Recently, Brian and I attended IPCPR in Las Vegas and ran into Spencer Drake of White Hat Distribution at their booth.  They are now the distributer of the HR line of cigars.  HR Cigars had been previously distributed by Cubanacan, then by La Palina Cigars, but has finally found a home with White Hat.  Spencer showed us the two new lines from HR Cigars:  Claro and Blue.  You can check out our interview with Spencer here.

For this review, I’m smoking the HR Claro in the toro size thanks to my friend AJ Costa of Colibri who gifted me this cigar.  The Claro is available in four sizes ranging from $8.95 to $10.95 and uses an Ecuadorian Habano claro wrapper with undisclosed binder and filler.

• Rothschild:  5 x 48
• Robusto Gorda:  5 1/2 x 56
• Toro:  6 x 52
• 109:  7 1/4 x 50

Construction and Appearance

The HR Claro toro is a beautiful cigar.  The wrapper is very smooth with a rich chocolate brown wrapper with minimal veining with the cap is perfectly applied.  After clipping the cap, I tested the draw which was spot on with just the right about resistance.  I got flavors of cedar and earth on the cold draw.

 

First Half

The flavors started off with a nice sweetness.  I also got a cedar and rich earthy tobacco to accompany the sweetness.  After the first inch, I started to pick up a very smooth spice note along with a bell pepper note, which was kind of crazy to me as I’ve never experienced that before.  It was sharp, herbal flavor you get from green bell peppers.  I got it faintly in the background.  It actually tasted really good combined with the other flavors.  I’m thoroughly enjoying the cigar.

Last Half

During the final half of the cigar, I still get the cedar and earthy tobacco notes, but they are joined by leather and pecan notes.  The cigar also developed a creaminess as well.  The bell pepper/herbal note was gone, but it was faint to begin with.  Also, the savory spice note has faded as well.  Overall, the cigar remained medium body throughout.

Final Thoughts

This is the first HR cigar I’ve tried and I have to say, I’m impressed.   I loved the flavors of the cigar and the construction was spot on.  I look forward to trying the other sizes and especially the Brown and Blue lines.  I do wish these were made in some smaller, more traditional sizes like corona, lonsdale or a corona gorda.  Either way, this one of the better releases from 2016.  Definitely check these out.