Vitola: Grand Corona
Wrapper:Nicaraguan Corojo ‘99
Origin: Nicaragua
This is THE cigar right now. Everyone and their mother is trying to get their hands on a Tatuaje Black. I was fortunate enough to get a few at my favorite tobacco shop, Capital City Cigars, and I couldn’t wait long to smoke one for myself after hearing great reviews about this cigar already.
This cigar, with its unfinished foot, took a light real easy and from my first puff I was hit with a tasty wave of lather and tobacco with not nearly as much spicy pepperiness as I would have expected from Pete Johnson’s Private Reserve.
As I bring the smoke in through my sinuses I get flavors of rich dark chocolate and espresso bean with not a touch of harshness at all. It has a nice long salt and pepper ash that seems like it could hold on forever.
The smoke is actually dry, which is somewhat surprising, as well as smooth and refined, I expected a lot of oomph from this cigar, but its real nice and refined.
As I smoke, the espresso flavor intensifies but fades to a nice anise and woody mix with rich tobacco at the heart.
The draw was nice and easy as I began to really enjoy this smoke. The burn was dead-on even the whole way through, a sign of top notch construction.
My take home message from this cigar is that what Mr. Johnson likes and what niche he is trying to fill are not the same. The Black is waaay different from the Tatuaje Cabinet (brown label), it’s smooth and mellow while the Cabinet is peppery and in your face. This does make sense to me, because there is no way I could smoke cabinets all day (even as much as I like them). The Black is smooth enough to be enjoyed at breakfast but hearty in flavor to be enjoyed with a steak dinner.
I can’t wait to review this again in a year. This is a perfect cigar for aging.
Thankfully despite all of the hype, this cigar lives up to it and then some. Woo-hoo!
Rating: 90 (A)
