Tatuaje Monster Mummy

[Don Fernando]

It’s almost halloween, monster time, a yearly occurrence where grown ups dress up in scary or funny costumes, decorate their houses and where kids go trick or treat. It’s a typical American thing, thank god, although its spreading worldwide like an epidemic. And as you probably get from the intro I am not a big fan of Halloween. Here in The Netherlands we do have a similar thing called Carnaval, but again thank god, not in the area where I live but in the south of the country people dress up in weird costumes and get hammered for 5 days in a row, hold parades, cheat on their significant others and contract STD’s every year late winter and I hate it. Been there once to participate and didn’t like it at all. How about the kids you might ask? Well, on the 11th of the 11th, we call that Sint Maarten, they go trick or treat with little lanterns, singing songs and I love that.

But I found a good use for Halloween this year, since its about monsters I broke the seal on my Tatuaje Mummy, that’s the 2012 Monster Series version. I didn’t have the dress box, it comes from a plain box and it was the first year the Monster cigars officially made it to Europe, plain boxes only though. The only time a dress box made it to Europe was the Jekyll, the Tatuaje Monster of 2014 and we have only seen the 2012, 2013 and 2014 versions on the European market. This 7 3/4×47 long cigar is a Nicaraguan puro with a sun grown criollo wrapper and the blend is based on the Tatuaje Black Label, which is a cigar I love.

When I release the cigar from the cellophane wrapper I notice the closed foot and the brittle feel of the wrapper. The wrapper has a nice darkness to it and is rustic at the bottom half, the top half is more smooth and has a mild oily shine. The construction feels very good. The aroma is strong, a deep and dark manure smell. Then we come to the ring, Tatuaje always has very simple, slim rings and this cigar isn’t an exemption to the rule. Its gray with white lettering, the cursive Tatuaje as seen on all Tatuaje rings with thick letters MONSTER and HALLOWEEN on each side and the PHJ logo on the back of the ring.

I punched the cigar. The cold draw is great, the right amount or resistance in air flow. I taste a medium strong pepper with a little lemon edge. I lit the cigar with a soft flame and I taste coffee, pepper and lemon with a little sugar like sweetness. The pepper slowly gets stronger. After an inch it’s all pepper with a lemon aftertaste but it’s not a super strong and overpowering pepper. After a third the peper does get that strong but with some cedar and a hint of cinnamon as a base flavor. The aftertaste is still a little lemon like acidic. Halfway the pepper mellows out a bit and the woody and cinnamon background gets more predominant. In the aftertaste I now get a little freshness. After two thirds i taste some nuts too, pecan and macadamia, with the pepper, a little lemon and the freshness.

The draw is perfect and the white smoke is thick and plentiful, like the Vatican when a new pope is elected. The ash is light gray with dark smears, dense and firm. The burn is almost straight. The cigar is medium full bodied and full flavored. The smoke time is a little short for a long cigar, only an hour and a half.

Would I buy this cigar again? It was a limited edition from 2012 so that would be impossible. The cigar lost some points on esthetics but flavor wise I loved it.

Score: 88

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