Oscar Valladares Heaven & Hell Claro

In 2021, Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co. introduced a pair of new cigars under the name Heaven & Hell. Other than redux reviews on Mondays, we normally don’t review cigars that are two years old, so you might be wondering why I am doing so.

It’s because the cigar was a private label for Santa Clara, Inc., the distribution arm associated with JR Cigar and owned by the same company as Altadis U.S.A. That meant most of these cigars were likely sold through JR Cigar, though other retailers could purchase them. Earlier this year, Oscar Valladares announced that it would take over distribution of the line, meaning these are likely showing up in a lot more brick-and-mortar cigar retailers.

Both cigars are 6 x 52 toros that come in boxes of 20. The Claro version uses a Honduran Connecticut-seed wrapper over a Mexican binder and fillers from Honduras, while the Oscuro version uses a Nicaraguan wrapper over a Mexican binder and fillers from Honduras.

• Cigar Reviewed: Oscar Valladares Heaven & Hell Claro
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co.
• Wrapper: Honduras (Connecticut)
• Binder: Mexico (San Andrés)
• Filler: Honduras
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Toro
• MSRP: $10 (Box of 20, $200)
• Release Date: 2021
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

As for the cigar, the Heaven & Hell Claro has a very light tan-colored wrapper that is pretty but doesn’t hide its slight imperfections. There’s some stretching of the wrapper noticeable on the bottom of each cigar, but the thing that stands out much more is that the cigar is very bumpy, something that I don’t think is related to the wrapper. I won’t fault you if you don’t initially notice any of those things as the Oscar Heaven & Hell Claro’s band is unlike any other I can recall seeing. The two wings of the band can be pulled from the band to create a much more three-dimensional appearance. This whole process could have been more rudimentary, but instead, there’s a very detailed cut-out that leaves the top four feathers somewhat on their own as opposed to grouped together. Given the thickness of the paper, the wings will stay in position, meaning you can smoke a cigar that is a bit reminiscent of a paper airplane. The aroma from the wrapper initially smells of sugar, though that’s quickly overwhelmed by a much stronger ammonia scent. Neither smell is that strong, but the sugar is closer to mild, while the ammonia is closer to medium. The foot has some Spanish cedar smells over sweet floral aromas and oak. It’s medium-plus and pretty sweet. Sweet oatmeal is the first thing I taste on the cold draw, quickly overshadowed by oak and macadamia nuts. All three cigars deliver excellent resistance.

An array of nuttiness is the first thing that hits the taste buds, it’s followed by dry creaminess—one cigar has some damp earth before the creaminess comes—and then some earthiness joins the fray. The first puff is medium-plus and quite smooth. Within the first few minutes of the first cigar, it’s apparent that this is going to be a delicate experience. Quickly puffing won’t change the temperature of the smoke, but doing so quickly pushes the cigar into bitter and harsh territories, something that takes a few minutes to recover from. Even with a deliberately slower smoking pace, the cigar can veer into those territories without warning. When it’s on, the Heaven & Hell Claro has very vibrant nuttiness with some wood flavors behind it and creaminess sort of ties everything together. The nuttiness will vary in between different nut flavors with a sweeter blend initially and a more bitter blend at the end. When the cigar gets sharper, it seems to affect the earthiness the most. The finish has popcorn, black pepper, white pepper and, at times, some slight tartness. When the cigar is in its sweet spots, retrohales remind me of a subtle vodka flavor mixed with nuttiness; it’s compact and short. Unfortunately, there are other times when there’s a mixture of damp earthiness and something that reminds me of the smell of carpet being installed. It’s a similar Jekyll and Hyde story on the finish, though the better examples add pita bread and an umami-like savoriness. Flavor is generally medium-plus—retrohales are medium-full—body is medium-plus and strength is medium. Construction is great throughout the first third of each cigar, though the ash tends to fall off before the one-inch mark, which catches me off guard.

