Cigar Review: JV13 (Jason) by Tatuaje

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Double Corona, 7.5” x 52 ring gauge / MSPR $13

As the end of November rolls around once again, we come to Thanksgiving and the traditional Tatuaje Thanksgiving cigar, this year inexplicably named “Jonas.”

Wait…what?

OK…the above sentence was completely and utterly fake. Of course, the Tatuaje holiday cigar that everyone talks about every year (for 6 years now!) is the Halloween “Monster” cigar, this year named for Jason of the Friday the 13th movie series, and definitely the most modern of the monster cigar inspirations thus far. Once again there were an “unlucky” 13 stores that got the lion’s share of 666 “dress boxes,” a coffin shaped 13-count box with a hockey mask design painted on it. And pretty much any other Tatuaje retailer who wanted them could receive the 10-count plain boxes, of which they made 4,500 this year. According to a September article on Cigar Aficionado’s website, the Jason is a variation of the Fausto and Avion blends, using Nicaraguan filler and double-binder, along with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. As is normal, the cigars were made for Pete Johnson’s Tatuaje by My Father Cigars. I bought a plain box of 10 and this review sample is my 3rd from the box…in keeping with my own tradition, I did smoke this one on Halloween.

A word on the dress box: it looks great. I saw a couple at Burns when they came in and I think they ended up one of the best looking dress boxes in the series so far. 3 or 4 years ago, Pete Johnson said the plain boxes are for those, “who just want to smoke the cigar.” And that’s me. I don’t have time and money to chase every limited edition cigar with a cool box and collect them all, but I do want to try all those stogies, so I’ve made it a point 3 years running to buy a plain box of Tatuaje Monster sticks. This year’s band is red with black print, sort of a reversal of the Drac red print on black background motif. The cigar is ugly. I’ve heard Pete talk about wanting Monster cigars to look ugly and he’s definitely achieved it in this instance. The Broadleaf wrapper is rough and rustic, veiny and mean-looking. Although it should be very similar to the Avion 13 Reserva that I reviewed last Tuesday, the look couldn’t be any further away…while that was one of the most beautiful Broadleaf wrappers I’ve seen, this one typifies how rugged the varietal can be. I still give it full points for prelight appearance, though, because the purpose of the two sticks is different…and the Jason definitely achieved its purpose from a visual standpoint. Lifting the cigar to my nose I got a solid earthiness with hints of sweet chocolate and anise from the wrapper, along with a rich sweetness and a bit of coffee on the foot. Take a cold draw, I caught sweet chocolate and earth flavors.

The Jason lit right up with my single flame torch. I initially got a deep earth flavor with cocoa powder and black coffee notes and just a touch of sweetness. The retrohale was intensely peppery and there was a note of cedar in there, too. Body started off in the medium-to-full range, just about where you’d expect it to for one of these annual releases. As the first third got into full swing, the flavor on the palate was a mix of semi-sweet chocolate and dark roast coffee with just a touch of pepper burn toward the back; the pepper on the nose remained quite potent.

In the second third, I continued to get sweet earthiness from the Tatuaje Jason…lots of chocolate and coffee still, along with bits of anise and cedar from time to time. So far so good in terms of construction; the draw was great, the ash was solid up to an inch or so and the burn line was wavy and needing touching up like just about every other Broadleaf wrapper out there.

As the last third of this year’s Tatuaje Monster series went up in a cloud of thick, oily smoke, I noticed that the pepper burn was increasing a bit on the palate while the sweetness stayed nice and steady, balanced by the slight bitterness of espresso beans. Great smoke? Yes, it was. If you haven’t gotten your hands on these already, it may already be too late, but maybe not since there were more of these produced than any previous Monster series cigar. The Jason is another wonderful entry from Tatuaje in the Broadleaf Bonanza the company has served up this year, although I would say I would have to give the edge to the Avion 13 Reserva since it had more complexity.

Body: 8/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10