Alec Bradley Filthy Ghooligan Review: Specs & Price

The Filthy Ghooligan is a 6" x 50 toro built from seven tobaccos. An Ecuadorian Habano and US Broadleaf wrapper wraps it barber-pole style, meaning alternating strips of each leaf run the length of the cigar. Underneath sits an Indonesian Besuki binder and a filler mix of Nicaraguan leaf from Jalapa, Estelí, and Condega plus Dominican Piloto. It costs $14.49 per cigar and ships in 24-count boxes. Alec Bradley is producing 1,950 boxes worldwide, a total of 46,800 cigars. All of it rolls in Honduras, with shipping starting this September. Fans of the standard Filthy Hooligan will recognize almost everything below the wrapper. The only real change is cosmetic. The green candela leaf that usually wraps this blend gets swapped for the Habano and Broadleaf pairing, built for the Halloween theme rather than a different smoke.

Worth buying if you already like the standard Hooligan and want the seasonal look on your shelf. Skip it if you are hoping for a meaningfully different smoking experience, because the tobacco underneath the wrapper has not changed.

Alec Bradley confirmed the following specs for the 2026 Filthy Ghooligan release:

Spec	Filthy Ghooligan (2026)
Line	Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Ghooligan
Wrapper	Ecuadorian Habano & US Broadleaf (barber-pole)
Binder	Indonesian Besuki
Filler	Nicaragua (Jalapa, Estelí, Condega) & Dominican Piloto
Vitola	Toro
Size	6" x 50
Price	$14.49 per cigar (about $347.76 per 24-count box)
Box count	24 cigars
Boxes produced	1,950
Total cigars	46,800
Ship date	September 2026
Factory	Honduras

Alec Bradley keeps the Filthy Hooligan's seven-tobacco recipe untouched for this release and changes only the outer wrapper leaf. Swapping just the wrapper is a common move for seasonal cigars, since a full re-blend costs more to formulate and test than a wrapper change. It also means smokers who already know the Filthy Hooligan's strength and flavor profile have a good idea what the Ghooligan will taste like before it ships.

Alec Bradley describes the new look as eye-catching and calls the construction on this run strong. That is a claim from Alec Bradley. It has not been independently verified, since the release has not shipped yet.

A barber-pole wrapper alternates two different wrapper leaves in visible strips down the length of the cigar, instead of using one uniform leaf. Rollers cut each leaf into strips and hand-apply them side by side, which takes more time than wrapping a single leaf and usually shows up in a slightly higher price. Because two different leaves sit on the same cigar, a barber-pole blend can pull flavor notes from both. The Habano side tends to bring a spicier, more peppery edge. Broadleaf usually leans sweeter and earthier, with more visible oil on the wrapper. Exactly how much either leaf shows through depends on how thick each strip is cut, which Alec Bradley has not published for this release.

The visual effect is the real draw for a Halloween release like this one. Alternating light and dark strips read as a costume on the cigar itself, which is why seasonal barber-pole blends show up around Halloween more than any other time of year.

Alec Bradley makes most of its cigars in Honduras, a base that tends to produce earthier, more savory smoke than Nicaraguan or Dominican tobacco. Alec Bradley's Tempus line is its fullest-bodied regular release. The Filthy Hooligan family sits at the fun, lower-stakes end of the catalog instead, a seasonal specialty blend rather than a flagship. Readers weighing Honduran tobacco against other regions can see how the profile compares in our Honduran vs Nicaraguan cigars guide.

Black Market itself already leans harder into loud packaging and playful concepts than Alec Bradley's mainstream releases. A Halloween-only wrapper swap fits the sub-brand's usual approach more than it would fit one of Alec Bradley's flagship families. The Ghooligan name is a pun on Hooligan plus ghost, in keeping with running the same Black Market blend through different seasonal wrapper treatments rather than creating a brand-new recipe every year.

Buy the Filthy Ghooligan if you already smoke and like the standard Black Market Filthy Hooligan and want the Halloween wrapper as a seasonal variant on a blend you already trust. The 1,950-box production run is large enough that most regular Alec Bradley retailers should be able to get at least a few boxes, unlike a truly scarce 250-box limited release.

At $14.49 a cigar, the Filthy Ghooligan sits in the middle of what limited and seasonal releases cost right now. Our Crispy Boy review covers a beer-themed collaboration that works out to about $11.67 a stick, and the Cavalier Genève LE2026 runs $16.70 a cigar. The Ghooligan lands between those two, without the extreme scarcity of either.

• Existing Filthy Hooligan fans. The tobacco underneath has not changed, so if you like the standard version, you already know what you are buying.
• Shoppers who like a seasonal theme on the shelf. The barber-pole wrapper gives the box a different look for October without gambling on an unfamiliar blend.
• Budget-conscious buyers who still want a themed release. At $14.49 a cigar, it costs less than most true limited editions that run $16 to $25 a stick.

First-time smokers should know the underlying Filthy Hooligan blend runs medium to full, mixing Nicaraguan filler with Dominican Piloto, which can taste stronger than a mild Connecticut-wrapped cigar. Our best cigars for beginners guide has milder starting points if that sounds like too much for a first try.

Skip the Filthy Ghooligan if you are looking for a genuinely new smoking experience, since the binder and filler are identical to the year-round Filthy Hooligan and only the wrapper leaf changed. Wrapper leaf does shift flavor at the margins, mostly in the first third of the smoke, but it will not turn a medium-full Nicaraguan and Dominican blend into something else entirely. Collectors chasing true scarcity should also look elsewhere. At 1,950 boxes and 46,800 cigars, this run is far larger than Alec Bradley's smallest limited editions, so it is unlikely to sell out and disappear the way a 250-box release does.

This verdict would change if early buyers report the Habano and Broadleaf wrapper shifts the flavor more than a typical wrapper swap does. Broadleaf in particular can push a cigar's strength up compared to a lighter candela wrap. It would also change if Alec Bradley drops the price or the box count once the run starts selling out. That would make this a scarcer pickup than it looks today. Neither has happened as of this review, since the cigars have not shipped yet.

A seasonal release is still a real cigar, and it needs the same care as anything else in your box. Keep the Filthy Ghooligan at 65% to 70% relative humidity once it arrives, the same range any premium cigar needs to age and smoke properly. Boxes that ship in September often benefit from a week or two of rest in your humidor before the first smoke, since shipping and retail handling can dry out a wrapper slightly in transit. Our cigar humidity guide walks through dialing in that range with a digital hygrometer and humidification packs before the September shipment lands.

Check Famous Smoke Shop for the Filthy Ghooligan once the September 2026 shipment lands. We earn a small commission on that link at no extra cost to you. Because this run ships wide at 1,950 boxes, it should also show up at most retailers that regularly carry Alec Bradley's Black Market line, not just specialty shops.

Already have a box of the standard Filthy Hooligan on your shelf? Add the Ghooligan to your Humidor Tracker when it arrives so you can log how the wrapper swap actually smokes side by side with the original.