At times, there can be a great nutty core with detailed and vibrant flavors. Unfortunately, it tends not to last longer than five seconds before bitterness and creaminess emerge. There are parts of the second third that have a sharp grain flavor and subtle sweetness, which can remind me of an overproof bourbon, but it’s too sour for my liking. That sourness carries over to the finish, where it accents earthiness and creaminess. Secondary flavors include white pepper, rice and nuttiness, though eventually, bitterness wins out as the strongest flavor. Retrohales have nuttiness over some damp earth, sharp mineral flavors and black pepper. While they aren’t the best puffs of the cigar to this point, they are consistently more enjoyable than the retrohales in the first third. They finish much cleaner with mineral flavors, black pepper, creaminess and leather; fortunately avoiding most of the bitterness. Flavor is medium-full—retrohales are closer to full—body is medium-full and strength is medium. One cigar needs a touch-up to help with an uneven burn that wouldn’t correct itself, but construction remains otherwise impressive.

While I had concerns about whether the bitterness would get worse in the final third, I think the final third is the easiest part of the profile to enjoy. It’s not by a very wide margin, but it seems like the cigar avoids the bitterness more than it did in the first parts. For a good five seconds as the smoke enters and then exits my mouth, lots of nutty flavors interact with my palate before sharpness and bitter flavors enter the fray. Fortunately, the bitterness doesn’t last as long and allows for meatiness, popcorn, creaminess—sometimes bittersweet—and mineral flavors to emerge in the background. One cigar has the popcorn as the main flavor but otherwise follows a similar trajectory. The finish varies between a similar profile as when the smoke is in my mouth to other times being led by bitter creaminess and sharp earthiness over white pepper and herbal flavors. Retrohales have leather leading white pepper and sharp nuttiness. The finish has this brief moment where it reminds me of soft wheat bread before it transitions into bitter flavors and pepper. Flavor is medium-full, body is full and strength is medium. None of the cigars have any construction issues during the final third, so at least there’s that.

Final Notes

• Between this, the Altar Q, McFly and Ciseron Edition—whoever is coming up with the packaging concepts at Oscar Validates Tobacco & Co. continues to knock it out of the park. During the last decade, few companies have challenged how a cigar can be packaged quite like Oscar Valladares. It’s incredibly impressive and this might be the best work since the Leaf by Oscar, which is likely the frontrunner for most successful unique cigar packaging introduced in the last 15 years. Above all else, the success of packaging is always going to be about what helps sell the cigar; in that regard, I don’t think the Leaf by Oscar has had many, if any peer(s) during the last 15 years.
• To me, what’s so smart about this band is that if you are in a cigar shop and see someone smoking this cigar, you are going to recognize that it is different and that might lead to some curiosity. It’s a conversation starter, something to pique the curiosity and also a great way to remember the cigar. You may not remember the Heaven & Hell aspect, but when you ask the cigar shop employee for “the one with the wings,” you should get pointed in the right direction.
• That said, it is a lot more tedious to smoke the cigar with the wings extended, especially if you are trying not to damage the wings so you can take a picture of the band.
• The good news is, you don’t need to smoke the cigar with the wings deployed. The cigar comes packaged like any other cigar, save for the precut areas on the side that make it easy to cleanly get the wings out.
• There are two issues I had with the flavor: it had a tendency to get bitter and it seemed like the flavors were largely operating in one frequency. During most puffs, each cigar seemed to engage one area of my palate and not much else.
• Scoring cigars like this—ones where there are two very contrasting experiences happening over the course of five minutes—is quite difficult. I tend to score cigars based on what I feel like is happening in and around the median puff. It’s not necessarily the exact most frequent experience, but something that takes into account, say 15 of the 40 puffs I might make in a single third. Admittedly, I haven’t counted the puffs, so that math might be off. That’s what I did here, I suspect the cigar scored higher than my subjective takeaway might be.
• Even describing the experience is tough, but I think the shortest answer is: it was decent except when it wasn’t. The highs were not as high as the lows were low, but there were more average puffs than low points.
• Beyond noticing that the ash has a tendency to fall quicker than most cigars, I also found it to be quite dark with very dark stripes.
• While I found the flavor could get too bitter and/or harsh, the smoke itself didn’t seem to get all that warm or hot.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time for the first two cigars I smoked was around one hour and 40 minutes. That said, the final cigar took more than hours to smoke.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Cigars Direct and JR Cigar carry the Oscar Valladares Heaven & Hell Claro.