Spend Some Time with Some Tatuajes...

Well, seeing as how Beckett & Co. are well on their way to making the Chowd Nation even more arrogant and irritating (like Bridget Moynahan’s baby daddy needs more help doing that lately), I’ve chosen to sit down and write rather than watch the TV.

Let me start by saying that the Tatujae (Tah-too-ah-hey; Spanish for Tatoo) Cojonu (Co-ho-new… although I like pronouncing it Co-joo-no-joo) 2003 is perhaps the best cigar I’ve smoked since the Avo LE05. A bold statement, I know. But truly, this cigar is a gem. This cigar is the best Nicaraguan smoke I’ve ever had.

So let me walk you through it...a window into what you can expect! The cigar looks gorgeous: its dark brown wrapper is flawless and has a nice oily sheen to it. Upon putting it to your lips you get a nice, spicy taste write away, even before it’s lit. Once lit, it has a pleasant taste right off the bat. It really opens up (as most cigars do) about a ½ inch or so into it. The smoke pulls easy into your moth, with an initial spice, and once it gets into the back of your moth it seems to expand, unleashing a much more complex flavor. The spice, although not overpowering, is the dominate taste through the first part of the cigar. It seems to be that kind of peppery taste that hits you in the top of your nose, like horseradish does. The pulls keep coming: rich, smooth, thick, almost-malleable smoke with every puff. About halfway through the cigar, I noticed that the spice seemed to settle down, not die out, but graciously give way to an even smoother, richer taste. And I should also mention that the entire grand flavor one expects of a Nicaraguan puro is to be found in this cigar. Some customers have told me (and I’ve experienced it on some myself) that the cigar was a little too “wet” and the burn seemed to be affected by this: not running horribly, but not staying lit as well as you’d like. This didn’t bother me too much. I’ll take a mediocre burn every time if it gave me flavor like this. Many Opus X’s have this same quality. Upon further investigation, I found that even Pete Johnson (the tatted man behind this beauty of a smoke) shared my philosophy (http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/Free/Video). Truly, this is a smoke everyone should try. If I had to pick one thing that perhaps keeps it from attaining “Best cigar…EVER” status (although I don’t know if any cigar can ever be intrinsically that) it would be that I’ve noticed some of them have a slightly bitter finish. Not all, but some. This could be attributed to the stronger tobaccos, but it also could be because some of them I’ve puffed down until they were singing my fingers. Not to mention, they’re so good I think I unknowingly smoke them quicker than I do a normal cigar. But that is a minor point. This cigar is like a tangible version of what I think a cigar should be. When I picture a great cigar in my mind, I picture one of these.

Alrighty – now let’s move on to the Cojonu 2006. After I started gushing about the ’03, my co-worker Mikey-Mob Zeeno informed me that I really need to give the ’06 a try. The ’06 is a little smaller, but it’s the same price – which was the reason I had yet to smoke one. But two nights ago I grabbed one and fired it up like I was Stephen Jackson outside a strip club! What an awesome cigar! Mob Zeeno was right. It was not totally different than the ’03, but I did notice some things that made it unique. It did not have that dominant peppery flavor off the bat. It almost seemed to start with the richer, fuller complexities that I found about halfway through the ’03. Also, I found that the smoke didn’t have that “get-to-the-back-of-the-mouth, then-boom!” quality that the ’03 had. However, the finish was very nice: not at all too harsh. I only have smoked the one, but as I smoke more, I’d like to see how they hold up in this regard.

Also, I mustn’t forget to tell you about the Tatuaje Reserva J21 Robusto. This cigar was slightly milder than either Cojonu or the regular Tatuaje Cabinets, but it had a butter-like smoothness that you don’t find in too many cigars. This smoke is a treat as well. Geez, with all this Tatuaje praise, you’d think Pete Johnson’s trying to muscle in on “suck-off Litto hour”! Damn! With this kind of man love going on I might have to change the sign at the front of my sub-division to read: “Armor Hills”. Well, now it looks as though the BoSox are putting the finishing touches on an October beat down…so off to go bye some earplugs I go. Man, those Chowds are annoying! Ciao turds…