Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra 10th Anniversary

Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra 10th Anniversary is the 4th edition of the series. It uses Nicaraguan filer covered with a slightly oily San Andres Maduro wrapper and an uncut disheveled cheroot-looking foot. There’s a footer band on the cigar reading “10th Anniversary.” So there are actually 3 bands – a primary, a secondary band reading “Chupa Cabra” and the anniversary footer. The cigar has some visible veins and seams.

Sweet spice, pepper, charred wood, earth, grass/hay, peanuts, butter, and dark chocolate. The retrohale is quite peppery with a hint of chocolate and a bit of licorice. Add a few coffee notes plus walnuts and almonds to the peanuts by the second third – mixed nuts. The chocolate subsides to taste more like cocoa during the final third. The earth, grass, pepper and wood are more dominant. You can tell from the first puffs this is bolder, richer than the original. My takeaway is more well-aged tobacco in the 10th Anniversary. It’s a robust, rich medium bodied, medium strength stick.

The construction is quite good - nice open draw, a decent burn line, firm ash and plenty of smoke spewing from this thing.

Esteban Carreras Chupa Cabra 10th Anniversary is a good cigar. On first blush I’d rate it better than the original, but I haven’t smoked a Chupa Cabra in about 6 months. I should probably smoke the original again before rendering a final verdict. One way or another, the 10th Anniversary is an enjoyable smoke.

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