Hooten Young Ships The Operator

One of Hooten Young’s new releases from the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show is on its way to stores, as the company began shipping The Operator to stores at the end of this week.

The Operator is a tribute to the “fearless yet humble professional of the U.S. Special Operations Forces with an extraordinary sense of physical and emotional grit,” according to a press release from the company. It is described as a medium-bodied cigar that offers natural sweetness, toasty nuttiness, baking spices, cocoa, and hints of pepper.

The blend features an African Cameroon wrapper, Ecuadorian habano binder, and a filler that the company describes as “classified.” It is produced by Cordoba & Morales in Nicaragua and offered in a 6 1/2 x 54 vitola the company calls a Royal Toro. Pricing is set at $25 per cigar and $250 for a 10-count box.

The company is still planning to ship another new release, Operation Neptune Spear, to stores on September 1, however a shipping error resulted in a small amount being sent to a handful of stores ahead of that date. That cigar honors the mission of the U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six, which led to the successful finding and killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Hooten Young describes it as medium-to-full-bodied with notes of leather, earth, bread, and espresso beans.

That profile comes by way of a blend that uses a Brazilian mata fina wrapper, an Ecuadorian habano binder, and fillers from Nicaragua’s Estelí, Condega and Jalapa regions. It is priced at $15 per cigar and $150 for a box of 10 cigars, and like The Operator, is made at Cordoba & Morales in Nicaragua.