oscar Wild Hunter Habano Natural Toro is a Honduran puro with a rustic smooth brown wrapper with a touch of oil and seams hiding the veins. Oscar Valladares does like busy cigar bands. This stick features an orange and brown nature-themed band and a footer that reads “natural.”

The cigar has no give to the touch. It’s extremely firm. Sure enough it had a tight draw. Perfect draw opened it up some but the draw remained tight. No surprise. The smoke output was minimal. The ash fell off in my lap twice and the burn line was wavy. This thing is not scoring many points from me on construction.

Earth, leather, oak, mild splashes of pepper and spice with chocolate, nutmeg, honey, graham crackers and a charred taste sneaking into the second third. A sweetness somewhere between chocolate and ice cream creeps into the final third. Nice surprise - a sundae for dessert. Wood and leather though remain the dominant flavors. It’s medium bodied and medium strength that kicks up a notch for the final third. The retrohale is strong on wood, mild pepper and nuts.

Oscar Wild Hunter Natural has received its props from the cigar trades. To me, it’s a decent cigar – a bit one dimensional. I was craving more flavors and some amplification of those present. Secondary notes were tamped down by the dominance of the wood and leather. In summation, the experience was kind of like that first date that went pretty well, but you knew by the end of the evening there wasn’t going to be a second date. BTW: Of all the Oscar Valladeras cigars, Super Fly is still my favorite.